Women's Opportunities Center Announces Award

From the Irvine World News — April 26, 2001

The Women's Opportunities Center at UC Irvine has announced that Patty Oslinker-Moore will receive the 2001 Amelia Earhart Leadership Award. The award will be presented at the 11th annual luncheon Tuesday, May 1, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Sutton Place Hotel, Newport Beach.

The award honors an individual who exemplifies leadership, service and a commitment to women's issues. Oslinker-Moore is the executive director of the Mariposa Women's and Family Counseling Center.

Oslinker-Moore has been in the field of drug and alcohol addiction and recovery for women for the past 20 years. She battled her own addiction, struggling through several recovery programs before becoming sober in the early 1980s.

To better understand her own use of alcohol, she attended classes in alcohol studies at UC Irvine Extension, which led to an internship at the Mariposa Women's Center. She was hired there as a counselor in 1981. She has been a driving force in the betterment of women ever since, according to an announcement of the award.

Oslinker-Moore has counseled hundreds of Orange County women dealing with alcohol addiction. She became the director of the center in 1996, a time when the center was in serious financial crisis and under the threat of closing in six months.

Her leadership has helped the center grow into a highly regarded Orange County non-profit organization with four departments, each with its own department head, and 28 employees. It has an annual budget of nearly $1 million. Each week Mariposa hosts 32 12-step programs and serves 150 clients at any given time.

"To many families, to see women become responsible and return to work or school, or to pursue their potential in other ways is not only my job, but my life's work," said Oslinker-Moore.

The UCI Women's Opportunities Center is a non-profit community service branch of UC Irvine Extension, and has provided career planning and management assistance to Orange County women for more than 30 years.

It is supported by corporate and community investment, membership dues, course and workshop fees, and active work of more than 120 volunteers.

Tickets for the awards luncheon are $100. Reservations and information about the luncheon: (949) 824-7128.