My Foray into Political Life and Fame (LOL)
By Islara Boixados Souto (Linn)

Kamala Harris is not the first woman minority Vice President candidate in the U.S. I was, and
here’s my story.   (continued after the images below)

There was a great thinker and doer who wanted to share his ideas and thoughts, and so he ran for President of the United States under the Green Party in 1996, but he had a problem in Florida: he did not have an official running mate.

I was called upon, literally on the phone by the leadership of the Florida Green Party and asked
to be his Vice President candidate. I answered the call.
The results of that election were: William Jefferson Clinton (Democrat Party) won the state over
Senator Bob Dole (Republican Party, second place), multimillionaire Ross Perot (Reform Party,
third place), and Harry Browne (Libertarian, fourth place). Ralph Nader and I, Green Party, came
in fifth place with 4,101 votes in Florida.
I had forgotten my foray into politics until recently when a classmate of ours posted it on social
media. People came out of the woodwork to sing my praises, but honestly, I don’t deserve it. I
never campaigned for VP of the US—with or without Mr. Nader. I was selected as his VP
because I was convenient: a minority Hispanic woman who happened to live close to the State
Capitol in Tallahassee and had just enough time (20 minutes) to run over there and sign my name
as the VP candidate for the Green Party.
I wish I could say I was famous, but that would not be true. I have gone on to do things that, to
me, were important but not great and certainly not famous. I went to medical school, had two
wonderful children, got a master’s degree in public health from UT-Knoxville, and much later,
married a wonderful man (a physicist, but not from Oak Ridge).
I have been a teacher, a trainer, a program planner, a grant smith, and a builder of coalitions and
collaboratives. I’ve ben a bureaucrat at the Florida Department of Health, a director at the
University of Miami School of Medicine, and I’ve held leadership roles at six health and social
service organizations and for several state and national boards.
When I retired in 2022, I resuscitated my former company, a public health and education
consulting group, and what I’m doing now is training and advocating for community health
workers, the most undervalued of the healthcare workforce.
Do you see a theme to my life? Yes, for as long as I’ve known myself, I’ve always stood for the
underdog, for justice and equality, and for honor and transparency.
I owe much of who I am to three awesome teachers we had at ORHS: Mr. Bill Lewis, who in his
public speaking class, taught me to speak out “loud and proud”; Mrs. Helen Knight, who taught
English from the Harbrace Handbook (which I still have) and who mentored me through four

years as the Latin Club president; and Coach Don Bordinger, who, as his assistant when he was
Assistant Principal, taught me that this little Spanish girl could go on and do great things.
All three of them gave the confidence to me to do what I have done so far. I hope I didn’t let
them down, or you, dear classmates and fellow Wildcats.

I have never been famous. And I’m not done yet!        Love, Islara