The Santa Monica Commission on the Status of Women (COSW) presented its first “Outstanding Woman Leader” award last Wednesday to Mimi Lind, founder of the Safe Families Domestic Violence intervention Program at Venice Family Clinic and past director of the Westside Domestic Violence Network.
The new award will be given quarterly by the Commission to a woman who has demonstrated exceptional personal and/or professional dedication to improving the lives of women and girls in Santa Monica.
“We are privileged to honor Mimi Lind with the Commission’s first Outstanding Woman Leader award,” said Tia Skulski, Chair of COSW. “Mimi has devoted her professional and personal life to empowering women who are victims of domestic violence and has made a great impact on the way medical and community organizations in Santa Monica and Westside Los Angeles serve victims of domestic violence.”
Lind is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who specializes in victims of trauma and domestic violence. In the early 1990s, she founded one of the first hospital-based domestic violence programs in the country at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. After arriving in California in 1994, she established the Safe Families Domestic Violence Intervention Program at the Venice Family Clinic, where she continues to train medical professionals across Santa Monica and Los Angeles to screen effectively for domestic violence.
As part of her efforts to bridge the medical and domestic violence communities, Lind recently served as the Director of the Westside Domestic Violence Network, which aims at improving community collaboration by providing trainings and professional task forces to the staffs of local agencies who serve victims of domestic violence.
“I am so honored to receive the Outstanding Woman Leader award,” said Lind. “Even though women have made large strides in regards to human rights, entities like the Commission on the Status of Women are extremely important in ensuring women’s safety in the community and, unfortunately, in the home.”
Council member Kevin McKeown, said, “The Outstanding Woman Leader award is an important way to honor the incredible accomplishments and contributions that women have made on behalf of women and girls in our city. I am grateful that the Commission on the Status of Women has instituted this recognition.”The purpose of Santa Monica Commission on the Status of Women is to enhance the status of women in the community. To that end, it develops and advocates policies relevant to women and girls, as well as creating leadership and career advancement opportunities for women and girls in the community.
