The 2026 inductees to the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame will be Dr. Alane O’Connor, Director of Perinatal Addiction Medicine at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center who has been in the forefront of addiction medicine in the state, and the late Frances Perkins, U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Franklin Roosevelt and architect of New Deal programs that Americans rely on today.

The honorees will be inducted in a ceremony on March 21 at the Â鶹APP during Women’s History Month. The public event begins with a reception at 1 p.m., followed by the induction ceremony at 2 p.m. To attend, RSVP by March 15 to mainewomenshalloffame@gmail.com. Snow date is March 22.

This is the 36th Induction Ceremony to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to improving opportunities for all Maine women. Organizations and individuals nominate outstanding women whose achievements have made a significant statewide impact and improved the lives of women in Maine, and whose contributions have enduring value for women. Inductees are selected by an independent panel of judges.

O’Connor, an innovative, compassionate, purpose-driven leader in addiction medicine, was born and raised in rural Maine. She earned an undergraduate degree at Colby College, a master’s from Boston College and doctorate from Vanderbilt University. In 2005, she returned to Maine as the opioid epidemic was intensifying. She began caring for patients with substance use disorder as part of her rural family practice and later became board certified in addiction medicine.

O’Connor was one of the first providers in Maine to serve pregnant women with substance use disorders. She became the state’s leading expert and served as the medical director of the Maine Maternal Opioid Misuse (Maine MOM) initiative, a five-year, $5 million federal grant to expand access to substance use treatment for pregnant and postpartum women. She is the first Director of Perinatal Addiction Medicine at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center and is core faculty in Maine’s only addiction medicine fellowship.

O’Connor has trained hundreds of physicians, including both residents and fellows, and published more than a dozen peer-reviewed manuscripts on maternal and infant outcomes following treatment with medication for opioid use disorder during pregnancy, as well as related postpartum healthcare utilization and health policy.

Recognizing that some of her most at-risk pregnant women were not accessing health care in traditional settings, she developed a partnership with Portland Fire Department to create Project Lifeline, a nationally innovative medical and community paramedicine program that delivers street medicine services to unhoused pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorder who live in tents, shelters, vehicles, and on the street.

Beyond caring for pregnant women, O’Connor works in the correctional system as the Director of Addiction Medicine at Somerset County Jail and Franklin County Detention Center, and is the clinical advisor to the Maine Sheriffs’ Association. In this capacity, she developed and implemented a nationally innovative program using a monthly injectable medication (rather than a daily pill) to treat incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorder. The outcomes, published in Health & Justice, showed that the injectable medication expanded access to treatment during incarceration, improved treatment continuation after release and reduced the risk of post-release drug overdose death. The project gained nationwide attention and was featured on the front page of the New York Times and a related podcast. Her current research on reproductive life experiences of incarcerated women with substance use disorder blends both health fields.

O’Connor lectures regionally and nationally on substance use disorder to a variety of audiences, including medical providers, the child welfare system, the correctional system and judiciary, and law enforcement. She is a member of the Maine Maternal Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Panel and co-chairs Maine’s Opioid Response Clinical Advisory Committee, which advises the state’s opioid response director on clinical and public policy issues. Throughout her career, she has dedicated herself to serving the most marginalized individuals with empathy and compassion, and believes that human-centered and innovative strategies empower vulnerable individuals to thrive.

Perkins, the first woman to serve on a presidential cabinet (1933–45), was a social worker, public servant and trailblazer who championed workers’ rights. She is best known as the architect of many of the New Deal programs that protected workers, helped the country recover from the Great Depression, and created the modern middle class: Social Security, unemployment and workers’ compensation insurances, minimum wages, maximum work hours, bans on child labor, health and safety reforms, and more.

The Perkins family settled in Newcastle, Maine in the mid-1700s. Fannie Coralie Perkins (she would later change her name to Frances) was born and raised in Massachusetts but returned to Maine each summer to spend time with her grandmother, Cynthia Otis Perkins, who she said was the most influential person in her life. The picturesque 57-acre family homestead remained a place of respite and reflection throughout Perkins’ busy career and later years. She inherited the property in 1927, owned it until her death in 1965, and was buried alongside her husband in a nearby cemetery.

In 2014, the Frances Perkins Homestead was designated a National Historic Landmark, and in 2024, the Frances Perkins National Monument.

Perkins’ education and early career took her first to Mount Holyoke College, then Illinois to teach at a girls’ preparatory school and volunteer in settlement houses, and eventually to New York City, where she received a master’s degree at Columbia University and lobbied for worker protection laws with the New York Consumers’ League. In 1911, Perkins witnessed the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 people, consequently investigating similar tragedies and recommending new state fire safety practices. Perkins rose in New York State politics during the 1910s and 1920s, working closely with Gov. Al Smith and later serving as the inaugural New York State Industrial Commissioner for Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In 1933, FDR asked Perkins to join his presidential cabinet as Secretary of Labor. Later, Perkins wrote a best-selling biography of FDR, was appointed to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, and lectured at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Relations. Perkins’ professional achievements were accomplished in addition to her personal responsibilities as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, grandmother, caregiver, parishioner, community member, and beloved friend to many.

Although her policy work happened elsewhere, Perkins’ career continues to have a significant impact on Maine, especially the one-quarter of Mainers who receive Social Security (more than half of whom are women). Perkins knowingly paved the way for other women in politics and public service, strategically navigating the male-dominated government at every step of her career.

Of her decision to become Secretary of Labor, she later reflected: “The door might not be opened to a woman again for a long, long time, and I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered.”

