09 October 2009

Friends Honors 2009 Award Winners

The 2009 recipient of the Individual Friends of Iowa Civil Rights Award is Sharon Malheiro. Special Recognition goes to Reverend Robert Cook, Dr. Tom Narak and The Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center.

Sharon Malheiro

Sharon Malheiro is a senior shareholder of the Davis Brown Law Firm, where she practices in the areas of Employment Law, including employment discrimination litigation, and corporate employment policies and practices, as well as Media and Communications Law.

Sharon Malheiro is the person who has laid the groundwork and led the campaign for marriage equality in Iowa. She volunteered as co-council for the Alons v. Woodbury County “lesbian divorce” case and was an expert witness for the Varnum v. Brien case, the case in which the Iowa Supreme Court upheld Judge Robert Hanson’s decision saying that the Iowa Constitution’s equal protection clause prohibited different treatment between any two adults seeking to marry.

Ms. Malheiro is a community leader and has personally sacrificed her time, knowledge, experience, and resources to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community. She was able to gain the attention of Lambda Legal and convince them to challenge Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act.

According to Camilla Taylor, the lead staff attorney for Lambda Legal, “Sharon’s unparalleled experience and knowledge was key to the Varnum v. Brien case.” Ms. Malheiro has an extensive history of public service.

She is currently chair of One-Iowa, a state–wide organization seeking full equality for a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Iowa. She also provides pro bono legal counsel for the Aids Project of Central Iowa and is one of the cooperating attorneys for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Reverend Robert Cook

Reverend Bob Cook, a native of Dexter, Iowa, is a retired Presbyterian pastor. In 2001, at his request, he was commissioned as Designated Missionary to El Salvador for Des Moines Presbytery and moved to the mountain community of Berlin, El Salvador.

There he began to work with a seven member Parish Team made up of Salvadoran volunteers. Their work together grew into an organized program that soon became known as Our Sister Parish Mission.

The focus of the mission is the poorest of the poor who live in the 17 “cantons”--- or dirt floor home communities---which surround Berlin. He retired from the missionary position in 2006 and though retired, is now serving as Temporary Stated Supply Pastor at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Des Moines.

Prior to that he served as associate pastor at Cottage Grove Presbyterian Church where he also founded and directed CROSS Ministries for more than 18 years. He has an amazing commitment to social justice and is an advocate for all people.

Dr. Tom Narak

Dr. Tom Narak established a vision of cultural proficiency for the West Des Moines Community School District staff.

He set a district-wide goal to close the achievement gap in West Des Moines for minority and poor students and provided professional development for the administrative team on their accountability for the achievement of each student.

Dr. Narak provided leadership in the development and passage of the Iowa Anti-Bullying & Harassment legislation.

He invited groups of students to speak to each school’s faculty about concerns and suggestions from their perspectives as LGBT students and supported his staff and students as they offered educational opportunities exploring sexual orientation and peoples’ civil rights.

Annually Dr. Narak invites representatives from diverse groups within our community to address the district advisory committee about their experiences in our schools.

Even when he is on vacation he is helping others; each year he spends his spring break vacation time working in a school in an impoverished area of Mexico.

Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center

The First World War presented the initial opportunity for black soldiers as a group to become commissioned officers in the United States Army.

Although three black officers had previously graduated West Point and served bravely on the plains, skeptics toward the first black officer candidate class, including President Woodrow Wilson, argued that blacks lacked the intelligence and courage to lead troops in combat.

Of the 1,000 black college graduates and faculty, and 250 non-commissioned officers from the 9th and 10th Cavalry "Buffalo Soldiers," and 24th and 25th Infantry, who comprised the 17th Provisional Training Regiment at Fort Des Moines, 639 graduated as captains or lieutenants on 15 October 1917.

During the Second World War, Fort Des Moines hosted the formation of the first Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), later renamed the Women's Army Corps (WAC), training 72,000 troops and commissioning the first female officers for non-combat duty between 1942 and 1945.

The Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center honors the U.S. Army's first officer candidate class for African American men in 1917 and the establishment of the first Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942. The Museum also opens its doors to central Iowa, hosting engaging events, teaching the stories of African-Americans and women in the military, and conducting a variety of programming and education for students of all ages.