Sacramento – Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) announced Mary Magee as his 2012 Woman of the Year.
“I am thrilled to announce Mary Magee as the Woman of the Year for Assembly District 17”, said Ammiano. “Mary is the epitome of a dedicated nurse – she is compassionate, caring and committed to the public health of those who need it most. She is a champion for the rights of her fellow workers and is an example of the best of what San Francisco’s healthcare system has to offer.”
Mary Magee has been a registered nurse with the San Francisco Department of Public Health for the past 25 years. In 1987, while working at the HIV/AIDS inpatient ward at San Francisco General Hospital, she sustained a needle stick. Six weeks later, she learned that she had acquired HIV. While dealing privately with what was then a life-threatening diagnosis, she fought as Nurse Jane Doe and won groundbreaking workers compensation rules. Together with fellow healthcare workers and her union, SEIU, she advocated for regulations and practices that would require the use of engineered safety devices in healthcare settings. After the passage of AB 1208, Mary served on the SF Department of Public Health Safe Devices Committee, which evaluating and selected safety devices with healthcare worker input, creating guidelines for device training and safe work practices, and maintaining and evaluating sharps injury data. The Committee has developed what are now recognized as universal safety standards to protect healthcare workers from occupational exposure.
After 16 years as a nurse at San Francisco General Hospital’s Labor and Delivery unit, Mary now works at a DPH run supportive housing residence for formerly homeless people. She is proud to count herself among other HIV positive grandmothers who hope for a safer and healthier world for their grandchildren.
