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Show J2 The Salt Lake Tribune SUNDAY Sunday,Sep YWCA: .. Women Who Make Difference ministration at the University of Utah. She would like to be superintendentof a school district. Gray says this desire to improve herself was inspired by her mother, who left school at 14 to raise her family but eventually earned a nursing degree, “She never quit,” says Gray. “Learningis a lifelong process. As educators and as students, we are continually learning on a daily basis. It never stops.” & Continued from J-1 gram, Safe At Home, which has used Utah workplaces to help combat domestic violence and sexual abuse. “Professionally, that's by far the most importantthing I’ve ever done,” says Graham, 46. “It's been a great personal experi- ence. I really feel like that’s why I’m here.” The program’s centerpiece is a one-hour presentation that includes a 20-minute video on domestic violence followedby a panel of experts answering questions from the audience. So far Graham has introduced the program at more than 300 Utah workplaces to encourage those whoseeitto report domestic violence and abuse. The response has been dramatic. In the program’s first month, domestic abuse calis to a state referral agencyincreased 500%. Safe At Home’s success has heen sweet for Graham, who, as a woman and a Democrat, is a decided minorityin Utahpolitics. Her tough-on-crime stance and supportof the death penalty have earned her the re- spect of state Republicans, but Graham insists her decisions are not made to curry political favor. “My job is to fight crime and put bad guys behind bars. It’s not a place forpolities,” she says. Graham traces her independent streak to her grandmother, who was a devout Mormon and a staunch Democrat even though members of the LDS Churchtend to vote Republican. Graham stiil remembers her grandmotherchiding her during the 1960 presidential campaign,““Young lady, this family was Democrats a long, long time before we was ever Mormons. We'revoting for Kennedy, andthat’s that!” A Salt Lake City native, Graham graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Mass., before returning to Utah.Afterbrief stints as a schoolteacher anda social worker, Graham went to law school, then becamea partnerat a Salt LakeCity law firm. where she worked for 10 years. In 1981, Graham founded Women Lawyers of Utah, which has grown to 1,000 members and has become the most active section of the state bar. A dozen yearslater, she argued herfirst case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Since taking office, Graham finds she rarely has time for muchin herlife beyond her work and her family. But that is fine with her. Graham's dedication to family is- sues extends beyond her job te her husband Buzz Hunt, their son and 15-year-old daughter. “You cannot haveit all, do it all,” she says. “You have to decide what's most important.” JOYCE M. GRAY Joyce Gray remembersthefirst time she considered becoming a teacher. She was in the fifth grade at a southern Virginia public school when a musicteacher encouragedherto play the clarinet. “He wasthefirst teacherto take a special interest in me,” she says. “I was inspired. Upto that point, I was oneofthose kids you didn’t notice.” That teacher would be proud of Gray now. Not onlydid she go on to teach music herself, but also in 1984 she became the first black principal in Utah’s history. “People look at me and they say, ‘If Joyce can makeit, so can I,’ And that’s great,” says Gray, 52, whois entering her fourth yearas principal of Bryant Intermediate Schoolin Salt Lake City. Gray’s 30-year career in education shows no signsofletting up. After playing clarinet in bands through high school, she received a scholarship to Virginia State, where she majored in instrumental music. Several schools courted her for teaching jobs, but she chose an elementary school in Las Vegas because she wanted to go far from home. The school was a perfectfit. Its principal encouraged Gray to involvethe entire student body in the music program, and she plunged into the job with gusto. The students, many with no previous musicaltraining, responded enthusiastically. “It was great to see those kids blossom like they did,” she says. Gray eventually left to teach music at a Las Vegas junior high school before moving to Utah with her new hushand in 1980. Four yearslater, she became principal of Areadia Elementary School in Salt Lake County, then took the head job at Roosevelt Elementary in Salt Lake City. At the same time, Gray has worked hard to further her own education. She earned a master’s while teaching in Las Vegas andis now4 doctoral student in educational ad- Since coming te Bryant, Gray has instituted Saturday classes for students who play hooky, founded a music program that has produced two bands and anorchestra, and added.a program that allows adults to earnhigh school diplomas. On mostdays, Gray can be found roaming the halls at