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Mom Crusades for Social Justice and Environmental Reform: Tina Williams’ Case

Welcome to the Hot Mommas Project Learning Series where we showcase a Hot Mommas Project case selected by a student team member or guest.  The series is targeted toward educators and leadership groups seeking authentic role models in addition to business/career lessons.  A complementary podcast accompanies each blog post.  Episodes feature interviews with Hot Mommas Project founder Kathy Korman Frey and student contributors.

Student contributor: GW student and Hot Mommas Project intern Madison Cooke.

Featured case: Tina Williams’ “An Every Day Erin Brockovich

Case themes include: social justice, professional accountability, personal accountability, and environmental reform.

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Click here to listen to the online version of the podcast with Kathy Korman Frey and Madison Cooke. Click here to listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.

Case excerpt and discussion starter by Madison Cooke:

“Get out of the house! Get the kids and get out of here right now! Run! Don’t go downstairs! Just get out of here!” Tina heard her husband, Jack, frantically screaming as he came up from the basement. The next thing Tina remembered was seeing him storming around opening windows, propping open the doors and mumbling something about getting the fans out of the garage as he shoved her, the three babies and their St. Patrick’s Day meal into the car and directed Tina to go straight to their inlaws.

Jack was acting crazy and Tina was feeling very dizzy and nauseous. Was she scared or was it something else? As confused and scared as Tina was at that moment, it was nothing compared to the events of the next several weeks that would change everything about her and her family’s life as they had known it for the worse…and for the better.

They say, ‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned’.”

Erin Brockovich has been my all time favorite movie since the first time I saw it. I saw a strong, inspirational women who fought against the odds to do what was right for all the people hurt by the company’s toxic waste while also taking care of her family and instantly realized that she was the type of person I hope to one day become. As great a role model as Erin Brockovich is there is one inspirational woman, named Tina Williams, who I had the honor of reading her Hot Mommas Project case study, gets up every morning to fight for social justice, and her family to ensure that no one else will ever have to suffer the same way her family and herself now suffer. Ms. William’s case study, “An Everyday Erin Brockovich” truly encompasses the courage, passion, and determination that brings people success in their personal and professional lives. Ms. Williams decided to use her experience with chemical poisoning to not only fight for the rights of her family, but to also fight to prevent anyone else from suffering from chemical poisoning as well by creating her business Best Reflections Marketing, which, “focuses on developing the KLT Factor, ethics and accountability in business through social marketing, ” and founding a support group called From Poisoned to Prosperity to help others who have been effected by chemicals know there is life beyond exposures. I think a lot of people in today’s world choose to see the bad and wallow in self-pity instead of get up and do something to change it where Tina Williams choose to focus on how she can use her experience to help others. Thanks to Tina Williams people everywhere are discovering that they too can become a modern day Erin Brockovich.

I hope that you will take the time out of your busy schedule to read Tina Williams’ case study or any of our other Hot Mommas Project cases by going to www.hotmommasproject.org. Or, if you know any dynamic women, nominate them as Hot Mommas at support@hotmommasproject.org.

Summary:

To use Hot Mommas cases in a learning, training, or book club environment:

  1. Read this blog post and Tina Williams’ case, “An Every Day Erin Brockovich.”
  2. Listen to the podcast online or on iTunes.
  3. Discuss!

You can find other cases in this series by clicking “Role Models in the Classroom” under the Categories heading in the right column of this blog.