Anna Lalor Burdick

Anna Lalor Burdick (September 3, 1869 – April 20, 1944) was an Iowan educator and special agent for the U.S. Department of Education who advocated for vocational education for women. Her work is honored and continued by the Lalor Foundation and Burdick Career High School in Washington, D.C.

Career Burdick taught from school to school, but she stayed in the Des Moines area. After graduating from University of Iowa in 1889, she taught at West Des Moines High School until 1891. She became the principal of Iowa Falls High School in 1894 and kept her position for three years.

On September 25, 1912, she presented "The Re-Organization of Our Educational System to Fit the Social and Industrial Needs of the Community" at the Better Iowa Schools Commission. The Commission later on described it as "one of the most attractive features" that presented "much interesting material". Three years later, the Federal Board for Vocational Education published two editions of her work under the same name. She was honored for her work with a banquet in Los Angeles in 1936, and remained at the U.S. Department of Education until her retirement in 1939. She died in April 1944.

Legacy

Lalor Foundation Burdick's legacy is best remembered through the Lalor Foundation's Anna Lalor Burdick Program. The program isn't necessarily focused on women's vocational education, but on pro-choice reproductive health information. Their mission statement says they're dedicated to "young women who have inadequate access to information regarding reproductive health, including the subjects of contraception and pregnancy termination, and as such may be particularly lacking options in their lives". It was later renamed and started to allow boys to enroll before it closed in 1996. The building still stands, but is now used for the Gladys and Benjamin Amos Campus of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy Public Charter School.

University of Iowa The University of Iowa honors her on campus through the Anna Lalor Burdick alcove in Shambaugh Heritage Library.