WOMENS HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATION
June 11, 2008
The Arizona Department of Corrections celebrated Women’s History Month in March with a buffet lunch at the Desert Garden Center in Phoenix.
The origin of Women’s History Month can be traced to Europe when in 1911 International Women’s Day was first celebrated on March 8. Then in 1987, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution establishing National Women's History Month.
This year’s theme nationally for Women's History Month Women’s Art: Women’s Vision, affords a special opportunity for us to honor the originality, beauty, imagination and many dimensions of women’s lives.
Here, at the Arizona Department of Corrections, women make up 36 percent of our workforce and we proudly salute the many women who are an integral and enduring part of our history.
This year, ADC staff were encouraged to make this celebration personal by nominating women who had served as an inspiration to them. The Department received over 50 nominations for the “Dudley Do-Right” awards and from that number, nine women were selected for being caught “Doing the right thing.”
(Click name to see bio)
CO IV Kyrna Ball joined the Department in January 2003 as a CO III at the ASPC-Lewis/Stiner Unit. In 2005, she transferred to ASPC-Perryville, Santa Rosa Unit, where she worked the next year. After her promotion to COIV in December 2006, she returned to ASPC-Lewis joining the Barchey Unit.
Ms. Ball has earned a reputation among her peers and with the population for her no nonsense and still, very fair approach to managing the inmate population. She works hard to ensure that the classification process is thorough, which is of course, essential to the safety and security of the unit. She also maintains the unit’s lockdown roster of inmates in detention and oversees the resolution of DI 67 requests.
Before CO IV Ball began working for the Department, she proudly served our country starting in 1987 as a Private First Class for the Arizona Army National Guard. She promoted to Staff Sergeant and then to lieutenant before her discharge in 1991. During her distinguished military career, she was assigned to Arizona Officer Candidate School and as an H20/Fuel Platoon Leader attached to the 167th Supply and Service Company. Her platoon was active in Arizona, California and South Korea.
Ms. Cunningham is the Pharmacy Technician and the EEO Liaison at ASPC-Phoenix, Alhambra Intake Center where she has worked for seven years. Her primary focus is filling prescriptions and with an average inmate intake of 200 admissions daily, this is no small task. She also oversees data entry, assists with unit inspections, interacts with medical staff, and makes an inventory of the pharmacy. Recently, she was asked to assist in designing a more efficient pharmacy database to enhance our cost savings efforts. Happy to help, she’s meeting weekly with the clinical pharmacist and pharmacy program manager at Central Office to develop this program. Ms. Cunningham is instrumental in keeping the pharmacy up and running as vacancies occur. Her positive relationships with staff also earned her place on the ASPC-Phoenix Employee Recognition Committee.
Shara’s enthusiasm for giving back to the community – far and wide – is impressive. Among her many charitable efforts she has served on missionary trips to Peru and Uganda/Rwanda to assist the local indigent population, and as a team leader for a Habit for Humanity trip to South Africa. She has also been active as a team leader for the National Youth Gathering and a group leader for the Celebrate Recovery: Pre-Covery Kids program to mentor children of recovering addicts. Ms. Cunningham manages to stay connected to all of these groups by attending conferences and various training sessions throughout the year.
Our gal also served selflessly for ten years in the Army National Guard Reserves leaving in 2001 as an E4 (Specialist 4).
When she is not traveling abroad on humanitarian missions, Ms. Cunningham enjoys contributing to her local community as an enthusiastic volunteer for Habitat Humanity building homes for the less fortunate.
CO II Anna Heaton, ASPC-Florence/East Unit
CO II Anna Heaton joined ADC in 1992 as a Clerk Typist II, promoting later that year to Administrative Secretary. In 1993, she changed career paths joining the ranks of the security series as a Correctional Officer II, serving at South and East units as work crew and shift supervisor.
In her current assignment at the East Unit, she has the critical task of running the yard, coordinating and controlling inmate movement and turnouts. She’s earned a reputation for making difficult decisions quickly promoting everyone’s safety and well-being. When not in charge of the yard, she works in the main control room managing movement in and out of the unit.
CO II Heaton’s delightfully infectious disposition is evident in her volunteerism on and off the job.
