Please join us for a special session at 4:15pm on Saturday, May 14th, 2011 on
“Making a Difference for Children in Our Communities”
Amy Nicholls Swanson, CEO
Voices for Ohio’s Children
Mary Lou Langenhop, CEO
Children’s Hunger Alliance
Elizabeth (Libby) Ruppert, MD, FAAP
Pediatrician
Join Ohio’s premiere child advocacy experts for an interactive session about how we can
make a positive difference for the children in our lives and in our communities. This
informative session will both motivate and provide us with the tools needed to identify
ways we, as League members, can advocate for children as our experts connect the data
with our own experiences as parents, caregivers and community members.
This session was developed in partnership with the Ohio Children’s Foundation, whose
mission is to enhance the lives of children by providing grants to support services for at-risk
children and families, by helping prepare children for kindergarten, and by advocating for
public policy that will positively affect children’s lives.
www.ohiochildrensfoundation.org
Presenters for session: Making a Difference for Children in our Communities
Mary Lou Langenhop
CEO, Children’s Hunger Alliance
Ms. Langenhop is the CEO of Children’s Hunger Alliance, a statewide nonprofit agency dedicated to breaking the cycle of
childhood hunger through feeding hungry minds and bodies. Children’s Hunger Alliance directly feeds children nutritious
meals through child care homes and afterschool sites as well as increases access to nutritious food at schools, afterschool sites,
child care homes and summer feeding sites. CHA educates children and those that work with children about healthy eating
and physical activity to reduce the incidence of obesity and improve the quality of children’s food choices. She is excited to
bring her fulltime attention to this important work in Ohio.
Ms. Langenhop currently serves on numerous community Boards including the Community Shelter Board, the Champion of
Children Advisory Board, the Early Care and Learning Fund of the Columbus Foundation, the United Way Public Policy
Committee, and the vice chair of the United Way Health Impact Council. During her career she has served on many other local,
state, and national boards and committees.
Mary Lou Langenhop spent thirty years in progressively responsible positions in the public human services field. At 26, she was
one of the youngest people ever to be named to a middle management position in the Ohio Department of Human Services
and served in several different capacities. Simultaneously, she owned and operated a small business of carry-out pizza shops
and a restaurant. In 1987, at the age of 35, she became the Assistant Director (COO) of the Franklin County Department of
Human Services, the largest public agency under the county commissioners with over 800 employees, budgets exceeding $100
million, and multiple facilities. In 1998, she become the Director (CEO) of the agency, now the Franklin County Department of
Job and Family Services. During her tenure, the department became highly respected for its partnerships in the community
and its focus to customer service and to quality customer outcomes. She retired from public in December 2003.
After her retirement from public service, Ms. Langenhop was a partner in Hartford & Langenhop, Ltd. which specialized in
Strategic Conversations for non profit and for profit companies as well as public agencies. She was also a senior consultant with
Weidner, Inc. that develops Managing for Results programs for governmental entities around the country.
Amy Nicholls Swanson
CEO, Voices for Ohio’s Children
Amy Nicholls Swanson is Voices' CEO, chief advocate and voice to the community. In addition to overseeing the administration
and finances of the organization, Amy works closely with the Board and Voices members – more than 100 across Ohio – to
assure consistent, progressive organizational growth.
Amy works closely with child advocates throughout Ohio to advance Voices' legislative and budget agendas with the Ohio
General Assembly, state-appointed officials, Ohio's delegation to the U.S. Congress and local elected and appointed officials.
She works with Voices members to organize and prepare testimony, legislative briefings and updates for legislators and aides.
