Celebrating 30 years of Democratic women in politics! MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S CAUCUS 30TH ANNUAL LUNCHEON Virgie M. Rollins, MDWC Luncheon Chair Janet Blanchard, MDWC Luncheon Co-Chair COBO Conference Center Detroit, Michigan April 30, 2016 MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S CAUCUS Program Welcome Pamela L. Pugh, DrPh, MDWC Chair Statement of Purpose Virgie M. Rollins, MDWC Luncheon Chair Greetings Wayne County Labor Remarks Janet Blanchard, MDWC Luncheon Co-Chair Hon. Cynthia Diane Stephens, Judge Chair Brandon Dillon Rep. Christine Greig, Asst Democratic Floor Leader Head Table Introductions Theresa Rich, PhD, MDWC Secretary Introduction of U. S. Senator Debbie Stabenow Pamela L. Pugh, DrPh, MDWC Chair Invocation Clarice Squillace Vice Chair MDWC Lunch is Served Introduction of Elected Officials Hon Christina Montague, MDWC Advisor Introduction of Keynote Speaker Virgie M. Rollins, MDWC Luncheon Chair Keynote Speaker Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor of Baltimore Tributes Tami Arreguin, MDWC Past Chair Federal, State, County, City, MDP & Labor Eleanor Roosevelt Award Presentation Virgie M. Rollins, MDWC Luncheon Chair Pamela L. Pugh, DrPh, MDWC Chair Book Presentation Hon. Nancy Quarles, Ph.D, MDWC Advisor Introduction of Honoree Virgie M. Rollins, MDWC Luncheon Chair Honoree Remarks Justice Marilyn Kelly Closing Remarks Virgie M. Rollins, MDWC Luncheon Chair The luncheon is in memorial of two of our loyal members, Kay Beard and Pearl Reynolds. Music provided by Loba Akou Thank you to our Committee and Table Sponsors A Special Thanks to Attorney Charles Busse, Loba Akou and Caton Arreguin, Keystone Millbrook Printing Flowers Donated by Goodness Gracious, Floral & Gifts U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow Debbie Stabenow Debbie Stabenow made history in 2000 when she became the first woman from Michigan elected to the United States Senate. Senator Stabenow serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Co-Chair of the bipartisan Senate Manufacturing Caucus, Co- Chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force and as a senior member of the Finance, Energy and Budget Committees. These leadership roles give her the opportunity to shape policies in areas critical to Michigan’s future, including manufacturing, Great Lakes, agriculture, health care and energy. Keynote Speaker Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was sworn in as Baltimore’s 49th mayor on February 4, 2010. In November 2011, she was elected to her first full term as Mayor, receiving 87% percent of the vote in the mayoral general election. Mayor Rawlings-Blake has focused her administration on growing Baltimore’s population by 10,000 families over the next decade by improving public safety and public education and by strengthening city neighborhoods. Mayor Rawlings-Blake was elected to a top leadership position in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to serve as Secretary, following the historic reelection of President Barack Obama. Mayor Rawlings-Blake also serves in key leadership positions in the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM). In 2010, she was elected by her fellow mayors to the USCM Board of Trustees. She is also a member of the Mayor’s Water Council, and the Criminal and Social Justice Standing Committee. In 2013, Mayor Rawlings-Blake presented, Change to Grow: A Ten-Year Financial Plan for Baltimore, the City’s first long-range financial plan. The plan includes a bold set of major reforms that amount to the most significant changes to the way the City does business in generations. The plan would help achieve the mayor’s goal to grow Baltimore by 10,000 families by eliminating a nine- year $750 Million structural budget deficit; allowing new investments in neighborhood infrastructure—including repairing roads and City facilities and rebuilding ten recreation centers; and providing a funding surge for the demolition of more than 4,000 vacant homes; all while reducing homeowner property taxes by more than 20% over the next ten years. In 2012, Mayor Rawlings-Blake worked with state leaders to pass the Civil Marriage Protection Act and subsequent state ballot initiative, allowing same-sex couples to obtain a civil marriage license in Maryland. When the new law took effect on January 1, 2013, Mayor Rawlings-Blake presided over the first same-sex marriages in Maryland’s history at a midnight ceremony at Baltimore’s City Hall. Mayor Rawlings-Blake has also worked to make Baltimore a welcoming city for immigrants. She signed a landmark executive order to protect new Americans from discrimination and increase access to public safety resources and City services for foreign-born city residents. In addition, Mayor Rawlings-Blake fought for a successful state-wide ballot initiative, known as the Dream Act, to provide in-state tuition rates and higher education opportunities for undocumented immigrant students that attended Maryland high