Currently she’s coordinating a drive to collect donated annual leave for a colleague, who is ill, her results enhanced by creative incentives programs to increase leave time collected as needed. She also served as the unit’s past Law Enforcement Torch Run representative. She has made outstanding contributions, expanding team building events at the unit, and encouraging her co-workers to donate to the adopted Christmas Family Toy Drive. CO II Heaton has also served as a member of the 2007 Inaugural Unit Improvement Committee.
A tireless officer who is always one of the first to volunteer for extra duties – even filling in for emergency transports – her plate is always full. There’s never a time that she hasn’t lifted the spirits of her co-workers.
When not a work, our gal has volunteered to chaperone a local high school group on an out-of-state field trip and is now planning a church mission to assist in the building of new homes for needy families. Officer Anna Heaton exemplifies the diversified woman who ably balances family, community and career. She is sustained and supported by her husband ADC Sergeant Gary Heaton and their children, Clinton, Mackenzie and Colton.
Administrative Service Officer II Marilyn Medearis’ tenure with the Department spans 16 years. She began her service to the state in February 1992 as a Fiscal Services Specialist I at ASPC-Safford. Just two years later she was promoted to Administrative Service Officer 1. Following her transfer to the Globe Unit in 1995, that position was re-classified to Administrative Services Officer II.
During her career, Ms. Medearis has accepted many roles including acting as the computer liaison during the unit’s transition from stand alone to network computers. This was a particularly challenging assignment as there was no information technology specialist to fill this position. She was an instant success researching the areas in need of new computers and overseeing the removal of outdated ones. Marilyn has come to the aid of many of our facilities participating on a number of audit teams to ensure compliance department-wide and, not surprisingly her exceptional knowledge of Business Office operations is respected statewide. She was also an active participant in the transition of food services from an ADC operation to a vendor, an activity earning her the Governor’s Office Award for Excellence. Marilyn never misses a beat when it comes to performing any duty in the Business Office – procurement, accounts payable, Inmate Banking, warehouse duties – all of which she is often called upon as a valuable resource to complete. She also has a well-deserved reputation for reorganizing and streamlining procedures to enhance cost savings.
After her busy days end, Marilyn serves as the treasurer and previously as the president of the Globe Lions Club known for collecting used eyeglasses for recycling to the residents of Globe. She also collects used medical equipment that is recycled and sent to Mexico where it is put to good use.
Captain Judi O’Brien is a leader whose work embodies the meaning and mission of our Department. Today, she serves as Chief of Security of the Barchey Unit where she has earned the respect of her colleagues as a valuable member of the Unit’s management team. She started her career in corrections in 1999 at ASPC-Yuma before transferring to ASPC-Lewis in 2001 where she has served with distinction at nearly all of the units, gaining valuable experience in security and operations. For example, our Captain is an active member of the ASPC-Lewis Crisis Negotiations Team since its inception in 2005 and a member of the Lewis Firearms Instructor Team since 2002. Before joining ADC, Judi worked as a park ranger in Michigan before moving here and then here in Arizona.
Judi is an enthusiastic supporter of the State Employees Charitable Campaign and gives generously of her time to its every fundraising effort. She also donates her time to the community, coaching softball teams, refereeing a senior citizens volleyball team, and teaching hunter safety classes to young children. Not surprising Captain O’Brien enjoys the outdoors and all of the opportunities that it affords including camping, fishing and hunting. She is an animal lover, too, sharing her home with three dogs and two cats.
Special education is a federally mandated service, one at which Special Education Teacher Karen Reynolds excels.
Our honoree has assessed and educated inmates with many different disabilities, modifying the general education curriculum and writing individualized education plan objectives to meet each disabled student’s needs. Our gal works with inmates performing at the elementary to secondary school levels and with inmates whose special education programs include language and speech impairments, emotional disturbance, specific learning disabilities, visual impairments, hearing impairments, combined blindness and deafness, orthopedic impairments and other health disabilities. She is exceptionally adept at the early identification and intervention of inmates with disabilities and special needs ensuring they receive critical education services as soon as possible.
Ms. Reynolds has earned a well-deserved reputation for developing individualized education programs for each special education student. She tailors personalized goals to each student's individual learning ability and style. She is also tops in the area of transition planning preparing inmates for postsecondary study; and works closely with the faculty and their minor students’ parents, together charting inmates’ progress. Karen possesses a strong belief that her students can and will reach their maximum potential. She constantly strives to “reach and teach” every student under their care.
Ms. Reynolds is very active in the community volunteering with her church and tutoring youths in an after school program.
