Maggie Tinsman

Senator Tinsman was first elected to the Iowa State Senate in 1988. She served in the Iowa Senate for 18 years until January 2007. She was a member of the Human Resources, Judiciary, State Government, and Appropriations Committees and co-chair of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Sub-Committee.

Likewise, Senator Tinsman was the co-chair of the Medical Assistance Projections and Assessment Council and served on the Medical Advisory Committee, Tobacco Use Prevention Council Board, and the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women Board. She was active with the National Conference of State Legislators (Past – Served on NCSL Foundation Board as President of Women Legislative Network and as Vice Chair of AFI Health Committee). Senator Tinsman also served on the Executive Committee of NCSL, as well as the Executive Committee of the Forum for State Health Policy and on the Health Chairs Committee, NCSL Health Committee and the Human Services and Welfare Committee. In addition to NCSL, Senator Tinsman participated in Women in Government (State Director); National Foundation for Women Legislators; and Midwest Council of State Governments (Health and Human Services Committee). Prior to her election to the Iowa Senate, Senator Tinsman served as a Scott County Supervisor from 1978-1988.

Senator Tinsman is active in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Bettendorf, serving in several local, diocesan and national leadership positions. She served on the Board of Directors of the American Lung Association of Illinois/Iowa, Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates, and the FINE (First in the Nation in Education) Foundation. She is active in the Bettendorf and Davenport Chambers of Commerce, Davenport Rotary Club, Pleasant Valley Community Schools’ Strategic Planning Committee, American Lung Association of Iowa, and Skip-a- Long Child Development Services. She is a Governor’s appointee to the Prevention of Disabilities Commission of Iowa and the Lt. Governor’s appointee to the Commission on Wellness and Healthy Living. She currently serves on the Early Childhood Business Council and on the Iowa Initiative to Reduce Unintended Pregnancies.

She graduated from the University of Colorado in 1958 with a B.A. in Sociology. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Gamma Mu, and Mortar Board (honoraries). In 1974, she earned her M.S.W. from the University of Iowa.

Senator Tinsman received the Guardian of Small Business Award in 1996, The Coalition of Family and Children Services of Iowa Public Service Award in 1997, 1999 and 2003, and was Iowa Social Worker of the Year in 1979. In 2001 and 2003 Senator Tinsman was recognized as a pacesetter for Women’s Legislative Lobby; American Cancer Society Policy maker of the Year of 2002; Friends of Older Iowans in 2004; American Academy of Pediatrics Citizen Award; Child Abuse Council Priorities Award in 2005, and American Heart Association’s and American Lung Association of Iowa’s Excellence Awards in 2007. Senator Tinsman, likewise, was inducted into the Moline Illinois High School Hall of Honor in 2005.
Senator Tinsman recently has started a new policy analysis and consultant business called Maggie Tinsman, LLC, specializing in education, economic development and health and human services issues – speaking and teaching.

She is a lifelong resident of the Quad Cities and has been married for 48 years to Hovey Tinsman. They have 3 children and 8 grandchildren.

Dale McCormick

Dale McCormick has spent over two decades fighting for jobs, economic justice, health care for all, human rights, and equality for women. Dale was the first woman in the country to complete a carpentry apprenticeship with the carpenter’s union. She is a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Union 1996, and has been a carpenter and contractor for 30 years. In 1988, Dale founded Women Unlimited, a program that successfully trains women on welfare to compete for high-paying jobs in trade and technical occupations. In 1996, she became the first woman elected State Treasurer and today she is the Director of the Maine State Housing Authority.

Civil Rights for LBGT
In 1984 Dale helped found and became the first President of the Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance, which advocated statewide for civil rights and better treatment for homosexuals. In 1987 Dale helped write and successfully lobbied for Maine’s Hate Crimes Bill. In 2005 after decades of struggle and three anti-gay referenda Maine’s LBGT community achieved civil rights protections.