Bryant, greeting students and watching classes. Her mission, as she sees it, is to keep her students and her teachers motivated. And she enjoys taking a special interest in certain students, just as a music teacher did with her some 40 years ago. “Every studentcan learn,”she says. “We can't give up on them.If we persevere, then we inspire those kids to persevere. If we give up, what does that say to those kids?” REBA L. KEELE With Reba Keele, what yosee is what you get. A ready smile. Unflinching honesty. And a vow never to pretend to know something she doesn’t. It’s a philosophy shaped by her upbringing in Price, where her father worked as a rancher and a coal miner to support his seven children on $200 a month. The ranch had no running water, and Keele remembers elbowing past herbrothersandsisters on Saturday nights to use the washtub that served the whole family. Despite such hardships, Keele has fond memories of Price, a town of immigrants where her schoolmates were Greeks, Latinos and Slavs. The town taught her acceptanceof other cultures and gave hera sense of belonging thatlasts to this day. “I’m a Utah kid who made a conscious decision to stay in Utah and try to make surethe kind of support and commitment1 got from my community would happen for other kids who are not well off,” says Keele, dean of undergraduate studies at the University of Utah. “That probably shapes most of what I’ve done.” Thefirst in her family to attend college, Keele received her undergraduate and master's degrees from Brigham Young University before going to Purdue University in Indiana for her doctorate. Upon returning to Utah, Keele looked around at the rugged landscape and burst into tears. “T didn’t realize how much I'm grounded by the mountains,” she says. Keele’s soul, as shelikesto say,is “imprinted with mountains and desert and hardy, good people.” Keele joined the faculty at BYU, where she taught psychology for 22 years and directed the university's honor program. But her outspoken feminism made BYU nervous, especially when she testified for Equal Rights Amendment activist Sonia Johnson, who was excommunicated by the Mormon Church in 1979. Four years ago, Keele left for her “dream job” at the U. “if I'd made up the perfect job to finish my career with, it'd be this job,” says Keele, 54. Upon coming to the U., Keele founded a programto help first-year students adjust to the personal and bureaueratic rigors of college life. Keele has worked throughout her career to further educational opportunities for women and minorities. She took a leave of absence from BYUin 1984 and 1985 to found and direct the first women’s health centerin the country at Cottonwood Hospital, and she has beenactive in manystate and national women’s organizations. “For me, feminism means supporting choices for men and women,”shesays. “It’s honoring the woman who works, because that’s a worthy choice. Andit's honoring the woman whochoosesto haveeight children and be at home, because that's a worthy choice.” Keele’s bluntness sometimes gets her in trouble. It also leads peopie to call her a pessimist. Keele prefers to think of herself as a realist whois not without hope “Someone said I see the glass as half empty instead of half full,” she says. “That's the pragmatic part of me. Theidealistic part of me wantstofill it.” DIANE MCCALL LENNON In 1974, Diane McCall had $25 in the bank and wasstruggling to raise two kids withouta job. Twelve years later, she was marketing manager of a Salt Lake City TV station earning $84,000 a year. Along the way she overcame a workplace climate that often favored men over women and a debilitating disease that left her weak and barely able to read or write. But she neverquit. “You can’t give up, even when emotion- ally you can’t take any morerejection,” she says, now remarried. “It was tough. But I got through each day.” A Salt Lake City native, Lennon began 10, 1995 After high school, she worked asa hospital clerk,a librarian, a book binder,a waitress, a cashier, a motel maid and at a factory making computer circuitry. But it was not until she landed a job at the YWCA,of all places, that she began to realize there were better opportunities open to her. “It was an eye-opener for me,” says Maestas, whose parents never went beyond the ninth grade. “It was the first time in my life I’d seen women doing something other a waitressing or working on an assembly e.77 @ LeaderLuncheon The seventh YWCA LeaderLuncheonwill be Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks will be keynote speaker. Tickets are $35 or $350 for a table of 10. For reservations, call Camilie Miner 355-2804. her climb up the business ladder 21 years ago after herfirst marriagefailed, leaving her with two youngdaughters but no money to support them. Desperate, she went on welfare, then enrolled in a work-training programi, which led to a job interview at KTVX (Channel 4) in Salt Lake City. The station hired her, and for the