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90_HR0253
LRB9007498KBkbA
1 HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3 Representatives wish to congratulate Dr. Gloria Jackson Bacon
4 on fulfilling a dream; and
5 WHEREAS, Dr. Bacon has devoted her entire career to the
6 practice and administration of community medicine; the
7 development of The Clinic in Altgeld, Inc. being the most
8 tangible of her efforts; her hard work, perseverance, and
9 vision have been crucial in The Clinic's evolution from a
10 private physician practice to a comprehensive, multi-site
11 outpatient health care organization serving more than 10,000
12 residents of the south side of Chicago; and
13 WHEREAS, Dr. Bacon founded The Clinic in 1970 to serve
14 the health needs of residents of the Altgeld Gardens public
15 housing development after her numerous attempts to obtain
16 increased State and local public health funding to the area
17 failed; begun as her private medical practice, she converted
18 it to a nonprofit organization in an effort to build an
19 organization that would ensure that quality health care was
20 always available to the Altgeld community; The Clinic has
21 been a pioneering model of community-based care for a poor,
22 medically underserved community, providing a range of primary
23 health care services, preventive health screenings, health
24 education, and social services; and
25 WHEREAS, Under Dr. Bacon's leadership, The Clinic has
26 played a pivotal role in reducing community health status
27 indicators such as the infant mortality rate, which has
28 declined more than 70% between 1970 and 1990; throughout that
29 period, the organization provided services for an average of
30 17,000 patient visits without government or philanthropic
31 support; with the rapidly changing health care environment it
32 became obvious that both these sources of support, plus a
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1 broader management structure, would be necessary for the
2 organization to grow to meet the rapidly expanding needs of
3 the communities the organization now serves; and
4 WHEREAS, To that end, Dr. Bacon persuaded her older
5 daughter, Connie Jackson, a Harvard MBA with extensive
6 experience in finance and real estate to join her and help to
7 forge a strategy for the organization's future; since 1992,
8 they have been instrumental in the organization obtaining
9 more than $8,500,000 in government and philanthropic funding
10 for operating support and capital expansion, including the
11 issuance of tax-exempt bonds to finance construction of the
12 new $4.6 million health facility which recently opened, while
13 developing a broader and more flexible management structure;
14 and
15 WHEREAS, Her commitment to improving the health of poor
16 and underserved communities is also evidenced by the fact
17 that the only time she left The Clinic was to serve as the
18 Vice President of Professional Program Development and later
19 as Chief of Staff at Provident Hospital and Medical Center,
20 which is one of the City of Chicago's largest providers of
21 indigent care; she has also served as a medical consultant
22 for various State and local government agencies including
23 Illinois Drug Abuse and the Executive Service Corps' PROJECT
24 LIFE, an infant mortality reduction project funded by the
25 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Robert
26 Wood Johnson Foundation; and
27 WHEREAS, Dr. Bacon is a graduate of Xavier University in
28 New Orleans, Louisiana, and the University of Illinois
29 College of Medicine and School of Public Health; Dr. Bacon
30 was among the earliest group of physicians in family practice
31 to be certified by the American Board of Family Practice in
32 1975; and
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1 WHEREAS, Dr. Bacon has been involved in various civic
2 activities including being elected by statewide vote to the
3 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, serving from
4 January 1989 until December 1996, and serving on the board of
5 the Juvenile Protective Association in Chicago and Fisk
6 University in Nashville, Tennessee; she has been honored with
7 numerous awards including being chosen as one of ten
8 "Chicagoans of the Year" for 1995 by Chicago magazine and as
9 Alumni of the Year by the University of Illinois College of
10 Medicine in May of 1997; and
11 WHEREAS, In August of 1997, after more than thirty-three
12 years of service to the Altgeld community and twenty-seven
13 years of leadership responsibility for The Clinic, Dr. Bacon
14 stepped down as President and Chief Executive Officer,
15 passing the baton to her daughter, Connie Jackson; she fully
16 intends to continue her association with the organization in
17 a consulting role providing "coaching and vision" as needed;
18 therefore, be it
19 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
20 NINETIETH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
21 congratulate Dr. Gloria Jackson Bacon on the opening of the
22 Altgeld Health Center; through her hard work and
23 determination The Clinic will be a valuable part of the
24 community for years to come; and be it further
25 RESOLVED, That we congratulate her daughter, Ms. Connie
26 Jackson, on taking over the reigns of The Clinic; with her
27 education, experience, and her mother's help, she will see
28 the goals of The Clinic come to fruition; and be it further
29 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
30 presented to Dr. Gloria Jackson Bacon and Ms. Connie Jackson.