Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson is taking her victory lap before stepping down from 30 years of representing the 30th Congressional District of Texas. The latest accolade for her is the 2023 Texas Trailblazer Award, which will be presented at The Family Place fundraising luncheon on Friday, September 23, at the Omni Dallas Hotel.
According to The Family Place CEO Mimi Crume Sterling, “Congressman Johnson’s perseverance, initiative and leadership are markers of a true trailblazer. She has blazed a trail for future generations of girls as a woman of many firsts in her esteemed career. She truly embodies what it means to be a trailblazer. When it came time to decide who would be our first Texas Trailblazer under my leadership, I knew she should be that first.”
Even before running for public office, she was a trailblazer when she became “the first female African American Chief Psychiatric Nurse at the V.A. Hospital in Dallas.” She followed that up “in 1972, when she became the first Registered Nurse elected to the Texas State House and achieved the same distinction upon her election to the Texas Senate in 1986.” Since being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992, she not only was the first African American and female to chair the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, she is also the highest-ranking Texas on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and introduced the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act in 2020 that receive bipartisan support resulting in the national 988 hotline that went live this past month.
Having served a half century in public office, she will be 87 years old when she officially retires in January. If you want to be part of the celebration of this trailblazer, you can get your ticket here.
* Photo provided by The Family Place