International Women’s Day 2024

Today, on International Women’s Day, some of Someone To Tell It To’s Compassionate Listeners and Listening Trainers share about the women who have inspired them, nurtured them, and helped to mold them into who they are today. 

Who has inspired, nurtured, and molded you?

Michael Gingerich, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Encouragement Officer

The great American poet, author, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou’s beautiful words have inspired me ever since I first learned about her. She wrote and voiced endless powerful concepts and values related to human worth, dignity, and respect. She commanded respect – and still does,even in death – by her very timeless messages and stories about real life – many about her own life – and the struggles of our human existence. As a writer, I strive to be as poetic as she, and to tell the stories of my own and others’ lives in ways that bring hope, healing, and wholeness to us all. When she wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”, I wholeheartedly agreed. That simple statement is one that informs and inspires my work, our work, with Someone To Tell It To. We exist to hear people’s stories and to enable the storytellers to be set free and to know that whatever pain and shame the stories might reveal, the storytellers are deeply and profoundly loved.

Deb Steransky, Listener Trainer and Compassionate Listener

There are lots of women I admire. Many public servants, Sally Ride, the women who did the math for the Apollo space program, and on and on. But the first woman I thought of was my grandmother, Dorothea Wallis Farrar. She was born in 1896, came of age when the women gained the right to vote and lived to see humans land on the moon. She survived the Depression, a divorce, the death of one of her sons in the Korean War, and the death of her second husband. At one point in my early childhood, all of her remaining four children and their spouses lived under her roof. I never heard her complain. Dorothea was also active in her church and in  local politics. In spite of being very much in the political minority for her area, she never hid her party affiliation. In fact, she was the president of the town’s women’s club of that party. From her, I learned that it matters that I vote and it matters that I am an informed voter. She was an amazing woman with a story and I wish I had asked more questions before she passed. 

Alicia Morget, Listener Trainer

My mom Carolyn Hollingshead Imler Wright was born in 1934 during the Great Depression, became an RN in 1953, married my dad a widower with two young daughters in 1954, raised them, plus my brothers and me, worked as a nurse from the 1950’s to 1990’s, including as a Pennsylvania State Health Nurse during the AIDS epidemic, cared for my dad as he battled Parkinson’s, picked herself up and started a new chapter in life after my dad’s death, reunited with her high school sweetheart at age 86, and married him at age 87. They are healthy and living happily in a retirement village in Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth Armistead, Chief Operations Officer

Preferring to spell her name with no capital letters as a way of de-emphasizing her individual identity, bell hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins.  Frequently, hooks’ work addressed the deep intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality and geographic place. 

“Everywhere I go, people want to feel more connected. They want to feel more connected to their neighbors. They want to feel more connected to the world. And when we learn that through love we can have that connection, we can see the stranger as ourselves. And I think that it would be absolutely fantastic to have that sense of ‘Let’s return to kind of a utopian focus on love, not unlike the sort of hippie focus on love.’ Because I always say to people, you know, the ’60s’ focus on love had its stupid sentimental dimensions, but then it had these life-transforming dimensions”

Angie Dickinson, Chief Listening Officer

My grandmother, Helen Shearer, was ahead of her time! Born in 1910 she was determined and hardworking, completing college, finishing graduate school, and traveling abroad alone during a time when these things were not the norm for her peers! I will always remember her wizardry in the kitchen, her musicianship at the piano, and her quick fingers and wit while playing cards! Her commitment to excellence lives on in the students she taught and in her two children and four grandchildren (including me)!

My grandmother, Elizabeth Olmsted, delighted in people and relationships. She was quick to laugh and always took time to learn of the interests of others. A mother of five she used invention and resourcefulness to turn her home into a rich learning environment for education of all types; particularly music, storytelling, and wordsmithing! Grandma O. had a song for every occasion and brought love and energy to every room she entered! Each time I choose to focus on the positives in a situation I honor her indomitable spirit!

Brandon Miller, Compassionate Listener

The woman that (I believe) needs to be known is Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw. Crenshaw is known for establishing the concept of intersectionality (in 1989), which examines how race, class, gender, and other characteristics overlap and compound to explain systemic discrimination and inequality in society. I feel like I internally & externally reference her explanation of this concept weekly, if not daily—and her dedication/activism is a beacon of hope.

Brianna Campbell, Virtual Listening Trainer

Bettie Williams is my grandmother. We call her “Nana.” I admire her for her strength and bravery in the face of adversity. In 1960 she participated in the Greensboro, North Carolina sit-ins at a segregated restaurant. Now generations later, her daughter (right) and granddaughters live in the freedom she fought for. 

Tom Kaden, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Encouragement Officer

I would like to honor my Grandmother Kaden. Her parents died at a young age and she was forced to go to live with her grandmother in Washington, D.C. Her grandmother was poor and because she was the oldest, her grandmother sent her out to work at age 12 (she looked older than her age). She couldn’t get a Social Security card because she was too young.  Her grandmother made her start typing and copying opinion pieces from the newspaper. When she went and applied for her first job she told them she forgot her Social Security card at home so she got the job. Her excellent typing skills helped her get a job at a hotel. She actually lost track of how old she was until she went to get her drivers license many years later and found out she was five years younger than she thought.  Eventually she got married and moved to New Jersey and got a job as a bank teller. She finished seventh grade, but never went to high school. She worked her way up to become vice president of a three branch savings and loan. She eventually got her General Educational Diploma later in life.  Gram loved life and lived life to the fullest. We have so many incredible stories of things she did to make others’ lives better.  

Elizabeth Givler, Listener Trainer and Compassionate Listener

My late grandmother Ellen Barber Hull, along with my late grandfather, Jesse, exemplified resilience and compassion as they raised ten children on their ranch near Waynoka, Oklahoma, while also leaving a lasting impact on their community. Grandma served on the local school board and led the fight for rural electrification and telephone service. She was a champion of voter registration, serving as registrar, attending political meetings, and hosting candidate events in her community and at her home. Her dedication extended beyond politics; she provided medical assistance to sick children in their remote area and hosted “surprise” dinner guests during the Great Depression.  Despite their own unrealized college aspirations due to ranch duties, Grandma and Jesse ensured that all ten of their children had the opportunity to pursue higher education. Grandma’s legacy of advocacy and education continues through her descendants, including my daughter, whose middle name honors her remarkable great grandmother’s spirit of generosity and service.  

Pictured: Grandma and Grandpa with their first of 10 children.