GFWC Recognizes Anna Claire Vollers for Excellence in Journalism

June 15, 2023

Washington, DC, June 15, 2023 — During the 2023 GFWC Annual Convention, June 10-12, in Louisville, the prestigious Jane Cunningham Croly Award for Excellence in Journalism was presented to Anna Claire Vollers, a reporter, of Reckon News, which covers national issues through the lens of historically marginalized communities.

GFWC International President Deb Strahanoski recognized Vollers’ work for “capturing the courage, vision, and spirit of Jane Cunningham Croly,” GFWC’s founder.

“Jane Cunningham Croly was a pioneering journalist who devoted her life to helping women improve their lives and expand their rights,” said Deb Strahanoski, GFWC International President. “Today’s award winner Anna Claire Vollers embodies the very essence of this award as reflected in her article; Alabama wants to make birth centers harder to open. Midwives and birth workers are pushing back, published on September 1, 2022, reporting on the merits of low-risk pregnant people having the right to decide how they want to give birth.”

“As a mother, I experienced my own difficult birth and don’t want other women or families to go through the same,” said Anna Claire Vollers. “I spent the past year on a reporting project exploring how integrating midwives and other community birth workers might be one way to improve the health of women and babies in my state.

“In this story, I explored proposed state regulations that could limit women’s choices in birth care, and I spotlighted women who are advocating for evidence-based birth options that could improve birth outcomes, particularly for women of color. Ultimately, work remains to be done. No one solution will fix all the problems contributing to our country’s maternal health crisis. But I believe that these groups of women will ultimately succeed, because in my 18 years of reporting, I’ve seen this happen before: Women band together and they don’t stop working until they make their corner of the world a little bit better for the ones coming behind them.”

Vollers reports on family policy and working parents, and often covers maternal health, childcare access, healthcare, and politics. She lives in Huntsville, Alabama, with her husband and their three sons.