[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 20, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                    IN RECOGNITION OF DIXIE HORNING

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 20, 2018

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize one of the most gifted 
and effective leaders I have met, had the distinct honor to work with 
over several decades, and am proud to call a dear friend. Dixie Horning 
is retiring from her leadership roles as Executive Director of the 
University of California, San Francisco National Center of Excellence 
in Women's Health and Associate Chair for Finance and Administration 
for the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, 
after 20 years of service with that esteemed institution. Her 
transformational work at UCSF followed 30 years of transformational 
public service in Texarkana, Arkansas, Lafayette, Louisiana and 
Washington, D.C.
  Dixie is a master at building communities, designing public policy, 
administering complex programs, and managing organizations and people.
  Dixie has been honored by UCSF with two prestigious Chancellor's 
Awards recognizing her service above and beyond her appointed roles. 
The Chancellor's Award for the Advancement of Women recognized her 
contributions to success of many individuals through her coaching, 
mentoring and sponsorship of UCSF staff, faculty, high school young 
women and leaders of community organizations. Dixie's vital efforts to 
advance and improve UCSF's partnerships with its community, with an 
emphasis on the sharing of power in these relationships, was recognized 
by the Chancellor's Award for Public Service. Dixie's contributions to 
our network of National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health cannot 
be understated. She traveled across this big country of ours guiding 
and supporting other Centers in transforming women's health and 
healthcare.
  There is no task imaginable Dixie couldn't tackle. To understand why 
she is so effective it helps to understand her life philosophy--what I 
like to call the Five Dixie Principles: 1. Earn leadership through 
presence and performance. 2. Practice active skill transfer to build 
sustainability: everyone has something to learn and everyone has 
something to teach. 3. Don't go anywhere unless invited. 4. Prepare a 
place at the table for all stakeholders. If a stakeholder is not yet 
ready to join, don't delay, begin the work but leave the seat open for 
future participation. And 5. Long term change requires long term 
presence. Those have been Dixie's ingredients for long term and 
sustainable success.
  Dixie started her remarkable career in Texarkana, Arkansas in the 
early 1970s. She was hired as a gym recreation program coordinator in 
the Model Cities Program, an initiative of Lyndon Johnson's Great 
Society. She embraced the goals of developing new antipoverty programs, 
achieving community integration, building better local government, 
engaging citizens in meaningful ways and translated them into reality. 
She built ten major parks, established the first domestic violence 
shelter, created art museums for children and community centers for 
seniors. She launched six non-profits that provided day care, sports 
and education. She established transportation access for those who are 
differently abled. She served on commissions for issues as diverse as 
juvenile justice reform, sexually transmitted diseases, childhood 
education, and sports in prisons. Her success attracted more resources 
from private public partnerships and was noted as model program for the 
State by the Department of Parks and Tourism. Dixie was named by 
President Reagan to serve on his Advisory Council on the Outdoors.
  Twenty years later, the Mayor of Lafayette, Louisiana recruited Dixie 
to replicate the programs she had created in Texarkana. She moved and 
did exactly that. She collaborated with the leaders of the Southern 
Mutual Help Association who were dedicated to uplifting agricultural 
communities. Together they created a model for community transformation 
and economic sustainability that focused on the removal of structural 
systems that reinforced poverty.
  From Louisiana, Dixie moved to Washington, DC and became the 
Executive Director of the Gray Panthers. She worked with its founder 
Maggie Kuhn to eliminate age discrimination and change our view of 
aging and older Americans. She also worked with the Coalition that 
lobbied for the Violence against Women Act and renewal of Title IX.
  Throughout her work across this country Dixie has been an active 
participant in women's history. She attended the 1st UN International 
Women's Conference in Mexico City in 1975 as a delegate from the rural 
women's caucus. She went on to serve on the planning committees for the 
next three UN international women's conferences in Copenhagen in 1980, 
Nairobi in 1985 and Beijing in 1995. Dixie led the Beijing and Beyond 
taskforce. In Washington, Dixie served on National Council of Women's 
Organizations, including a term as its President. In 1988, Dixie was 
selected to carry the Torch at the Parade to commemorate the 75th 
anniversary of the 1913 Suffragette March for the Vote. She served as 
the Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Women's History 
Project.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the members of the House of Representatives to 
rise with me to honor my friend Dixie Horning, an exceptional champion 
of social justice and fierce feminist advocate for all women and girls. 
While we don't exactly know what she will do in this next chapter in 
her life, we can be sure it will transformational and lead to a better 
future for us all.

                          ____________________