Margaret Flowers (born November 8, 1962) is an American pediatrician, public health advocate and

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

. After 17 years of practicing medicine, she became an advocate for a single-payer insurance system. Flowers is an adviser to the board of

Physicians for a National Health Program Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is an advocacy organization of more than 20,000 American physicians, Medical education in the United States, medical students, and health professionals that supports a universal, comprehensive sing ...

, serving as a Congressional Fellow during the health reform process in 2009-2010 and is co-chair of the Maryland chapter. She was co-chair of the

Green Party of the United States The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a federation of Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism; nonviolence; social justice; participatory democracy; anti-war; ...

until 2020.

Early life

Flowers was born in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

in 1962. She received her bachelor's degree in biology in 1986 at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

. In 1990 she received her Doctorate in Medicine from

University of Maryland School of Medicine The University of Maryland School of Medicine (abbreviated UMSOM), located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S., is the medical school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is affiliated with the University of Maryland Medical Center and ...

and completed her residency in pediatrics from

Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...

Career

Pediatrics

From 1990 to 2007, Flowers practiced medicine first as director of pediatrics at a rural hospital and then in private practice. Flowers left her practice to advocate full time for single payer

Medicare for All Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare, in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer"). Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from pr ...

healthcare.

Activism

Flowers joined Physicians for a National Health Program, serving as a Congressional Fellow, advocating for a single payer insurance system to expand Medicare to cover everyone. In 2009, she was arrested at a Senate Roundtable on Health Insurance for standing and speaking up on behalf of the single payer option, as no representative for that type of insurance was invited to the roundtable discussion. She said in an interview on being arrested, "Our first goal was to have a seat at the table….If we couldn't get a seat, at least we could expose the insincerity of the current attempt at healthcare reform and show that single payer was actively being excluded." In 2010, Flowers wrote a letter to President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

explaining her position on healthcare and offering Medicare as a model for a better system. After multiple attempts by Flowers and her colleagues to deliver the letter directly to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

, they were arrested for their refusal to leave the premises. In 2011, Flowers organized with the

Occupy Movement The Occupy movement was an international populist Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primar ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, which evolved into her work at Popular Resistance in 2013, which she co-directed with Kevin Zeese.

Media

In 2012, Flowers launched the show Clearing the FOG with her partner Kevin Zeese on We Act Radio in Anacostia, and today is presented on Pacifica Radio as a podcast.

Senate campaign

Flowers ran for

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 ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

for the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

election, where she received over 3% of the vote or approximately 90,000 votes.

Green Party

From 2018 to 2020, Flowers served on the national Green Party's

Steering Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

as one of its seven co-chairs, leading the party.

Awards and recognition

Flowers received the 2020 Women and Media Award, alongside five other women, by the

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) is an American nonprofit publishing organization that was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The organization works to increase media democracy and strengthen independent media. Basic informati ...

for her contributions to media democracy.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flowers, Margaret 1962 births Living people Activists from Kansas City, Missouri Physicians from Kansas City, Missouri Candidates in the 2016 United States Senate elections