next two years, she languished in low-paying, entry-level jobs in the accounting andsales departments. Struggling to feed her children and realizing that sales executives were better paid, Lennon lobbied for a position selling on-air commercial time. in 1976, she becamethe first woman TV sales executive in the market. As the only womanona salesstaff full of men, Lennon endured sexist comments, un- wanted advances and business lunches at all-male private clubs. But she was determined to belong — even showingup at coworkers’ poker games. “T was trying really hardto be one ofthe boys,” she says. “It was tough. Some of the clients I was calling on didn’t know how to deal with a womaneither.” By 1979, Lennon was outbilling one of her maie colleagues. Her reward? One quarter of her accounts weregiven to him, with the explanation, “He is a man with a family and he needs the money.” Lennon was stunned. “That probably hurt myfeelings more than anything.” Lennon threw herself into her job, and eventually becamethe first account executive — male or female — to bill more than $200,000 in one month. But in 1983, her thriving career suffered a setback: She wasdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The disease blurred her vision, left her easily fatigued and occasionally unable to walk. Her symptoms would recede for a while, then flare up again. During these episodes, she missed weeks, even months of work. Her co-workersrallied to her aid, her supervisors granted her generous leave and in 1986, she was promoted to marketing manager. But after an episode in 1991, station managementsuggested that Lennon step down. Reluctantly, she agreed. “I couidn't read or write, so I really couldn’t do my job,” says Lennon,46.Still, it was difficult for her to leave the station where she had workedfor 17 years. “‘Quit- ting work was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” In the past four years, Lennon’s health has prevented her from seeking a new job. Instead of working, she spendstime in her comfortable Salt Lake City home with her husband and two daughters, now 26 and 24. Looking backonher career, Lennon winces at the hurdles she overcame butis thankful Channel4 gave herthe chance to succeed. “The women’s movementhasbeenasdifficult for men as it has for women,” she says. “I’m grateful there are women who were brave and forged ahead.” Lennon can consider herself among them. ABBY TRUJILLO MAESTAS Abby Maestas feels honored but embarrassed at being recognized by the YWCA for doing her job. 's very flattering, but I don’t know if it’s right,” says Maestas, executive director of the Salt Lake Rape Recovery Center. “What's to say that whatI do in this office deserves morerecognition than the woman whostruggles to keep her family fed every day?” Good point. Still, Maestas’ impact on Utah's sexual assault victims is undeniable Whenshe took over the center's top ol four years ago, she had two employces. Now she has six. In that time, her budget has nearly tripled, and the center serves about 4,000 a year — twice its '91 caseload. Maestas also changed the e of the nonprofit agency, now ell celebrating its 20th year, frorn the RapeCrisis Center. “When we say ‘crisis,’ we're keeping people in victim mode,” she says. “And they're not victims. They’re survivors.” The same could be said for Maestas, who overcame 8 dificult childhood, depression, alcohol abuse and a series of dead-end jobs to become perhapsthe leading victims’ advocate in the state. Born in Salt Lake City to Mexican-Ameri- can parents, she grew up in Magna. Her father wrs 2 repairman for Kennecott, while ' r worked at the Utah Girl Scout . As long as she can remember, ! worked, too, beginning at age 13 when she cleaned houses for family friends. A co-worker at the YWCA encouraged Maestas to continue her education, so she enrolled part-time at Westminster College in Salt Lake City andlater at the University of Utah. She also workedfor threeyears at the Utah Minorities Coalition and for eight THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Harry Truman waspresident, Elvis Presley was an unknown teen-ager and blacks and whites still lived under segregation when poet Gwendolyn Brooks won the Pu- litzer Prize. The year was 1950, and Brooks became the first black to receive the prestigious award. Maya Angelou maybe the country's current darling among women poets, but even she must take a back seat fo Brooks, one ofthe art form's true pioneers. Now, nearly a half-century later, Brooks is coming to Utah Fridayto give the keynote address at the YWCA’s seventh LeaderLuncheon in downtown Salt Lake City. At 77, Brooks remains a tireless advocate for poetry, reading her poemsat an estimated 50 schools, universities, libraries, and prisons around the country each year Muchhas been madeof the resurgenceof poetry since Angelou recited 2 poem al PresidentClinton's inauguration more than two years ago. Brooks, however, beiieves the art form neverfell out of favor. 