Category Archives: Adventures in Advocacy

Women’s Equality Day Is Here Again. Where Are You?

By Linda | August 26, 2013

Today is Women’s Equality Day. Again. You forgot? Never knew? Join the crowd. Why this day? The end of summer? Women’s suffrage. Passage of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution. And what have we done with that vote?
Not to be forgotten, Congresswoman Bella Abzug sponsored legislation in 1971 giving our president [...]

Also posted in Women at Work | Tagged gender equity, women's rights | 2 Comments

Bouncing Back Into the World of Academic Medicine–How this “Project” Chose Me?

By Linda | August 22, 2013

When the gender discrimination lawsuit settled with the University at Buffalo in 2007, I agreed to retire from the faculty (with my full retirement benefits like lifetime health and retention of my title although I could not use “emeritus” meaning with merit after my title of Full Professor of Otolaryngology and Pediatrics). So there went [...]

Also posted in On the Job | Tagged academic medicine, advocacay, women in medicine | Leave a comment

Last “Awareness” for April–Sexual Assault Awareness Month

By Linda | April 30, 2013

It was almost 14 years ago I learned about the “It Happened to Alexa” foundation. A family I knew took their 18 year old daughter to college. She had hopes and dreams. But they didn’t include a brutal rape. And certainly not the added brutality that a trial demanded she re-live to get justice but [...]

Posted in Adventures in Advocacy | Tagged battered women, date rape, It happened to Alexa foundation, Prostitution, rape, sexual assualt | Leave a comment

Advocacy in Disguise: A Parent’s View on Exploitation of the Vulnerable

By Linda | April 15, 2013

March was Trisomy Advocacy Month. How could I have missed that one? I hate to admit that I have a favorite trisomy, but it is true. Trisomy 21 a/k/a Down syndrome.
People with Down syndrome are increasingly integrated into the mainstream of life. And this is because parents and others have been incredibly successful in advocating [...]

Also posted in On the Job, Telling Stories | Tagged advocacy, Cancer research, Down Syndrome, Roswell Park Cancer Institute | 7 Comments

April is Autism Awareness Month. Step 2. Choose Your Impact Point

By Linda | April 10, 2013

People with developmental delays are increasing in number. Our societal response to integrating these people with dignity and compassion is critical to the welfare of all of us. But a society doesn’t respond. The individuals in a society respond. And that is how we move the needle so that change is effected. Everyone should have [...]

Also posted in Worthy Causes | Tagged advocacy, autism, developmental disabilities, political action | 1 Comment

April is Autism Awareness Month. Step 1. End Social Isolation, Talk with a Parent of an Autistic Child

By Linda | April 8, 2013

When I started practice 30 years ago, autism was not a problem I saw. No, it wasn’t that I didn’t recognize a child with autism, it was just very rare. And now a week doesn’t go by when I don’t treat or sadly “recognize and refer for diagnosis” a new child with autism. As a [...]

Also posted in Worthy Causes | Tagged advocacy, autism, social isolation | 1 Comment

Will the Real Feminist and Champion of Women’s Rights Please Stand Up? Part 3 of 3.

By Linda | March 21, 2013

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, writes a book and creates a program encouraging women in business to Lean In, to take risks, to move their careers by overcoming their own internalization of gender stereotypes that keep us down. Heavy press follows, and with it an (un)fair share of criticism. Jody Greenstone Miller, in the Wall [...]

Also posted in Women at Work | Tagged Face book, Feminism, Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg, women's rights, Yahoo | 4 Comments

Will The Real Feminist and Champion of Women’s Rights Please Stand Up? Part 2 of 3

By Linda | March 20, 2013

Yesterday we highlighted Sheryl Sandberg’s feminist niche–creating women leaders to change the workplace. In reaction to the media blitz for her book, another point of view was heard from Wall Street Journal columnist and business entrepreneur, Jody Greenstone Miller, President of her own Business Talent Group. She believes that women need more of the right [...]

Also posted in Women at Work | Tagged Gender bias, Jody Greenstone Miller, Leadership, Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg | Leave a comment

Excessive Exercise Can Be UnHealthy for Our Kids!

By Linda | March 5, 2013

What gives? There is a raging obesity epidemic out there. Too little exercise=computer potato. But too much exercise? What harm? As it turns out, more than meets the eye: sleep disordered breathing and sleep apnea, acid reflux disease, eating problems, mood disorders and headaches.
How is this possible? Isn’t exercise good for our kids? Of course. [...]

Also posted in On the Job | 2 Comments

Childhood Obesity: Education, Exercise and Elimination of School Snacks

By Linda | February 20, 2013

More than one-third of the children I see in my practice are obese. Granted, my practice is skewed because we deal with a number of problems in which obesity takes a major role, e.g. obstructive sleep apnea and extra-esophageal reflux disease (reflux from the stomach that comes up into the airways). At least twice a [...]

Also posted in On the Job | Tagged children, exercise, food, Obesity, school lunches | 6 Comments