Organizing
In 1989 Dale was an organizer and founder of the Dirigo Alliance, a statewide progressive electoral coalition. Unions, environmentalists and gays who had never sat at the table together did so with the common goal of recruiting good candidates and electing them to the State House and Senate. She helped found Citizens for Affordable Healthcare, a grass-roots organization bringing the voices of ordinary people into the political debate about healthcare.

Women’s Economic Equity
Working with the business community, the Department of Transportation and tradeswomen, McCormick passed numerous bills that leveled the playing field for women once locked out of trade and technical occupations and training. She founded Women Unlimited in 1988, and by 1996, 89% of the graduates were being hired for full-time jobs. Dale became a resource for the National Federal Highway Administration’s effort to attract women to the transportation industry.

Electoral Politics
McCormick won a seat in the Maine Senate in 1990 and was reelected twice in a conservative district. In her first term Dale chaired the Aging, Retirement, and Veteran’s Committee and attempted to block several raids on the retirement system during one of the worst budget deficits in the country. In 1991 she campaigned hard for Chair of the Committee on Banking and Insurance, which hears healthcare bills. Dale pulled together healthcare experts and spent a year writing The Family Security Act, a single payer state- wide healthcare reform bill. Never one to shy away from controversy, Dale’s healthcare reform bill contained funding mechanisms. Dale passed legislation protecting patients and providers under managed care and allowing advanced practice nurses to practice independently. In 1993 she brought progressive legislators together with pro-business legislators to pass ground breaking legislation reforming Maine’s credit laws to provide new jobs in the financial services sector. Dale is the co-creator of the Maine Employers Mutual Insurance Company, which has helped bring Maine’s workers compensation rates down 30%.

Higher Office
In June 1996, Dale narrowly lost a bid for the Democratic nomination in Maine’s First Congressional District after running a strong positive 10-month campaign. Dale was elected Treasurer of the State of Maine on December 4, 1996. She is Maine’s first female Constitutional Officer and served four terms. Dale professionalized the Office of the State Treasurer, making it efficient, relevant and up to date. In June of 2002 she developed in house, and under budget, TAMI, a secure web- based cash receipt management system that provides state agencies with an electronic cashbook and enabled the State Treasurer’s Office staff to manage and process all the incoming state revenues.

Global Climate Change

Dale founded, along with several other State Treasurers, the Investor Network on Climate Risk and she was a co-convenor of the first Investor Summit on Climate Change at the United Nations.

Green Affordable Housing
In 2005 Governor John Baldacci appointed Dale Executive Director of MaineHousing, the State’s housing finance agency. Under her leadership Maine became the first state housing authority to require that the hundreds of units it finances each year be built according to Maine’s Green Building Standards, yielding a 30% energy savings; instituted an incentive for the contractors to provide health insurance on MaineHousing financed pro-jects; and created an on-the-job training program for women and minorities.

Books
Dale McCormick has written two books: Against the Grain: A Carpentry Manual for Women, and Housemending: Home Repair For The Rest of Us. She has also published many articles on energy efficiency, health care, and civil rights.

Business
Dale has started two businesses and operated and managed the financial systems for both. Each company employed four to eight people for many years.

Honors
In 2007 The National Association of Women in Construction awarded Dale the Crystal Vision Award and Dale was inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame. She was named Legislator of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers, received the Courage-Service-Integrity award from the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance and was honored by the Maine Women’s Fund for her work for economic equity for women.

Stefanie Bowers

Stefanie Bowers is the Human Rights Coordinator for the City of Iowa City. The Coordinator enforces Title 2 (anti-discrimination laws), oversees the investigation of complaints alleging discrimination in violation of the law and provides staff support to the Iowa City Human Rights Commission.

Stefanie Bowers holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa and is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law. She is a licensed Attorney in the state of Iowa. Ms. Bowers is a member of the Iowa Bar Association where she serves on the Young Lawyers Division-Professional Development Committee. She is also a member on the Iowa City Community School District Equity Advisory Committee and serves on the Disproportionate Minority Contact Committee for Johnson County. In addition, she is the current President of the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.