Perkins and O’Connor will join an impressive list of inductees to the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame that include authors, athletes, artists, activists, administrators, political and religious leaders, educators, doctors, lawyers, scientists and college presidents. Among the most recent honorees: physician Julia McDonald, community activist Nancy Fritz and astronaut Jessica Meir. A full list of inductees, starting with Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and women’s health advocate Mabel Wadsworth in 1990, is online.

established the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame. The has a collection of photographs, video recordings and other materials from the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, as well as a permanent public gallery of inductee portraits. The portraits of O’Connor and Perkins will be hung in the library immediately following the March 21 induction ceremony.

BPW/Maine Futurama Foundation, working with Maine Community Foundation, to outstanding and deserving Maine women to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency.

For more information, please contact Margaret Nagle at MaineWomensHallofFame@gmail.com.

Reception: 1 pm

Ceremony: 2 pm

Sandra L. Caron, Ph.D. Professor of Family Relations and Human Sexuality, University of Maine, therapist and author, Sandra L. Caron is the 2023 inductee into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame.

The Maine Women’s Hall of Fame was established in 1990 by the BPW/Maine Futurama Foundation. The induction ceremony is usually held at the Â鶹APP (UMA) on the third Saturday of March, in observance of Women’s History Month. UMA maintains a permanent Maine Women’s Hall of Fame display of photographs and citations for all honorees in the Bennett D. Katz Library.

The BPW/Maine Futurama Foundation maintains an active scholarship program. Since 1962, when the first small scholarship was presented, it has been helping Maine women achieve economic self-sufficiency by awarding scholarships to outstanding and deserving women. Recipients of these scholarships have gone on to contribute to the economic well-being of their families and the State of Maine.

Caron, a longtime professor of family relations and human sexuality at the University of Maine (UMaine), joins an esteemed list of honorees, starting with Sen. Margaret Chase Smith in 1990 and last year including Julia Kahrl and Jessica Meir. The Maine Women’s Hall of Fame recognizes those whose achievements have had a significant statewide impact, significantly improved the lives of women in Maine, and contributed an enduring value for women.

Caron will be inducted in a ceremony on Saturday, March 18, at 2 p.m. in the Farber Forum in Jewett Hall at the Â鶹APP, 46 University Drive, Augusta, Maine. To attend, please send an email to futuramafound@gmail.com with your name, email address, and organization affiliation. Participants may also attend via zoom at on the day of the event.

Caron, an Orono resident, is a pioneer in sexuality education, widely known throughout Maine, respected nationally and internationally for her creative teaching and groundbreaking research in sexuality education. Her involvement and contributions to UMaine and in the state have touched countless lives and contributed to inclusivity in communities.

Caron is a member of the American Association of Sex Educators Counselors and Therapists, and The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Since joining the UM faculty in 1988, Caron has taught undergraduate and graduate courses, including the popular undergraduate course in human sexuality. She is also a member of the women’s, gender and sexuality studies faculty. In the span of her UMaine career, Caron has taught over 25,000 students. She also has devoted countless hours to projects that advance a more inclusive and socially just society and university community. Her influence is wide-ranging, having mentored hundreds of students from Maine.

Caron’s research and publications focus on the social-sexual development of young people.

She is a licensed clinical professional counselor specializing in sexuality-related issues and has authored several books on sexuality, including Sex Matters for College Students: Sex FAQs in Human Sexuality (2nd Edition); Sex Around the World: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Human Sexuality; and a children’s book, Birds and Bees and More: How Babies Are Made and Families Form. Her newest book is based on her research over the past 30 years, The Sex Lives of College Students: Three Decades of Attitudes and Behaviors.

Caron received the University of Maine Alumni Association’s 2019 Distinguished Maine Professor Award that recognizes the highest qualities of teaching, research and public service. She received UMaine’s 1998 Presidential Outstanding Teaching Award and the 2002 Presidential Public Service Award. In 2013 she was recognized by the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center for her lifelong contribution to sexual and reproductive health, and in 1999, she received the Margaret Vaughn award from the Maine Family Planning for her outstanding contribution to sexuality education.

The Maine Women’s Hall of Fame has opened the nomination process for honorees to be inducted in the March 2023 ceremony. Since 1990, the organization has honored women who have made an outstanding contribution to improving opportunities for all Maine women.

The Maine Women’s Hall of Fame is seeking nominations from organizations, businesses, or individuals of women who meet the following criteria: their achievements have had a significant statewide impact, those achievements significantly improved the lives of women in Maine, and their contribution has an enduring value for women.

Complete nomination details, criteria, and requirements .  The deadline for nominations is December 10, 2022.  An independent panel of judges reviews the nominations with careful consideration to select one or two honorees for induction each year.

Most recent recipients have included Darylen McQuirk Cote, Governor Janet T. Mills, Joanne D’Arcangelo, Betty-Jane Stanhope Meader, Joyce Taylor Gibson, Dean Leigh Saufley, and Jessica U. Meir.  For a complete list of honorees, visit Maine Women’s Hall of Fame.

The Maine Women’s Hall of Fame was established in 1990 by the BPW/Maine Futurama Foundation. The induction ceremony is usually held at the Â鶹APP on the third Saturday of March, in observance of Women’s History Month. UMA maintains a permanent Maine Women’s Hall of Fame display of photographs and citations for all honorees in the Bennett D. Katz Library.

The BPW/Maine Futurama Foundation maintains an active scholarship program. Since 1962, when the first small scholarship was presented, it has been helping Maine women achieve economic self-sufficiency by awarding scholarships to outstanding and deserving women. Recipients of these scholarships have gone on to contribute to the economic well-being of their families and the State of Maine.