Ruth Lockhart

Last updated
Ruth L. Lockhart
Born
Ruth Louise Lockhart

Fort Fairfield, Maine
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.A. elementary education, University of Southern Maine
OccupationHealth educator
Years active1978–2015
Known forExecutive director, Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center
SpousePeter Thibeau
Children2
Parent(s)Charles J. Lockhart
Winnifred N. Durgin
Awards Maine Women's Hall of Fame, 2012

Ruth L. Lockhart is an American women's health advocate, women's rights activist, AIDS educator, and feminist. She is a co-founder of Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center, was its executive director in Bangor, Maine, from 1992 to 2015, and previously worked in health education and AIDS education for the City of Bangor and the University of Maine. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2012.

Contents

Early life and education

Ruth L. Lockhart was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, to Charles J. Lockhart, a bank teller, and his wife, Winnifred N. Durgin, a home economics teacher. [1] [2] She has one brother and one sister. [2] Growing up in an agricultural town, she worked as a "potato picker" in her childhood and teens. [1]

She graduated from the University of Southern Maine in 1973 [3] with a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a teaching certificate in special education and learning disabilities. [1]

Career

Lockhart worked from 1974 to 1978 as a special education teacher in an East Corinth, Maine, public school. [3] She next volunteered as a receptionist for Penquis Family Planning, where she became a family planning specialist. [4] In 1984 she became the director of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinic run by the city of Bangor, serving as an educator and trainer in the areas of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), HIV, and AIDS. [1] [3] She was appointed to the Governor's Task Force on AIDS, and assisted in the creation of an HIV/AIDS antibody testing program for the city, which handled clients anonymously. [1]

In 1987 she became the first professional health educator at the University of Maine. [3] [5] She co-chaired the rape and sexual assault awareness program, coordinated women's health services at the university health center, and engaged in AIDS education. [1] She also started and ran the campus Sexual and Reproductive Health Education (SHARE) program [3] and was a member of the lesbian/gay/bisexual concerns committee. [1] Among the AIDS educational initiatives she oversaw were a peer education program employing students to talk to other students in dormitories, fraternities, and sororities; the distribution of thousands of condoms at AIDS workshops and at a permanent "AIDS table" at the university health center; and a "Love Carefully Day", which featured STD information tables in the campus gymnasium and the distribution of gift packets containing a carnation flower, a Hershey's kiss candy, and a latex condom for students to give to "that special someone". [5] Lockhart got the idea from a similarly-named day aimed at preventing unintended pregnancies. [5]

Mabel Sine Wadsworth Women's Health Center

In 1984 Lockhart and four other women's health activists founded the Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center in Bangor. [1] The center, named in honor of Mabel Sine Wadsworth, a pioneering birth control activist and women's health educator in Maine, was formulated as a private nonprofit in response to President Reagan's enforcement of the global gag rule in 1984, which prohibited federally-funded programs from handling abortions. [4] [6] The center continues to rely on community donations to fund its operations. [7]

After eight years of operating on a volunteer basis, [8] the center named Lockhart as executive director in January 1992, [1] a post she held until her retirement in May 2015. [6] The center opened with the goal of promoting abortion rights and health care for lesbians, and was regularly picketed. [6] In 1997 prenatal care was added to its list of services. [6] By 2003, the center had serviced 2,400 clients. [9] In 2015 Lockhart said that while they "proudly give abortions", approximately 70 percent of the center's activity related to obstetrics and gynaecology. [7] Lockhart oversaw the center's relocation to a larger, 5,000 square feet (460 m2) facility in Bangor in December 2005. [7]

Other activities

Lockhart served as chair of the Maine Choice Coalition. [4]

Memberships

Lockhart served as executive director of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Aroostook from 1977 to 1978. [3]

Awards and honors

In 2000 the University of Maine honored her with its Maryann Hartman Award. [10] [11] She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2012. [12]

Personal life

Lockhart married Peter Thibeau in 1980, with whom she had two children. [1] The couple resided in Bangor. [1] Peter passed in 2022. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safe sex</span> Ways to reduce the risk of acquiring STIs

Safe sex is sexual activity using methods or contraceptive devices to reduce the risk of transmitting or acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs), especially HIV. "Safe sex" is also sometimes referred to as safer sex or protected sex to indicate that some safe sex practices do not eliminate STI risks. It is also sometimes used colloquially to describe methods aimed at preventing pregnancy that may or may not also lower STI risks.

Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:

Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Husson University</span> Private university in Bangor, Maine, US

Husson University is a private university in Bangor, Maine. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and as of Fall 2022 had a total enrollment of 3,065 students, including 636 graduate students in master's and doctoral programs.

Abstinence, be faithful, use a condom, also known as the ABC strategy, abstinence-plus sex education or abstinence-based sex education, is a sex education policy based on a combination of "risk avoidance" and harm reduction which modifies the approach of abstinence-only sex education by including education about the value of partner reduction, safe sex, and birth control methods. Abstinence-only sex education is strictly to promote the sexual abstinence until marriage, and does not teach about safe sex or contraceptives. The abstinence-based sex education program is meant to stress abstinence and include information on safe sex practices. In general terms, this strategy of sex education is a compromise between abstinence-only education and comprehensive sex education. The ABC approach was developed in response to the growing epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and to prevent the spread of other sexually transmitted infections. This approach has been credited by some with the falling numbers of those infected with AIDS in Uganda, Kenya and Zimbabwe, among others. From 1990 to 2001 the percentage of Ugandans living with AIDS fell from 15% to between 5 and 6%. This fall is believed to result from the employment of the ABC approach, especially reduction in the number of sex partners, called "Zero-Grazing" in Uganda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maine Women's Lobby</span>

The Maine Women's Lobby (MWL) was founded in 1978 and is dedicated to legislative action on behalf of Maine's women and girls. The Maine Women's Lobby believes women and girls should have economic security, access to health care, and freedom from violence and discrimination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maine Women's Hall of Fame</span>

The Maine Women's Hall of Fame was created in 1990 to honor the achievements of women associated with the U.S. state of Maine. The induction ceremonies are held each year during March, designated as Women's History Month. Nominees are chosen by the public via an online nomination form. The University of Maine at Augusta displays the hall of fame in its Bennett D. Katz Library, and also hosts the hall of fame online at the university's website. The nomination form lists three criteria for eligibility:

Theodora June Kalikow is an American academic, university president, author, and women's rights advocate. Holder of a master's degree and PhD in philosophy, she taught at Southeastern Massachusetts University for 17 years before becoming Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado in 1984. From 1984 to 1987 she was Dean of Plymouth State College in New Hampshire. She then served as 13th President of the University of Maine at Farmington from 1994 to 2012, and Interim President of the University of Southern Maine from 2012 to 2014. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shenna Bellows</span> American politician

Shenna Lee Bellows is an American politician and a non-profit executive director. On December 2, 2020, the Maine Legislature elected her to serve as the 50th Maine secretary of state. She was executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine between 2018 and 2020, and she served as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine between 2005 and 2013.

Beth Ann Karmeisool is an American entrepreneur, lecturer, certified sexual health educator and certified HIV counselor. She initially became an advocate for safe sexual health after volunteering with the Rainbow Connection, where she worked with children infected with HIV and AIDS, and after interviewing adolescents about their lack of information regarding sex education. Karmeisool founded S3 Safe Sex Store in April 1995, a retail business currently located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She said that she, “created S3 to provide all people regardless of age, race, religion or sexual orientation a safe place that provides correct, consistent sexual health information.” A 2008 article published by The Michigan Daily stated that, “Karmeisool believes it is her responsibility to inform, empower and educate her clientele about sexual health issues.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mildred Brown Schrumpf</span> American author and educator

Mildred Brown "Brownie" Schrumpf was an American home economist, food educator, and author. Named the "Unofficial Ambassador of Good Eating" by the Maine Department of Agriculture, she wrote a weekly food column for the Bangor Daily News from 1951 to 1994 promoting traditional Maine recipes. She was the main proponent of the claim that the chocolate brownie was invented in Bangor. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1997.