schools. Rawlings-Blake served as City Council President from January 2007 to February 2010. She was first elected to the City Council in 1995, at the age of 25—the youngest person ever elected to the Baltimore City Council. She represented the council’s 5th District from 1995 to 2004 and the 6th District from 2004 to 2007, serving communities throughout West and Northwest Baltimore. As Council President, she chaired the City’s Board of Estimates, which supervises all purchasing by the City. From 1998 to 2006, Rawlings-Blake was an attorney with the Baltimore Office of the Public Defender. Rawlings-Blake is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Epsilon Omega Chapter and a former at-large member of the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys. Rawlings-Blake has been honored with numerous awards. She was selected by The Daily Record as one of "Maryland’s Top 100 Women" in 2007 and 2011. The National Congress of Black Women named her a Shirley Chisholm Memorial Award Trailblazer. The National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs named her one of Baltimore’s "Young Women on the Move." Mayor Rawlings-Blake has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Baltimore Convention and Tourism Board; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the National Aquarium in Baltimore; Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Inc.; Living Classrooms Foundation; the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore; and Parks and People Foundation. Born on March 17, 1970, Rawlings-Blake is a 1988 graduate of Baltimore’s Western High School, and in 1992 she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1995. She is a member of the Federal Bar Association and the Maryland State Bar Association. Rawlings-Blake is a member of Douglas Memorial Community Church. She lives in Baltimore’s Coldspring neighborhood with her husband Kent Blake and their young daughter Sophia. Eleanor Roosevelt Recipient Justice Marilyn Kelly Biography Justice Marilyn Kelly has been a member of the Michigan Democratic Party for over fifty years. The Party, in convention, has nominated her six times. She has served a total of thirty-eight years in elected office on the State Board of Education, the Michigan Court of Appeals, the Michigan Supreme Court and the Wayne State Board of Governors. Justice Marilyn Kelly, a 1971 alumna of Wayne State University Law School, served for 16 years on the Michigan Supreme Court. She was prevented from running again for the Michigan Supreme Court by the state Constitution, which bars judicial candidates over the age of 70 from running for office. Justice Kelly then joined the faculty of Wayne State University Law School in 2013 as its first "Distinguished Jurist In Residence." She also serves on the Wayne State Law School’s Board of Visitors Executive Committee. At present, she is teaching a class she created, “Access to Justice” aimed at encouraging students upon graduation to serve those not able to afford legal help. In addition, she has established a scholarship for students committed to working in public service law on graduation. A native Detroiter, Justice Kelly graduated from Mackenzie High School, and earned her bachelor’s from Eastern Michigan University. She spent a year studying at La Sorbonne, University of Paris, France, and earned her master’s from Middlebury College in Vermont. She taught French language and literature at Grosse Pointe Public Schools, Albion College and at Eastern Michigan University, before attending Wayne Law. At the time, she was one of six women in a law school class of 100. Kelly began her legal career as an associate attorney with Dykema Gossett, and later became a partner with Dudley Patterson Maxwell Smith & Kelly in Bloomfield Hills. She also had her own law firm before her election to the state Court of Appeals in 1988. She was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1996, and was chief justice of the Supreme Court from 2009 to 2011. She has served a host of professional associations, including as a panel member of the State Attorney Discipline Board, and as an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association. In 2003, she became a Fellow of the Michigan State Bar Association Foundation, which provides grants for civil legal aid to the poor. She has been president of the Women’s Bar Association and of the Women Lawyers’ Association of Michigan, and has been a member of the Family Law Council for the State Bar. Justice Kelly served as co-chair of the Open Justice Commission (1999-2003), an organization of the State Bar devoted to making justice available to all. She also serves on the governing board of the National Consortium for Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts and is a former President. She was a board member of the Women’s Survival Center in Pontiac, and a member of the citizens’ advisory committees of the Detroit Public Schools, Wayne County Community College and Oakland County Community College.