Sylvia

CLICK HERE***Sylvia was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended the U of Missouri at Columbia. Further study at the St. Louis campus followed - after her three children were in school.She joined the League of Women Voters in 1970 and as a board member chaired the state study on Juvenile Justice. Sylvia, long interested in population and family planning, organized one of the first Zero Population Growth chapters in the country. Planned Parenthood of St. Louis asked her to serve on their board and as an active volunteer there was tapped to serve on President Nixon’s Title X Family Planning Council for three years. Sylvia became the coordinator of the Family Planning Information Center, a hotline and resource center sponsored by Title X and Planned Parenthood.In 1977 she joined the staff of Reproductive Health Services as the Health Rights Advocate and developed an education program for families and friends of patients. She wrote "Involving Significant Others," A Health Rights Advocacy Program Guide still used today in clinics throughout the country.In 1980 she acted as Campaign Manager for the John B. Anderson Presidential Campaign for the St. Louis area.Sylvia and her husband moved to San Diego in 1987 where she bacame active in LWV again, chairing the school-based health center study and serving as president from 1994-96, followed by the presidency of the County LWV for two years.She is currently the California League’s Management Training Advisor for San Diego County. As president of the Coalition for Quality Health Care since October 1996, a community organization she helped preserve Sharp HealthCare as a not-for-profit, and oppose their take-over by Columbia HCA. It has since become HCA/CA (Health Care for All CA/ San Diego Chapter.)Appointed to the county Regional Healthcare Advisory Council and the Project Management Committee for Improving Access to Healthcare project, Sylvia has worked to provide access to healthcare coverage to the 650,000 uninsured in San Diego County. She also serves on the Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board for San Diego, the Asthma Coalition of the Lung Association, San Diegians for Health Care Coverage and the Envision San Diego Health Care Task Force.Sylvia’s husband Bill is a retired high school principal and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Education at the former United States International University in San Diego and the former 5th district representative to the County School Board. They have three children and six grandchildren. Sylvia writes a monthly column for the Rancho Bernardo Sun & Diamond Gateway Signature newspaper.