CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (May 11, 2022)—The League of Women Voters Linn County names former Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston the 2022 Jean Oxley Contribution award recipient.

Linda Langston was a member of the Linn County Board of Supervisors for almost 14 years where she helped address a wide variety of issues related to marginalized communities. She served on a variety of boards (often as chair) including Linn County Public Health, East Central Iowa Council of Governments, and Metropolitan Planning Commission. She also served as a member of the ASAC board, involved with ARC, Heritage Agency on Aging, and many others. She remains a member of the Cedar Rapids Planning Commission and the Linn County Public Arts Commission where she serves as Vice Chair.

At the state level she served on the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Commission and presently serves on the state Continuum of Care board.

Nationally she served as the President of the National Association of Counties and her Presidential Initiative was Ready and Resilient Counties, assisting counties in being better prepared for disasters and better able to respond and recover from disasters when they did happen

Linda also served two terms on FEMA’s National Advisory Council. During her term she served on the subcommittee related to flood insurance and mitigation and encouraged investigation of how to better serve marginalized populations.

Linda also served on the National Academy of Sciences Resilient America Roundtable whose work encompassed anticipating how to better prepare communities to recover and respond to disasters. She served as chair of the Resilient America Roundtable for several years. She continues to serve as a part of the Societal Expert Advisory Network which endeavors to respond quickly to questions needing exploration for local communities and states particularly in response to COVID.

Linda has mentored many young people, particularly women in professional and political endeavors and continues to work with a variety of groups in the community to assist people of all ages, colors, and genders in being able to make a meaningful contribution.

The League established the award in 2021 with the support of the Oxley family to recognize individuals for significant contributions of service in Linn County. The late Jean Oxley was a long time League member, the first woman elected to the Linn County Board of Supervisors and still the longest serving supervisor. She is remembered especially for her efforts in securing funding for the ARC of East Central Iowa and her help in establishing the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center to ensure minors are separate from adults.

The League of Women Voters of Linn County is a nonpartisan, grassroots civic organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Membership in the League is open to people 16 years and older, of all gender identities. With 100 years of experience, the League is one of America’s oldest and most trusted civic nonprofit organizations

Groups form Cedar Rapids voter coalition to boost election numbers

Organizations work to bring people to polls despite 2021 voter law changes.

Thank you to the Gazette. Visit the ‘Story Information’ button for the complete story.

MAY 5, 2022 BY RADIO IOWA CONTRIBUTOR

A record number of Iowa high schools earned a state award this spring for significant achievements in registering students to vote.

Thank you to Radio Iowa for the story. To read more, please click the button.