Year Honored: 2016
Birth: 1966 - 2018
Biography
Jamie L. Wolfe was a lifelong disability rights activist. She graduated from the University of Delaware and received a master’s from Delaware State University. Wolfe served as the chair for the Delaware State Council of Persons with Disabilities and the Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council. She worked for ten years as the Disabilities Specialist and educator at the University of Delaware Center for Disabilities Studies.
Her legacy is most strongly felt through her legislative lobbying. She worked to address equal rights in “the community and in education, discrimination in housing and employment, vocational rehabilitation, assistance in transferring from nursing homes into the community, and accessible transportation.” Wolfe played a key role in getting the Attendant Services Bill and changes to the Nurse Practice Act passes, which both helped disabled peoples live on their own in their communities. She also worked on the ‘Delaware Medicaid for Workers with Disabilities’ Act which removed income limits for those with disabilities, so they did not have to choose between Medicaid and employment. Her other legislative accomplishments include statewide attendant services, accessible parling laws, integrating community-based housing for people with disabilities, the “lemon law” for assistive technology devices, and the “gold alert program” for notification when a person with a disability or a senior citizen goes missing.
In her personal life, Wolfe was “a huge fan of rock and roll music, especially that of Billy Joel and Tom Petty. She was an avid lover of the blues, a devoted attendee of the Thursday night Fairway Blues Jams and a member of the board of the central Delaware Blues Society.”
She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Delaware State Council for Persons with Disabilities, Governor Employee of the Year Award from the State Rehabilitation Council, the Marie Custis “Custie” Straughn Memorial Award for Persons with Disabilities, and the John Jefferson Memorial Award for Advocacy.
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Sources and Additional Readings
Microsoft. (n.d.). Claws&Wings - Jamie Wolfe. Bing. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jamie%2Bwolfe%2Bdelaware&docid=608011156991445097&mid=717D058DA66DEF899F55717D058DA66DEF899F55&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
Tribute archive obituary - visitation & funeral information. Tribute Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/3894029/Jamie-Wolfe
