Deborah Tucker is an American activist and executive who founded the first shelter in the United States for victims of domestic violence and their children. In 2014, she was inducted into the

Texas Women's Hall of Fame The Texas Women's Hall of Fame was established in 1984 by the Governor's Commission on Women. The honorees are selected biennially from submissions from the public. The honorees must be either native Texans, or a resident of Texas at the time of th ...

Work and activism

While she was in her twenties, Tucker began volunteer work at the first rape crisis center in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

in 1973. In that same year, she became employed by the center as Assistant Director, and worked in that position until 1975. She went on to co-found the Austin Center for Battered Women, and was the executive director of the center for five years from 1977 until 1982. This center was the first in the United States to serve victims of domestic violence and their children. In 1982 she was the first executive director of the Texas Council on Family Violence. She held the position until 1996. In 1998, Tucker and Sarah Buel founded the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence to advocate for issues related to domestic violence at the national level in the United States. Tucker helped to pass the

Violence Against Women Act The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, ) signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investi ...

by acting as the founding chair of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. She also participated in the Department of Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence. She served from 2000-2003 as the co-chair of the task force, as appointed by then-president

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and then-Secretary-of-State Donald Rumsfeld. She currently serves as the executive director of the National Center for Domestic Violence. For her work, Tucker has received numerous honors and awards, including Public Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers, and the Standing In The Light of Justice Award and the Marshall Domestic Violence Peace Prize both by the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Further resources

A video interview with Deborah Tucker about her work

An interview with Deborah Tucker about domestic violence in the military

An essay by Tucker about the Violence Against Women Act

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Deborah Living people Anti-domestic violence activists Activists from Texas Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women