Celebrate! About the Speakers

Keynote Speaker Connie Schultz

Her gift for crafting “pungent columns that provided a voice for the underdog and underprivileged” is what garnered Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz the 2005 Pulitzer Prize Award for Commentary. With a clear understanding of the joys, foibles, and quandaries of the everyday moments of common folk, her observations resound with people from all walks of life.

A passionate activist and a mom, Schultz eloquently articulates the gap she sees between the way things are and they way they should be for women and women’s health in our country. Her body of journalistic work reflects a compassion, courage and humanity that have earned her accolades from her industry, peers and readers as she writes about everything from aging gracefully and family ties to women’s role in the abortion debates.

As we come together, just weeks before an essential election for women’s issues, Schultz will offer her perspective on how the assaults on women’s health will be the defining and driving issue for women this year. With her clever wit and astute observations, Schultz will share her fresh and insightful commentary on the state of women’s health today.

Connie Schultz is married to Senator Sherrod Brown, (D-Ohio), and is currently on a leave of absence as a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Her first book, Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths-- a collection of her previously published columns, was printed in 2006. Her second book, ... and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man-- a journal of her experiences on the campaign trail, was released in 2007. Schultz also writes a column, called "Views" for PARADE magazine and contributed to The Huffington Post.

Courage Award Recipients
Governor Mark Dayton and Mary Lee Dayton

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