The Florida Commission on the Status of Women is proud to announce that Florida Governor Rick Scott will induct Mary Lee Nunnally Farrior, Evelyn C. Keiser, and Charlotte Edwards Maguire, M.D., into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame on Tuesday, March 24, 2015, at 6:00 p.m. in the Capitol Courtyard.
The induction ceremony is open to the public. All persons attending the ceremony are encouraged to arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the event. Please RSVP to rsvp@fcsw.net or by calling 850-414-3300.
The Florida Women's Hall of Fame recognizes women who, through their lives and efforts, have made significant contributions to the improvement of life for women and for all Floridians. We hope that you will enjoy learning a little more about the Florida Women's Hall of Fame.
Sincerely,
The Florida Commission on the Status of Women
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2015 Inductee
Mary Lee Nunnally Farrior
Mary Lee Nunnally Farrior of Tampa has a commitment to improving the lives of Florida's children that spans 55 years. Upon moving to Tampa in 1958, she began reading to underprivileged children. She continued to volunteer through the Junior League of Tampa, The Children's Home and The Spring of Tampa Bay while raising her own four boys, and supported education through her commitment to the University of Florida. Ms. Farrior's passion for helping children culminated in the founding of Mary Lee's House. A child advocacy assessment and protection center which houses multiple services in one location, Mary Lee's House has helped more than 12,000 abused and neglected children and has trained more than 2,500 individuals on how to identify and report child abuse since its opening in November 2008. The Center promotes the collaboration of professionals from all areas of child protection and minimizes trauma to the children and families it serves by offering multiple services in one location. Mary Lee Farrior has truly dedicated countless hours and resources to helping Florida's abused, abandoned, and neglected children.
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2015 Inductee
Evelyn C. Keiser
 Evelyn C. Keiser of Fort Lauderdale co-founded the Keiser School in 1977 with Dr. Arthur Keiser. She fondly recalls the first day the school opened. Her first and only student at that time arrived late and feared that she had disrupted the class. Ms. Keiser nervously told her, "it's OK dear, you are the class." They never dreamed that 38 years later their one student and one program start-up endeavor would grow into Florida's second-largest independent, regionally accredited university. Keiser University now serves the second-most Florida residents with 15 locations statewide. Nearly 20,000 students are pursuing associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in nearly 100 fields. At 91 years of age, Ms. Keiser is still the first to arrive at the main campus in Fort Lauderdale each morning. She sets the example that all students deserve the highest quality academic instruction. The top honor awarded to faculty members who have excelled in a proactive teaching approach focused on successful student learning outcomes is named the Evelyn C. Keiser Teaching Excellence Award. Ms. Keiser is a remarkable pioneer in higher education holding the positions of co-founder, instructor, program director, chairman of the board of advisors, and more. She took a calculated risk in co-founding a university decades ago because she believed there had to be a better way to serve career-motivated students, the state, and specifically the Florida communities in which her students learn, work and raise their families.
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2015 Inductee
Charlotte E. Maguire
Charlotte E. Maguire, M.D. earned her medical degree from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine in 1944, when women were not just an anomaly in medicine - they were unwelcome. Medical schools routinely rejected women applicants for no other reason than gender. Dr. Maguire was one of the first women to enter the University of Arkansas Medical School. Once she graduated, the local newspaper announced her return to Orlando as "Orlando's first girl doctor." That newspaper headline symbolized for Dr. Maguire the severity in America of the chauvinism that she and other women personally experienced as medical students and doctors. One of Dr. Maguire's proudest accomplishments was opening one of the state's first pediatric clinics in 1952. She went on to assist in the creation of Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and directed the state Crippled Children's Society. In 2000, at 82 years old, she became a driving force in the creation of the College of Medicine at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She remained an active and generous benefactor of the College of Medicine until her passing in 2014. Before helping start the College of Medicine at FSU, she was also on the committee to start the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, making her the only person to have had a hand in setting up both medical schools. Fittingly, she is often referred to as "the mother of FSU's medical school." For her to know that she went from being the first female doctor in Orlando to being able to provide scholarships for many young women (and men) to go to medical school today, made her hard work worthwhile. In addition to her medical school philanthropic work, she also cherished giving funds to build the Maguire Lifelong Learning Center at Westminster Oaks Retirement Center in Tallahassee so the residents and the community would have a place to keep their minds active as they grew older. During the last half of her long life, Dr. Maguire was known for her generous support of students in medicine and her encouragement that young women in medicine selflessly serve their patients.
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Florida Women's Hall
of Fame Committee
Elizabeth Pines, Chair
Nancy C. Acevedo
Susanne Hebert
Amy Kryak
Laurie Pizzo
Cindy Ross
Elena G. Spottswood
Anne Voss
Barbara Wall Thursby
Yvonne Fry,
Commission Chair
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