In March, 2008, the Reno Gazette Journal published 25
mini-biographies highlighting the historic achievements of
Nevada’s women, in honor of Women’s History Month this
year. Their stories were condensed to 250-word articles from
the much longer documents found on the Nevada Women’s
History Project website at www.nevadawomen.org. Every
day except Sunday, a Nevada woman was prominently
featured in the “Neighbors and Voices” section of the Reno
newspaper. The multicultural series started with Lubertha
Johnson, southern Nevada’s first African American nurse and
civil rights activist, and ended with pioneer midwife and healer,
Mary Oxborrow.
On Sundays, UNR journalism student Nonie Wainwright
provided a series of feature articles for the “Living” section of
the Gazette Journal on contemporary international women
currently teaching at UNR: diving coach Jian Li You from
China, social work professor Alice Boateng from Ghana and
author and director of the UNR Latino Research Center,
Emma Sepulveda from Chile. In addition, Gazette Journal
reporters filed stories on International Women’s Day festivities
and several prominent Reno women: Carolyn Carlon, one of
Nevada’s first women law enforcement officers and Roz Parry
the area’s first female television anchor.
Many thanks go to the following volunteer mini-bio writers
from the Nevada Women’s History Project and the Reno
American Association of University Women: Donna Clontz,
Nancy Cummings, Betty Glass, Claudia Hoffer, Cherry Jones,
Kathy Noneman, Nancy Oakley, Kay Sanders, Liz Sheppard,
Bobbie Talso, Holly Van Valkenburgh and Nonie Wainwright.
As the organizer and chief editor of this project this year,
I really looked forward to reading the newspaper every morning
even though I had condensed and edited many of the pieces
that appeared. There’s just something special about seeing a
piece you’ve worked on in print and knowing that thousands
of others are reading it for the very first time and learning
about a fantastic Nevada woman. So, how many of you out
there would like to join in the fun next year and help condense
and edit some biographies for Women’s History Month 2009?
Please contact Kay Sanders at 775-747-1740 or
ksanders@unr.nevada.edu.
Donna Clontz