1 ‘ 6 “Poetry continues to be just as popular as it ever was, and it has always been popu- jar,” ske has said in recent interviews. “Young people especially are interested in poetry. They're writing poetry — and they're writing what they know.” taking the Rape Recovery Center job. Throughout her career, Maestas has tackled each new challenge with her trademark gusto and good humor. “T’d like to be known as someone who was passionate about whatever she did,” she says.‘I love the intensity oflife.” At 46, Maestas hasnever lost sightof the fine line that separates the fortunate from the less fortunate. She enjoys her job andis absolutely bursting with pride abouther 9year-old adopted son. Butit was notso long ago that she was holding down three menial jobs at once. “Salt Lake City has been very, very good to me. I've always had a job. There have always been people there to support me,” she says. “Somepeoplesay I’m lucky. Well, maybe I am lucky. Things happen the way they’re supposed to. I’m here at the very best time of my life.” DONNA LAND MALDONADO If you don’t think Salt Lake City is a cultarally diverse place, spend a week listening to KRCLradio. Youwill hear local news about and music by American Indians, Filipinos, Polynesians, Latinos, blacks, Chinese and Vietnamese, all hosted by membersoftheir respective ethnic communities. You will hear programs devoted to women,gays, lesbians and other minorities, along with folk, bluegrass, jazz, rap, soul,salsa, hip-hop, reggae, Celtic, blues, zydeco andalternative rock. The architect of this broad aural landseape is KRCL, Program Director Donna Land Maldonada, whosemission is to give voice to those groups who are under-represented or ignored by commercialradio. “I’ve developed a real passion for com- munity radio,” says the soft-spoken Maldonado.“It gives access to people you don’t ordinarily hear on radio —- mostly popie of color and women.” Maldonado understands firsthand the hurdles that minorities must overcome to be heard in mainstream society. As a mixed-blood child on a Northern Ute reservation in northeastern Utah, Maldonado wasnotfully accepted by either Indians or whites. She remembers going to a restaurant off the reservation and being denied service. After graduating from South Highin Salt Lake City, Maldonade marrie¢ and had four daughters while taking classes at the University of Utah. But the marriage failed, leaving Maldonado to raise her daughters. She landed a job as program director for Title IV — the federally funded Indian education program — addressing the special needs of American Indian students in Salt Lake City public schools. In 1979, when KRCL (90.9 FM) went on the air as a nonprofit community radio station, Maldonadojoinedits tiny staff as host of “Living the Circle of Life,” a weekly program of American Indian music and news. Maldonado had no radio background and neverplannedto stay at KRCL for16 years. “T needed a job,” she says matter-of-factly. In those days, KRCL wasa seat-of-the- pants operation, and Maldonado sometimes found herself filling in at the last minute for program hosts who didn’t show up. “There were days when youliteraily had to do everything.” Maldonade, 51, became program director six years ago. Today she hosts a weekly folk music program and overseesfive paid staff and 130 volunteers who keep thestation on the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Under Maldonado’s leadership, KRCL has become perhaps Utah’s leading community forum forissues affecting women, gays, lesbians and ethnic minorities. She helped launch the KRCL Women’s Radio Collective, a group of staff and volunteers that produces an annual weekend of uninterrupted women’s programming called WomenAloud. WomenAloud, like most of the programming at KRCL,requires a lot of work. But the grateful calls KRCL receives from its listeners makes the effort worth it, Maldonadosays. Facing cuts in federal funding for public radio, Maidonado knows she will need those listeners more than ever. “They'll get us through.” she says. Brooksherself started writing poetry at 7 while growing up in Chicago and published herfirst poem at 13. At 16, she met famed poet Langston Hughes, who read a few of her poemsand told her, “You havetalent. Keepwriting.” Brooks’ first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeviile, was published in 1945to critical acclaim. Her second, Annie Allen, won the Pulitzer. Since then, Brooks has written 19 books and been awarded more than 70 honorary university degrees from around the country. Last year the National Endowmentfor the Humanities named her its Jefferson Lecturer, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government forinteilectual achievementin the humanities. Married for 56 years to writer Henry Blakely II and the mother of two grown chil- i ii Duped Bountiful HusbandPart — Of Crazy World DearAnn:Is the world becoming crazier? I know there have always been