Gilda E. Nardone is an American women's employment advocate and nonprofit director. She is the executive director of New Ventures Maine, a career counseling and employment development program for middle-aged and older women who have been thrust into the role of family breadwinner due to the death or disability of a spouse, divorce, or separation. Nardone has been one of the directors of the organization, headquartered at the University of Maine at Augusta, since its inception as the Maine Displaced Homemakers Program in 1978. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine O. Musgrave</span> American dietitian (1920–2015)

Katherine L. Ogilvie Musgrave was an American academic, registered dietitian, and nutritional consultant. She taught food science and nutrition at the University of Maine from 1969 to 1986, and after her official retirement continued teaching for close to three decades on the university's online continuing education website, educating thousands of students. During this time she also worked as a dietitian for three Bangor physicians, conducted nutrition workshops and corporate wellness programs across the state, and appeared on a weekly radio show speaking about healthy living.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mabel Sine Wadsworth</span> American birth control activist and womens health educator (1910–2006)

Mabel Antoinette Sine Wadsworth was an American birth control activist and women's health educator. Influenced by the work of Margaret Sanger, she organized door to door campaigns in rural Maine in the 1950s and 1960s to teach women about birth control. In the 1960s she established and directed the state's first family planning program which provided contraceptive services, and helped found the Maine Family Planning Association in 1971, serving as its first president. In 1984 she supported the establishment and naming of the Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center in Bangor, Maine, a private, non-profit, feminist health center. Wadsworth was in the first class of inductees to the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in March 1990.

Caroline Doris Gentile was an American academic and physical education instructor. The longest-serving faculty member of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, she joined the staff in 1946 and developed the curriculum for the physical education department. She continued as a classroom instructor until her retirement in 2005. She also made the largest-ever gift to the university, a $500,000 donation toward the establishment of a health and physical education complex which was named in her honor. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Honors in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marti Stevens (educator)</span> American educator and stage director (c. 1939–1993)

Marti Stevens was an American educator and theater director. Born in Chicago, she spent 10 years as a professional director and actress on off-Broadway stages in New York City before relocating to the rural community of Cornville, Maine. She was posthumously inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.

Sharon E. Barker was a Canadian-American women's rights activist, women's health advocate, and feminist. She was the founding director of the Women's Resource Center at the University of Maine and one of the founders and first president of the Mabel Sine Wadsworth Women's Health Center in Bangor. For over 30 years she advocated for women and girls in the areas of health care, gender equality, sexual assault, and reproductive rights. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Smith Dyer</span> American activist

Linda Smith Dyer was an American lawyer, lobbyist, and women's rights activist. After a two-decade legal career, she entered public service as deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture. She co-founded the Maine Women's Lobby and was active in the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Maine. A member on numerous boards and committees, she was a past president of the Maine State Bar Association and the Family Planning Association of Maine. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2001, a few months before her death.

Karen Heck is an American community activist, women's rights activist, nonprofit administrator, and politician. She was mayor of Waterville, Maine from 2012 to 2014. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Fortman</span> American government employee, non-profit executive and womens rights activist

Laura A. Fortman is an American government employee, non-profit executive, and women's rights activist. Since 2013 she has served as deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. Previously she was commissioner of the Maine Department of Labor, and executive director of the Frances Perkins Center, the Maine Women's Lobby, and the Sexual Assault Crisis and Support Center of Augusta. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Mitchell Gabriel</span> American basketmaker

Margaret Mary Mitchell Gabriel was a Passamaquoddy basket maker from Maine. She was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship in 1994.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Honorees: Ruth L. Lockhart". University of Maine at Augusta. 2016. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Obituaries: Charles J. Lockhart". Bangor Daily News . 13 May 2008. p. B6.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ruth Lockhart". LinkedIn. 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "Meet Ruth Lockhart". American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Garland, Nancy (10 February 1988). "Condoms, carnations to mark Love Carefully Day at UM". Bangor Daily News. p. 30.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Hollowell, Joy (4 May 2015). "Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center- Part One". WABI-TV. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 Bradstreet, Kailee (15 June 2006). "Wadsworth center has new home". Bangor Daily News. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016– via HighBeam.
  8. ↑ Feulner, Natalie (15 December 2014). "Co-founder of Mabel Wadsworth retiring in May, leaves behind legacy". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  9. ↑ Hamlin, Ardeana (13 May 2004). "Mabel Wadsworth health center celebrates 20th year in Bangor". Bangor Daily News. p. 1.
  10. ↑ "Maryann Hartman Awards – 2000 Award Winners". University of Maine . Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  11. ↑ "Maine women to receive annual Hartman awards". Sun Journal . 12 October 2000.
  12. ↑ "Maine Women's Hall of Fame Inductees" (PDF). BPW/Maine Futurama Foundation. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  13. ↑ "Remembering the life of Peter Thibeau".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.