Karen Krause
Template:TOCnestleft Karen Krause...died October 2013 in Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Toledo. She was 73.Surviving are brothers Keith Krause, Richard Krause, and David Krause; foster children, Tony Gecik, Daniel Hasen, Lisa Hasen, and June Hasen, and several foster grandchildren. [1]
Background
After graduating from Toledo's Whitmer High School, Karen received her nursing training from the Maumee Valley Hospital School of Nursing. She went on to obtain her undergraduate degree from the University of Toledo and a Masters of Public Health Degree from the University of Michigan. She also attended the University of Toledo Law School.
Karen Krause began her public service on the front lines, as a public health nurse with the Lucas County Health Department. Though her jobs changed, Karen never left the front lines in service to Ohio's vulnerable people. Karen became the Director of Nursing for the Lucas County Health Department in 1967 and remained at the helm until 1993. During part of those years she also served as a consultant to the Ohio Department of Health. Her advice and counsel was sought by many as an expert on matters of health care.
Following her ``retirement from the health department, Karen became the principal consultant at Community Health Consulting. She also served as Executive Director of the Mildred Bayer Clinic for two years. Rounding out her public service, Karen lent herself as Executive Director of Toledo District Nurses Association, Ohio AFL-CIO NWO Retiree Coordinator, Ohio Health Policy Consultant in the 2004 Presidential Campaign, Social Justice Chair of Toledo Area Jobs with Justice, and as President of AFSCME Retirees in Wood & Lucas Counties. All the while she has served 32 different organizations in various ways. She has been wise counsel to myself and many others, sharing her knowledge of health care Page E1160 and the need for affordable, available coverage. As if that isn't enough, Karen has also given to our community as a one of the most capable and caring elected officials, having served on the Lucas County Educational Service Center since election in 1999 and on which she has served four terms as Board President.
Throughout, Karen has opened her heart and home to others. Those young people are now grown with children of her own, and Karen is now a proud grandma. We share with her family our pride in her accomplishments and in the receipt of the honor most recently bestowed. The Barbara Klass Sokol Award is a special award and this year it has been given to a very special woman.[2]
Activism
Karen Krause, who was a registered nurse and a co-chairman of the Toledo Area Jobs with Justice & Interfaith Worker Justice Coalition,
Ms. Krause was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in March, said Bob Lynn, her close friend and fellow co-chairman of the Jobs with Justice organization.
“Karen was a special person who always put others before herself. She fought for the disadvantaged and passionately believed that all of Northwest Ohio’s citizens should have access to health care. Her passing is a great loss and she will be missed,” said U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Cleveland).
As a member of the central and executive committees of the Lucas County Democratic Party, Ms. Krause was very active in local and state politics.
She was elected to the Governing Board of the Education Service Center of Lake Erie in 1999 and served 14 years on the board also known as the Lucas County Board of Education.
Ms. Krause was a graduate of Whitmer High School, the school of nursing at Maumee Valley Hospital, and the University of Toledo.
She received a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan and attended UT’s Law School.
A registered nurse by trade, Ms. Krause spent many years working for both the Ohio Department of Health and the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department.
She was the first HIV/AIDS program director in the area.
“In the early days of HIV and AIDS, Karen was on the front lines trying to change how people felt about that,” Mr. Lynn said.
The Rev. Larry Clark, pastor at Sylvania First United Methodist Church and faith chairman for Jobs with Justice, said Ms. Krause traveled around the state working on health-care issues.
Part of that work included serving as director of a free homeless health clinic in Toledo, he said.
“She retired early so she could devote herself full-time to social justice work,” he said.
In recent years, Ms. Krause devoted much of her drive and energy to the Jobs with Justice organization.
She and Mr. Lynn organized the Toledo chapter in 2002 and served as co-chairmen. The volunteer organization has been involved in several local campaigns for workers’ rights, including a drive in 2010 to urge Sunoco to change its policy about hiring out-of-state workers at its East Toledo Refinery.
“The local chapter will go on without her but she will be hard to replace,” Mr. Lynn said.
Her brother Richard Krause, said her compassion included her family and that she saved him from a “life on the streets.”[3]
Jobs with Justice
In 2009 Karen Krause was Toledo contact for Ohio State, Jobs with Justice.[4]
Health Care for America Now (HCan)
As of Sept 2009 Karen Krause was Ohio State contact [5]for Health Care for America Now, representing HCAN Director.
References
- ↑ The Blade 10/23/2013 Karen Krause [1940-2013]; Jobs with Justice leaderwas early AIDS worker BY MARLENEHARRIS-TAYLOR]
- ↑ The Constituent, Recognizing Karen Krause, Progress Ohio's Barbara Klass Sokol Award Winner by Representative Marcy Kaptur Posted on 2013-07-30
- ↑ The Blade 10/23/2013 Karen Krause [1940-2013]; Jobs with Justice leaderwas early AIDS worker BY MARLENEHARRIS-TAYLOR]
- ↑ Jobs with Justice website: Local Coalitions (accesesed on Oct. 11, 2009)
- ↑ http://www.acorncracked.com/documents/HCANSTATECNTACTS1.15.09.pdf