Healthcare reform activist; Appeared in Michael Moore's SiCKO; Founder, American Patients United;
National Co-chair, PDA (Progressive Democrats of America)Healthcare Not Warfare campaign; Community organizer, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
Married to Larry Smith, 33 years; mother of six and grandmother to 14.
Graduate, Colorado College, 1985.
Writing is my passion -- mostly political pieces, sometimes human interest.
I belive healthcare is a basic human right. I believe that the American people are champions of basic human rights and that we will win universal healthcare in my lifetime.
My political hero was and is Sen. Tom Daschle (former U.S. Senate majority leader from South Dakota) because of his personal decency to me when I was a constituent. Though I have not always agreed completely with him, and he has made the hugest mistake, he never looked down his nose at any person of lesser station in life. I wish he had fully paid his taxes and that we were engaged together in the fight for healthcare for all.
I was born and raised in suburban Chicago, but have lived in the western U.S, for most of my adult life until returning to Chicago in February 2008 to work for CNA/NNOC. Now I am relocating to Washington, DC, to work more directly on healthcare reform issues.
