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Robyn Gabel, Executive Director, Illinois
Maternal & Child Health Coalition
Laura Leon,
IMCHC Associate
Director/Project Director, Covering Kids and Families
ROBYN GABEL, B.A., M.S.P.H.,
M.J. has been the Executive Director of the Illinois Maternal and
Child Health Coalition since 1988. The Coalition has over ninety
organizational members throughout the state and conducts policy
development, education and advocacy to carry out its mission to
improve the health of women and children in Illinois.
Ms. Gabel has combined a
career in the health field and politics for twenty-five years. She
began her career as an educator in a women's health center, later
becoming the Co-Director of the Chicago Women's Health Center. As
her interest in politics increased, she became a legislative
assistant to Alderman Luis Gutierrez in Chicago. Since coming to the
Coalition, Ms. Gabel has led the organization in advocacy and
education efforts to increase immunization rates of three year olds,
reduce the transmission of HIV from mother to newborn by two-thirds,
expand the number of school health centers, and enroll children in
KidCare, the state’s child health insurance program.
In 2005, Ms. Gabel
received the Fellowship for Community Leaders award from the Chicago
Community Trust., which allowed her to take 13 months off from her
position to explore her interests in maternal and child health and
renew her commitment to the non profit arena. During that year, she
explored the perinatal programs in Mexico and Europe, attended
international health conferences and attended an advanced business
program at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management.
As an advocate for
women, children and families, Ms. Gabel currently serves as a member
of the Immunization Advisory Committee for the Illinois Department
of Public Health, the Medicaid Advisory Committee for the Illinois
Department of Public Aid and the Perinatal Advisory Committee for
the Illinois Department of Public Aid.
She received her B.A. in
Anthropology from Beloit College (1975), her M.S. in Public Health
from University of Illinois, Chicago (1979) and her M.J. in health
law from Loyola University Chicago Law School in 1996. Ms. Gabel is
on the Board of the Campaign for Better Health Care and is a member
of the Illinois Public Health Association and the American Public
Health Association.
LAURA LEON is the Associate
Director of Illinois Maternal and Child Health of the Illinois, a
statewide coalition of 90+ organizations that are dedicated to
promote and improve the health of women, children, and families
through advocacy, education, community empowerment and policy
development. She had been with IMCHC since 1999 as the Project
Director of the Covering Kids and Families Coalition, is a
public/private partnership of government agencies, social service
and health providers, community based organizations, faith based and
labor organizations, working together to make sure Illinois children
and parents are enrolled in to the All Kids, KidCare and Family Care
program.
Ms. Leon has a strong
urban development background, having worked for the National
Training and Information Center, where she assisted emerging
community organizations and coalitions across the country with
strategy and organizational building skills.
Ms. Leon has worked on a
vast array of local issues in the Latino community in Chicago and
has led successful community, labor and political campaigns. Her
largest urban development project was directing an Urban Habitat for
Humanity Project in Chicago that built 32 units of affordable
homes. She also co-founded an economic/housing project in Nayarit,
Mexico. The project in Mexico has been endorsed by Habitat for
Humanity International and is in the process of building 125 bed and
breakfast, as well as, traditional homes for over 70 economically
distressed indigenous and rural villagers. This project will
improve living conditions and develop homeownership and
entrepreneurship.
Through her experience
with Habitat for Humanity and working with churches in the Chicago
area, Ms. Leon developed the Covering Kids and Families
Illinois “Faith, Health, and Unity” Campaign to reach out to
families of uninsured children through faith-based congregations and
organizations. The Covering Kids and Families Illinois
faith-based outreach toolkit has been adapted for use in other
states’ outreach work, and is now being distributed across the
nation.
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