a few unbalanced people around and more than a few dimwitted ones, but from what I have observed these last several years, more folks are behaving strangely than ever before. Here’s an example. It is an Associated Press news story from Bountiful, Utah. I am enclosing it so you will know I am not making the story up. What do you think of it? Just sign me -—- Constant Reader WhoIs Becoming Shock-Proof Dear C.R.: That makes two of us. Here’s the news story, which certainly makes your case: “A missing-persen report filed by a husband who was anxious about his wife uncovered the shocking truth: The ‘wife’ was actually a man who is accused of taking the husband for up to $40,000 during their 34-year marriage. Felix Urioste is in jail on $20,000 bail on fraud charges, and the husbandis confused, embarrassed and broke. The husband teld police he didn’t know his wife was a man until officers convinced him.‘I feel pretty stupid,’ the man,39, told the Standard-Examiner of Ogden.” Dear Readers: Please don’t ask me to explain this. I don’t have a clue. And now, since we are in the neighborhood of weird stuff, here is a clipping from the Idaho Statesmansent by a reader in Boise. His only comment was “No wonder kids don’t respect the judicial system.” Here’s the story: “Defense lawyer Paul Fernandez, explaining in a Paterson, N.J., court in March, why his client, a 14-year-old boy, might have sexually assaulted an 1i-year-old girl: They were ‘two kids who had nothing better to do, They don’t have cable TV, what do you do?’ ” End of story. If anyone knows how this case turned out, please let me know. I would aiso like to know from whichlaw’schvolFernandez graduated. This next incident was reported in the Chapel Hill, N.C., Herald. it seems a married University of North Carolina professor had sex with someofhis students and paid one of them $2,400 out of a departmental trust fund. He took her to academic conferences where she spent several nights with him in hotel rooms paid for with state funds. He also told another student where to find men who would pay herfor sex. All the professor got was a reprimandand “research leave” with a continuation of his $64,000 state taxpayer-supported salary. The professor’s girlfriend, however, was forced to pay the professor's wife $10,000 “heart-balm” for breaking up her marriage, I find it incredible that-afine school like the University of North Carolina would do go'littie abouta professor whosullied the school’s reputation in sueh-a blatant and disgusting manner. a Gem of the Day (Credit the Prairie Rambier): Keep your temper. Do not quarre!with an angry person. It is foolish and an exercise in futility. Give him a soft answer. It is commanded by holy writ, and furthermore, it will make him a lot madder than anything else you could say. Natural History: Huntsman’s Muskox Lived in Ancient Utah ® Continued from J-1 dren, Brooks is a writer-in-residence at Chicago State University when not travel- ing by train (she is uneasy about flying) to speaking engagements. A teacher as well as a poet, Brooks is especially interested in spreading poetry amo idren and teenagers. She collects poe. by young writers, listens to rap music and can speak knowledgeably about the parallels between the two art forms, Her poemsreflect a racial consciousness and an awareness of life's harsh realities. Brooks’ subjects have included Martin Luther King Jr. and Winnie Mandela. She has written about a black teen-ager lynched in Mississippi for whistling at 2 white woman and about 4 boy sexually molested by his uncle, Despite her accolades, Brooks remains unassuming. While she hopes her poems will resonate with readers, she does not expect to change the world. “I don't believe a poet should sit down and say, ‘I am now going to write a wonderworking poem that will cleanse society,’ she said in an interview last year, “You are ANN LANDERS years at the Utah Girl Scout Council before Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Poet to Speak at LeaderLuncheon ByBrandon Griggs a i? eee ; : Gwendolyn Brooks started writing poetry at the age of 7, publishing at 13. driven to your writing table because you're excited or you're appalled, you're horrified or you feel exhilarated.”" 6, and they probably were far less furry because their habitat was muchless extreme than the Arctic tundra, The next time youare standing on the shoreline trail at Red Butte Garden and Arboretum, imagine yourself at the edge of spruce and fir woodland, waves from Lake Bonneville lapping at your feet, enormous horned, oxenlike animals grazing and drinking water nearby. It is a scene foreign yet familiar andit is wondrous to imagine how much the area has ina few thousand years. A cast of the Huntsman muskox will be on display in the lobby museum of the new Huntsman headquarters building this fall. Sarah George is a zoologist and director of the Utah Museum of Natural History on the campus of the University of Utah. |
