Rae Unzicker (b. Carole Renetta Engles, August 20, 1948 - March 22, 2001) was a civil rights activist and advocate for the rights of persons with psychiatric disabilities.
Biography
Unzicker was born in 1948, and grew up in Kansas.
MS 818, (Finding Aid), Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries (last visited Oct. 19, 2015). She suffered from a psychiatric disorder, which lead her parents to send her to many hospitals during her childhood years. She attended University of Kansas in 1966–1967, despite suffering a hospitalization during that year.
In 1979 she founded the South Dakota Mental Health Advocacy Project to work on the rights of psychiatric patients and persons with psychiatric conditions.
This project would be published to inform the public of the struggles arising for people with psychiatric disabilities. The project also provides education and support for those people in need. Some other purposes for the project are to advocate for better funding, improve public opinion of disabled people, and to provide comfort and support to the families of people with psychiatric disabilities.
Awards and recognition
* Outstanding Woman in America, 1987, ''Women's Day'' Magazine
* Appointed by
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
to
National Council on Disability
The National Council on Disability (NCD) is an advisory agency on disability policy in the United States for all levels of government and for private sector entities
NCD is an independent agency of the United States government headquartered in ...
, 1995
Notes
References
* "A Civil Rights Pioneer Passes: Tribute to Rae Unzicker, NARPA, ''The Rights Tenet'', Spring 2001 (available at http://scua.library.umass.edu/ead/mums818.html)
* "Rae Unzicker Papers, 1967-2000", Collection at
UMass Amherst, Special Collections and University Archives (finding aid available at http://scua.library.umass.edu/ead/mums818.html)
*"NAMI South Dakota." (2021, May 22). (available at https://namisouthdakota.org/about-nami-south-dakota/mission/)
*''"Rae Unzicker Papers, 1979-1997''." Rae Unzicker Papers, 1979-1997 - Digital Commonwealth. (n.d.). (available at https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/collections/commonwealth-oai:np1978385)
1948 births
2001 deaths
American disability rights activists
{{US-activist-stub