MAPE members take leading roles at Women in Public Service Conference Jettie Ann Hill receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Hundreds of women, many of them MAPE members, were at Hamline University last week to participate in the Women in Public Service Conference. MAPE members were on the planning committee, served as panelists and moderators and received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Sixty members were granted MAPE scholarships to attend the popular conference.

This year’s theme was Harnessing Power and Influence: Advocating for Yourself and Others. Local 2101’s Nicole Juan, a health care compliance specialist at the Dept. of Human Services, and Region 7 Director Ellena Schoop, a systems architect with MNIT, served on the conference planning committee.

Photo at right: (left to right) Local 1101's Jettie Ann Hill and Local 2101's Nicole Juan after Hill received Lifetime Achievement Award at Women in Public Service Conference.

Local 1101’s Jettie Ann Hill received a Lifetime Achievement Award for her commitment to public service. Hill, a MAPE member and leader for more than 25 years, chaired the statewide Government Relations Committee, co-founded the union’s Women’s Committee, led the campaign to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. She currently serves on the Minnesota DFL’s State Central Committee.  

For decades, Hill has fought tirelessly for families and against disparities and inequities in child protection in her role with the Office of Ombudsperson for Families. 

Juan said Hill has been a role model and mentor for her since she began working in state government in 2015. She said she nominated Hill for the award because “Jettie Ann has been highly active in her union and her community, and this commitment is infectious. Her work has led to increased political engagement from state employees, and positive outcomes for our union brothers, sisters and siblings. She is a strong advocate for equal rights, women’s rights in the workplace, in the union and in political parties.”

MAPE Executive Director Lina Jamoul said the award was well-deserved. “Jettie Ann Hill is an accomplished and passionate public servant, union leader and community volunteer. She will always keep going in the face of adversity and I appreciate her advice to younger union leaders to ‘always keep going.’ She has inspired everyone in our union through her commitment to workers’ rights,” Jamoul added.

Photo at left: Jettie Ann Hill speaks before receiving Lifetime Achievement Award  at Women in Public Service Conference.

Hill was visibly moved when she accepted the award, "I am honored and humbled. Most often, we don't get many opportunities to tell women doing this kind of work that 'I see you.' I recognize what you're doing and I appreciate what you're doing. These opportunities are far and few, but necessary for women to acknowledge each other -- regardless of whether we agree with each other. In fact, particularly if we do not agree with each other." 

“I thank you for your love. I thank you for believing. I thank you for never, ever giving up. I thank you for seeing me,” Hill concluded.

Photo at right: Region 7 Director Ellena Schoop speaks while on a panel at the conference.

Schoop was a panelist in the Harnessing Your Power to Change Public Policy. Schoop told the group, “Let me put my MAPE hat on. Some of my colleagues had some awful bosses. So, at MAPE, we established a task force, developed strategies and built a campaign to make managers more responsible for how they treated workers. MAPE was the first union to include anti-bullying language in a contract. We can build upon the Respectful Workplace Policy to make sure managers treat their employees right.”  

Schoop also moderated the Filling the Gap: Partnerships to Engage Underserved Communities.