AAUW Las Cruces hosts Monthly Meetings with varying programs of interest to all ages!  Each program is carefully planned and always quite interesting.

ALL are welcome, regardless of AAUW membership status.

Meetings are held the second Saturday, September through June at the DACC Workforce Center, 2345 Nevada Ave. The program begins at 10:00 am preceded by a “social time from 9:30 – 10:00 am.

May 11, 2024

LeeAnn will present on Trauma Informed Care (TIC). TIC is a healthcare approach that assumes most people are impacted by trauma and recognizes that healthcare encounters can be re-traumatizing. We will learn how to request TIC for ourselves and our loved ones to foster a relationship of choice, collaboration, and connection. Lee will present on the New Mexico Ombudsman Program. Ombudsman are dedicated volunteers who visit residents in long-term care facilities, nursing homes and assisted living facilities and offer residents a means to voice their concerns and have their complaints addressed.

LeeAnn lives on the outskirts of Las Cruces in a classic adobe motor lodge surrounded by pecan trees with her artist/husband Glenn Schwaiger and two dogs. She worked as a pediatric physical therapist for nine years before chronic health issues prevented her from continuing. As a survivor of childhood trauma, she has become adept at navigating the healthcare system and advocating for TIC. LeeAnn offers a unique perspective informed by her experience in healthcare and as a patient. In 2023, she coauthored an article for the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology about TIC.

Lee has been a volunteer ombudsman for 20 yrs. She has a BA and MS in analytical and organic chemistry and is licensed as a registered nurse. She has worked for the US Geological Survey and volunteered as an EMT. She has used all her people skills as an ombudsman advocating for people in assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Elders fear going into a facility as “a place to die” but ombudsman have worked extremely hard to make facilities a place to be safe and a place to enjoy their twilight years.