 |
 |
Election Day 11/7/2006 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
BIOGRAPHY
 |
|
|
Please take a moment to read the information below. Joe and I have always been very
active in the community because we know we have been very fortunate. We are just as
dedicated to represent you in Jefferson City. I promise that I will work as hard and
as smart as I can to make the voice of the people of the 93rd District heard in Jefferson City.
I ask for your support, because Frankly, We Can Do Better!
I am a life-long St. Louis area resident. I currently reside in the Summit Heights subdivision
at Highway 30 and Summit in Southwest St. Louis County. I grew up in South
St. Louis and attended Rosati-Kain High School and St. Pius V Grade School.
I have been married to Joe Frank since 1995. My parents are Eugene & Arline
Schmiedeke, retired postal clerk and homemaker, respectively. We are unable to
have children, but are the doting aunt and uncle of Gabby, Keating, Vicente,
George, Anna, Julian, Jack & Matt. Our favorite hobbies are spending time with
the kids and going to Cardinals, Rams and Blues games. Click here to read more...
B.A. and J.D. Washington University.
Admitted to the Missouri Bar
October, 1996
- Staff Attorney with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Inc. (LSEM) from October, 1996 until June, 1999. Managing Attorney of LSEM's St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers Program and General Intake Unit from June, 1999 until November, 2005.
- May, 2003 until November, 2005, a member of a statewide Legal Services task force assigned to work on issues of statewide planning for the delivery of legal services.
- In 2003, co-authored the alternative proposal to consolidation of the four LS programs in Missouri. The plan resulted in a collaborative and client-centered approach to joint planning and service delivery by the four programs.
- Provide legal issues training for team leaders for laid-off union employees. Conduct extensive outreach and education for LSEM in the community as well as with the private bar and the area law schools.
- Fall, 2005 coordinated plan to deliver pro bono legal services to Hurricane Katrina evacuees who relocated to St. Louis.
- Chair of Bar Assoc's. Project Angel Tree, a holiday gift and party program for 3,000 children who are in foster care and/or have a parent in the prison system, co-sponsored with the St. Louis Rams.
- Volunteer Attorney providing legal counseling at the St. Louis Family Justice Center for people dealing with domestic violence.
- Member of St. Louis Public School's Career Academy Internship Program Advisory Board.
- Habitat for Humanity Family Partner.
- Member of St. Louis City Public Schools Drug Free Schools and Community Program Advisory Board.
- Twice elected Board Member of Junior League of St. Louis, 2003 and 2005.
- Recipient of 2000 St. Louis Business Journal Corporate Citizen Award.
- Recipient of 2005 CORO Community Leadership Award.
- Graduate of Focus St. Louis Leadership St. Louis Program.
- Two time recipient of Bar Association of Metro St. Louis Young Lawyer Award of Merit for service to the community.
I am a lifelong resident of the St. Louis area. I am the oldest of six children of Gene and
Arline Schmiedeke, a retired postal clerk and homemaker, respectively. I am married to Joe Frank
and we have lived in the Summit Heights subdivision in unincorporated Southwest St. Louis County
for eleven years.
When my siblings, my cousin and I were growing up, the adults in our family set an example that
taught us the importance of living a purpose-driven life. Growing up in South St. Louis City, the
central elements of our lives were faith, family and community. Through dedication to faith,
family and community, we were able to form the strong values that continue to guide us in our adult lives.
I believe these long-held values are reflected in the choices we have made. My sister Kathy is a
nurse and particularly loves caring for seniors. My cousin Julie is the mother of four beautiful
children (including my godson, 3-year old George), and she and her husband are both social workers
who work with people with severe mental illness. My brother Greg works in television production, but
he believes so strongly in my campaign that he has taken time off to assist me full-time as a volunteer.
My brother Tom and his wife Beth are teachers and the parents of 2-year old Gabby, who is my and Joe’s
goddaughter. I am very proud of Tom who teaches primary grades and was chosen as the Teacher of the
Year for 2005-2006 in his school district. My youngest sister and other goddaughter Liz, who is
disabled due to autism, is the light of our lives and continues to live with my parents. I am very
proud of all of them.
During my first year of law school, I reflected long and hard about what path I might take in my
legal career. I wanted to pursue a career which would reflect those long-held values. At the end of
the year, I was offered an opportunity to work for a program which provided legal assistance to very
low-income people with HIV and AIDS. In the early 1990’s, people with HIV and AIDS were dying at an
alarming, heart-breaking rate. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to live my values through my
work, and honor faith, family and community.
I worked in this program throughout law school and for several years after I graduated from law school.
Often, my clients were subjected to hatred and fear. However, working with people who were struggling
to live while often at the same time preparing to die, I was humbled by two things I consistently
witnessed: the resiliency of the human spirit and the strong faith in our unique system of justice.
It was an experience that changed my life forever. After a few years, I was promoted to a management
position with my employer. Part of my job was to coordinate a volunteer attorney program. In this
program, attorneys in private practice provided free legal representation to low-income and disabled
people and to seniors. Our clients were often victims of domestic abuse and consumer fraud. I again
witnessed over and over that faith in our justice system. I also witnessed the overwhelming generosity
of my professional colleagues.
When the opportunity arose to run for State Representative in the 93rd District I again found myself
reflecting on the best way to honor my long-held values. For so long, it had seemed that everywhere
I turned, someone’s life was being adversely impacted by decisions made in Jefferson City. I thought
about the seniors I had represented who lost critical medical equipment needed to remain in their own
homes. I thought about home and business owners in nearby neighborhoods, forced to sell the property
they had worked long and hard for, without adequate compensation. I thought about foster parents who
lost the stipend they needed in order to care for the children they had adopted, many of them with
special needs. I thought about friends who own small businesses who were struggling to stay afloat in
the face of escalating health insurance costs for themselves and their employees. I thought about the
constant threats to funding of our public schools. Although the decision was difficult, I left the job
I loved in order to pursue this opportunity to be a real voice in Jefferson City for the real people
who live, work and raise their families in the 93rd District and in Missouri.
No one running for any office has all the answers. But I do know we don’t get closer to the best answers
by throwing sound bites at voters, or using scare tactics and smear tactics to win elections. The only
way to be an effective voice for the people you represent is good, old-fashioned hard work: taking the
time to talk to those people, researching the issues, and taking the time to review and consider all the
potential consequences of any piece of legislation.
I am not afraid of hard work. A strong work ethic is another value instilled in me by my parents and my
grandparents. My Grandpa George was a truck driver and my Grandpa Clyde was a foreman in a foundry.
My grandmothers raised a combined total of 10 children during the Depression and World War II. My Dad
started working as a young boy, enlisted in the Marines after high school during the Korean War, and
worked for the Post Office until he retired and became a full-time volunteer at his parish. My mother
had worked in the home most of her adult life, but when our family needed additional income she taught
herself to drive and took a job at my sister’s Special Education school so she could earn extra money
and be near my sister at the same time. I worked my way through college and law school, often taking
night classes or working two and three jobs at a time. After I became a lawyer, I was proud to consider
myself a “street lawyer” because I was on the street, going where the people in need were: Nursing homes,
hospices, hospitals, adult day care centers, social service agencies, housing projects, etc. I worked
hard for my clients. They put their trust in me and they deserved my very best effort.
I consider running for State Representative to be a very long, intensive job interview. When the voters
of my district hire me to be the voice of the people of the 93rd District, I will work as hard as possible
for them and give them my very best effort. I will do so because that is what the people of my district
deserve. Frankly, We Can Do Better!
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
