On Tuesday, March 29, you are invited to hear Becky Sykes, President, Dallas Women’s Foundation, present “Gendering the Texas Budget: State Priorities as if Women and Children Mattered” from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in the McDermott Lecture Hall (Room D1.602). Everyone is welcome to attend, and pre-registration is not necessary. A light lunch will be served.
This forum is co-sponsored by the Library, Women in Science and Medicine Advisory Committee, University of Texas School of Public Health/Dallas Regional Campus, UT Southwestern Department of Psychiatry, and other campus organizations. The host for the event will be Patrice Vaeth, Dr.P.H., professor of health promotion and behavioral science, UT School of Public Health.
Sykes and her colleagues at the Foundation, along with researchers from the Center for Public Policy Priorities, have prepared a gender responsive analysis of the current year Texas budget. This analysis examines the state’s $182.5 billion budget through a gender lens, focusing on the impact of fiscal policy on the health, safety, education, and economic security of women and girls in Texas.
With the legislature contemplating significant cutbacks in health and human services funding, this innovative look at the state budget provides fresh insights into tough policy questions. For example, Sykes’s carefully documented analysis reveals that “women and girls in Texas have, at every stage of life, among the worst health care access in the U.S. Overall, 23 percent of Texas females have no health insurance, putting the state at 50th in the nation in terms of access to health care.”
Sykes was named President and CEO of the Dallas Women’s Foundation in March 1999 after a lifetime of civic leadership, including years with the Dallas League of Women Voters, Junior League, and City of Dallas Planning Commission. It is now the largest of the 150 women’s foundations around the world. The Foundation grants more than $2 million annually to local programs that benefit women and girls. She is a trustee of Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where she was honored with a Distinguished Alum Award. She has also received the Athena Award from the Dallas Regional Chamber, as well as other recognitions. She is on the Advisory Council of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the University of Indiana.
Patrice Vaeth, Dr.P.H., is assistant professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences at the UT School of Public Health/Dallas Regional Campus. She received her doctorate of public health from the School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Vaeth also completed NIH-funded fellowships in alcohol epidemiology and cardiovascular disease epidemiology. Her research interests include gender and ethnic disparities in health and alcohol epidemiology.
For information, contact John Fullinwider by email at john.fullinwider@utsouthwestern.edu or by phone at 214-648-3801.