Lynn Yeakel
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Lynn Hardy Yeakel (July 9, 1941 – January 13, 2022) was an American administrator and political figure. She was the Director of Drexel University College of Medicine's Institute for Women's Health and Leadership and held the Betty A. Cohen Chair in Women's Health. Yeakel conducted an unsuccessful campaign for the
U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
in
1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...
.


Early life and education

Yeakel was born in
Portsmouth, Virginia Portsmouth is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. It lies across the Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth River from Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...
, to Lynn Moore, a teacher from
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, and Porter Hardy Jr., who represented Virginia in Congress from 1947 through 1969. She was a
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
graduate and former trustee of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, and was a recipient of an
M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...
in Management from the American College.


Institute for Women's Health and Leadership

Since Yeakel came to Drexel in 2002, the IWHL has grown in size and stature, earning a significant institutional commitment in the College of Medicine's 2007-2012 Strategic Plan as one of its top priorities. In addition to investing in extensive IWHL program expansion, Drexel constructed a new building on the College of Medicine's campus in Philadelphia to house the Institute and its core programs. Yeakel co-chaired a fundraising campaign to raise an additional $1.8 million for a permanent home for the Legacy Center (Archives and Special Collections) in the new building. IWHL, the International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics (home of the ELAM and ELATE programs) and the Legacy Center moved in at the end of 2009.


Vision 2020

A major national initiative of the Institute, created and co-chaired by Yeakel, is VISION 2020, a ten-year project to achieve women's economic and social equality by the year 2020 when the nation celebrated the centennial of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. The project, which is now a Center in the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership, was launched in October 2010 with An American Conversation about Women and Leadership® at the National Constitution Center (NCC) in Philadelphia. Delegates from all 50 states and the District of Columbia participated. A women's history exhibition, commissioned by the Institute, opened at the NCC in conjunction with the Conversation. Subsequent Congresses were held in Chicago (2011), Portland, OR (2012), and Philadelphia (2014). In June 2013, at the invitation of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Yeakel led a Vision 2020 delegation to an international conference on Women and Warfare and moderated the closing debate in Scottish Parliament. Vision 2020 is allied with more than 80 national organizations representing 20 million women and girls that endorse the goal of women's equality. Yeakel and her team have raised over $3 million for Vision 2020 and have announced plans to host the national centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment in the year 2020 in collaboration with the National Constitution Center and the City of Philadelphia.


Other programs developed

Other programs developed and led by Yeakel include "Conversations about Women's Health," a popular community education program, and the Woman One Award and Scholarship Fund, raising funds for medical tuition scholarships for minority women. There are currently eight Woman One Scholars studying medicine at Drexel, plus 16 who have graduated and are practicing medicine in underserved areas around the nation; three new Scholars entered in August 2014. Each Scholar receives $80,000 in tuition support over four years. Yeakel was also a founder and Board Chair of
Women's Way Women's Way is a grantmaking, advocacy, and education 501(c)(3) status nonprofit that deals with current issues facing women and girls in the greater Philadelphia region. Several women-focused nonprofits formed the organization in the late-1970s ...
, the first and largest women's fundraising coalition in the nation, and served as its CEO from 1980 until 1992.


Political career


Campaigns


1992 Senate campaign

A founder and former chief executive of the first and largest women's funding federation in the U.S., Women's Way, Yeakel won the primary in a U.S. Senate campaign in 1992 – the "Year of the Woman" – and nearly unseated incumbent Senator
Arlen Specter Arlen Specter (February 12, 1930 – October 14, 2012) was an American lawyer, author and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican fr ...
in a nationally publicized race. The following year she lectured on more than a dozen college campuses and for numerous organizations across the U.S. and abroad.


Subsequent campaigns

In
1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
, she ran for governor, finishing fourth in a seven-person primary field, behind
State Treasurer In the state and territorial governments of the United States, 54 of the 56 states and territories have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the office of New York State Treasurer in 1926, in which the duties were transfer ...
Catherine Baker Knoll,
State Representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...
Dwight Evans and the winner,
Mark Singel Mark Stephen Singel (born September 12, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 27th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995, alongside Governor Bob Casey. Singel served as the state's acting governor from June 14, 1993 t ...
, who went on to lose the general election to
Congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...
Tom Ridge Thomas Joseph Ridge (born August 26, 1945) is an American politician and author who served in the Presidency of George W. Bush, George W. Bush administration as the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security from 2001 to 2003 and as the U ...
. Yeakel ran her final campaign in
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
, when she challenged incumbent Republican
State Senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...
Dick Tilghman for his 17th District seat. She lost the election by about 800 votes, out of over 100,000 cast.


Appointed positions

Appointed by
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director for the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Im ...
, Yeakel served in that role from 1994-2000. Her leadership initiatives there included the Freedom from Fear campaign to end family violence and "Envisioning a Healthier Philadelphia," a coalition of more than 60 public and private organizations dedicated to improving access to health care. She also chaired the region's Welfare Reform Team, the Child Health Initiative and the Combined Federal Campaign and served on the national committee to implement the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). In 2010, she was appointed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Health Care Reform Implementation Advisory Committee, developing recommendations for the Governor on the new federal legislation.


Honors and awards

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate and former trustee of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Yeakel received a Master of Science in Management degree from the American College. She was a past president or chair of many local and national non-profit organizations, including among others AccessMatters, the Junior League of Philadelphia, the 21st Century League, the Citizens' Coalition for Energy Efficiency, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and the board of overseers of the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. She served as an advisor to the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, the Center for the Advancement of Girls at the Agnes Irwin School, the Women's Resource Center and the Professional Women's Roundtable. She was a member of the Advisory Board of the Penn/ICOWHI 18th Congress, entitled Cities and Women's Health: Global Perspectives held in Philadelphia in the spring of 2010. A member of the Pennsylvania Women's Forum and the Forum of Executive Women, and a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Lynn Yeakel has received numerous honors and awards, including the Pennsylvania Citizen Action Award and the Lucretia Mott Award. She was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in 1989, received the MCP/Gimbel Award for humanitarian contributions in 1987, and was named a "Woman of Distinction" by the Philadelphia Business Journal in 2004. In 2006, she was identified as a Top Connector by LEADERSHIP Philadelphia and in 2008 was honored again by that organization as one of its top 50 alumni during the celebration of its 50th anniversary. She received the first Susan Myers Leadership and Community Activism Award from the Junior League of Philadelphia (2009), the John Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from Common Cause (2010), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania (2011). She was honored by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania with a Take the Lead Award (2012), and by the Alice Paul Institute with the Alice Paul Equality Award (2013). She was a frequent speaker at women's and girls' leadership forums.


Publications

Her autobiographical book, "A Will and a Way," was published in fall 2010.


Personal life and death

In 1965, she married Paul Yeakel. They had two children and six grandchildren. Lynn Yeakel died from complications of a blood cancer in
Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,395; it was estimated to have grown to 95,949 in 2022, making it the List o ...
, on January 13, 2022, at the age of 80.


References


External links


Article
on Philly.com
Appearances
on
C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
programs {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeakel, Lynn 1941 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century American women Candidates in the 1992 United States elections Pennsylvania Democrats Politicians from Portsmouth, Virginia Randolph College alumni Women in Pennsylvania politics Writers from Pennsylvania Writers from Virginia Drexel University people