- Collection:
- Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women's Movement Archives
- Title:
- Nurses for Comer [button], circa 1980s
- Creator:
- American Nurses Association
- Publisher:
- Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia State University Library
- Date of Original:
- 1980/1989
- Subject:
- Elections
American Nurses Association - Location:
- United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
- Medium:
- information artifacts
buttons (information artifacts) - Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- image/jp2
- Description:
- Nurse, activist, lobbyist, administrator, and pioneer, Mary Nathaniel Long was born in Guthrie, Kentucky, in 1941. She moved to Atlanta in 1960 to be trained at Grady Memorial Hospital's School of Nursing, from which she graduated in 1963. Following a brief marriage,Mary Long embarked on a distinguished career at the hospital. Starting as an ambulatory care nurse at Grady, she also gained extensive experience volunteering at Atlanta's free clinics and assisting local health organizations. In 1969, Grady Hospital, the cornerstone of the region's public health system, made an active effort to reach the greater Atlanta community by participating in Economic Opportunity Atlanta's health fairs. Mary Long was at the center of this effort, also helping to develop Grady's satellite clinics around that time. In 1971, Grady created a new department, Central Referral, which acted as a first contact and primary information resource for those unfamiliar with the hospital system, and as an advocate, assisting patients and families with policies and procedures so community members could receive the care they needed. Mary Long had developed the program, and was the first Coordinator of the Central Referral Department at Grady (her title later was Director of Community Health), a position she held until 1985. While working at Grady, Long began her extensive career of service to the Georgia Nurses Association (GNA), and its philanthropic organization, Georgia Nurses Foundation (GNF). An active member and chairperson of GNA's Governmental Affairs Commission, Long gained extensive experience lobbying the Georgia legislature, especially over key Medical Practice Act legislation in 1980. In 1981, she was elected President of GNA, the first African American to hold the position. She served two terms as GNA president, until 1985. A member of the City of Atlanta's Homeless Task Force, Long was instrumental in the partnership between the city and the GNF that, in 1984, led to the establishment of Atlanta's first clinic for the homeless. GNF eventually operated two clinics for the homeless in Atlanta and one in Athens before transferring their operation to St. Joseph's Mercy Care Services in 1998. She was a GNF Board member and served as its president. Long remained active in GNA throughout her career, through memberships in committees and task forces, chairing GNA's Political Action Committee (GN-PAC), and serving her local GNA district, District 5. In 1985, Long left Grady to take a position as Vice President for Legislative Affairs for the Arthritis Foundation, a national organization headquartered in Atlanta. In 1996, she was promoted to the Foundation's Group Vice-President for Public Policy and Advocacy, a position she held until 2002. At the foundation, Long coordinated lobbying and advocacy activities by supervising staff, overseeing the development of policy statements, and motivating and training staff and volunteers in chapters nationwide for involvement in the legislative process, both in their states and on the federal level. Long also was a figure on the nursing profession's national stage, occupying influential positions in the American Nurses Association (ANA) and American Nurses Foundation (ANF). She was twice elected to the ANA Board of Directors(in 1985 and 1987) and was elected ANA's Second Vice President in 1989. She served on numerous committees, task forces, and other ANA bodies, including, in 1990-1993, chairing the steering committee for ANA's ""Nurses on the Move"" Capital Campaign, which funded the move of the organization's headquarters from Kansas City to a new facility in Washington, D.C. The first minority woman to lobby the Georgia General Assembly, Mary Long chaired GNA's political action committee, GNA-PAC, and later served on the board of directors of the national ANA-PAC. In 1985, she co-authored a chapter on state government for the book Political Action Handbook for Nurses. However, Long's engagement with politics was not limited to health care issues. Active in the movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in Georgia and Secretary of the group ERA Georgia, Inc., in 1979-1980, Long was the first minority woman to win the Mamie K. Taylor Award for Outstanding Contributions to Human Rights and Women's Equality from the Georgia Women's Political Caucus. She was the first treasurer of the caucus's political action committee. Long managed several campaigns for Atlanta and Fulton County elective offices inthe late 1970s and early 1980s, and was a consultant to other candidates in Georgia. Appointed positions Long held included membership on the Georgia Judicial Nominating Committee, on which she was the first minority woman (1982-1998); the Georgia State Board of Architects (1979-1988), and the Georgia Women's Health Advisory Board(appointed 2000) and Minority Health Advisory Board (appointed 2002). Long served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in New York, 1992, and in 2005 became board chair of Georgia's WIN (Women In Numbers) List, a political action committee for Democratic women in the state. In addition to her distinguished careers in health care and advocacy and to her political activity, Long has an extensive record of service to local,regional, and national groups, including being the first African-American president of the YWCA of Greater Atlanta and membership on the boards of numerous community organizations, including the Atlanta Food Bank, Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, and the Atlanta Women's Foundation. She is also an active member of her church, Atlanta's Trinity United Methodist. Numerous professional and community organizations have honored Long with awards, including the Atlanta Urban League's Distinguished Service Award (1985) and the Atlanta Women's Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (2005). Long was a torchbearer for the Olympics held in Atlanta in 1996. Her peers in Georgia nursing honored Mary Long's accomplishments by naming a professional award after her. GNA bestows the Georgia Nurses Foundation Mary N. Long Award for Innovations in Nursing Practice to ""nursing pioneers who through their creative thoughts and actions, have made a difference for nurses and nursing in Georgia.""
- Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/coles/id/1700
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/iiif/2/coles:1700/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: W062_artifacts_01_004, Mary N. Long papers, Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women's Movement Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.
- Original Collection:
- SERIES IX: Artifacts, Textiles, Photographs, and Oversize Material
Mary N. Long papers
https://archivesspace.library.gsu.edu/repositories/2/resources/56
Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women's Movement Archives - Holding Institution:
- Georgia State University. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