As Voices' Chief Advocate, Amy serves in leadership positions on many local and statewide committees dedicated to children's
well-being, including:
• Appointed member, State Board of Education, Early Childhood Subcommittee
• Appointed member, Ohio Family and Children First Council Advisory Committee
• Appointed member, Ohio Early Childhood Advisory Council
• Appointed member, Ohio Department of Health Infant Mortality Taskforce
• Appointed member, Cuyahoga County Exposed to Violence Governing Board
• Head coach, Ohio Alliance of YMCA's Partners in Healthier Communities grant
• Steering committee member, Groundwork.org, Ohio Early Care and Education Campaign
• Board member, Ohio Association for Infant Mental Health
• Member, Voices for America's Children Health and School Readiness Policy committees
• Member, National Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) Improvement Workgroup
• Past Chair, Build Ohio
• Past Chair, Voices for America's Children Membership Leadership Council
Prior to Amy's work at Voices, she served as Vice President for Burges & Burges: Strategists, where she worked on candidate
and issue campaigns, public sector marketing programs, research projects, community networking and grassroots organizing.
Beginning in 1996, Amy worked as a consultant for the National Center for Tobacco Free Kids and the Coalition for a Healthier
Ohio where she helped to build effective, statewide coalitions to prevent youth tobacco use. She worked with more than 120
partners from across Ohio to help secure $1.2 billion for Ohio's Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Foundation.
As a consultant, Amy also worked with the Trust for America's Health, a national program funded by the Pew Charitable Trust.
Her team assembled a coalition of nearly 45 partners across Ohio to promote the need for a nationwide disease tracking
system. Under Amy's leadership, they held several media events and public meetings, placed several public service
advertisements, and placed dozens of letters to the editor.
Before joining Burges & Burges, Amy worked for the Summit County Executive and Department of Development, where she
helped develop and implement comprehensive community housing and economic development plans. Amy has worked at the
state level in the Ohio House of Representatives and for a Pennsylvania State Senator, and at the federal level for a member of
U.S. Congress.
Amy holds a bachelor of arts in Political Science from the University of Akron with a certificate of Applied Politics from the Ray
C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, and a master's in public administration, also from the University of Akron. She lives in
Wadsworth with her husband, Eric, and their children, Holden and Carlin.
Elizabeth"Libby" Ruppert, MD, FAAP
Dr. Ruppert was born in Cleveland, Ohio. After reading the biography of Elizabeth Blackwell MD for a fourth grade book report
in Onaway Elementary School in Shaker Heights, she knew that she wanted to become a doctor. She completed high school in
1954 at Hathaway Brown and was awarded a BA from Tulane University in 1957. That fall she became a first year medical
student at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. In 1959 she married Richard D. Ruppert, her classmate, and they
graduated in 1961. They interned in Chicago at Rush Presbyterian. However, they both missed Ohio and returned in June
1962 to OSU, Dick for Internal Medicine and Libby for Pediatrics at Columbus Children’s Hospital. In 1976 she became
Professor of Pediatrics in recognition of her work as a teacher, clinician and innovator in The Pilot School, an independent
computer assisted education program for first and second year medical students. In 1977 the Ruppert family moved to Toledo
where Dick became the third president of the Medical College of Ohio and Libby established Comprehensive Children Services,
an innovative multi disciplinary clinical program for the evaluation, treatment and long term care of children with special
health care needs. This successful program served as an excellent teaching site for medical students and Pediatric residents.
In 1993 Libby became Emeritus Professor. In 1993 the EduCare Center was opened and quickly became regarded as a quality
site for early care and education for children with and without special needs. Within this building is the Prescribed Pediatric
Center, a medical day treatment program for children who are medically fragile and live at home. Dr. Ruppert was President of
Ohio Chapter of The American Academy of Pediatrics (1995-2000) and was recognized by the naming of the annual Pediatrician
Award as the Elizabeth S. Ruppert MD Award. She was the first woman Chair of United Way Board of Greater Toledo. She has
been awarded Alumni Achievement Awards from OSU College of Medicine and The Medical College of Ohio. Dr. Ruppert is the
mother of four daughters and seven grandchildren, the greatest of all accomplishments…