1998CRE110B WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE HONORED

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Archive-Name: gov/us/fed/congress/record/1998/feb/05/1998CRE110B
[Congressional Record: February 5, 1998 (Extensions)]
[Page E110-E111]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr05fe98-24]

WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE HONORED

______

HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

of new jersey

in the house of representatives

Thursday, February 5, 1998

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, today eleven African-American women of
distinction are being honored as part of the Essex County, New Jersey,
Hospital Center's Third Annual Afrikan Heritage Month celebration. The
vision of Carter G. Woodson to set aside some time to remember and pay
tribute to our history and its people is one for which we will always
be grateful. I am especially proud of this group of women for it is
representative of our families and our society as a whole when it comes
to being prepared and accomplished.
The women being honored today are: Gail Thompson, Vice President of
Design and Construction of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, our
new $165 million, 255,000 square foot theater building and
infrastructure on 12 acres; Carolyn Wade, President of Communications
Workers of America Local, the largest local in New Jersey which
represents 9,000 dues-paying members in both the public and private
sectors; Senator Wynona M. Lipman, distinguished by her tenure as the
only African-American female state senator for 21 years; Dorothy E.
Grisby, a representative of the National Black Nurses Association, a
national organization with 42 chapters that works to provide quality
health care; Miriam E. Ferguson, a community advocate is also
Superintendent of Recreation and Culture for the

[[Page E111]]

City of Hackensack, NJ; Mary F. Lewis, an Education Training
Coordinator and the Site Administrator of the United Auto Workers/
General Motors Skill Center at the General Motors Corp. in Linden, NJ,
became the first African American female electrician in General Motors
in 1984; Dolores `Bobby'' Reilly, a former Montclair, NJ, Councilwoman
became the first African American woman ever elected to political
office in the town; Audrey Fletcher, a former Montclair Councilwoman
serves as the Executive Director of the Montclair Child Development
Center which provides comprehensive services to Montclair's children
and their families; Desha L. Jackson, the first African American female
Assistant Prosecutor for Ocean County, NJ; Marcia Wilson Brown, a law
school graduate and community activist who has used her time and talent
to assist urban cities to plan, develop and fund a variety of housing
and community development programs to improve the quality of life for
poor, low and moderate income persons and neighborhoods; and Cheryl
Diane Lawrence, an adventurous, compassionate and civic-minded business
woman is the founder of Blind Detective Agency, a provider of
customized security services, a business she developed when she became
permanently disabled as a result of an act of heroism while serving as
the first female police officer at the Rutgers University Police
Department.
Mr. Speaker, I am sure my colleagues will want to join me in
congratulating these individuals for this appropriate recognition as
their ``labors of love'' are recorded in the annals of American
history.

____________________