Remembering Barbara Huberman

May 19, 2014

Dear friends:

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I share with you the news that our organization, and the entire field of adolescent health, lost a great friend, mentor, colleague and partner over the weekend. Barbara Huberman passed away Saturday evening, May 17th after an extended battle with leukemia.

We were very fortunate to be able to honor Barbara as one of our champions at our recent 20th Anniversary Celebration and more importantly are very thankful that our staff and leadership had the pleasure of working with her for more than two decades in a number of different capacities. Barbara spent the last 40 years of her life actively involved in sexuality education and adolescent sexual health. She has authored books on teen pregnancy prevention and building community and state teen pregnancy prevention councils; co-authored the widely recognized monograph “European Approaches to Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Responsibility”; founded “Let’s Talk Month,” an international campaign each October to support parents and families in their role as sexuality educators of their children; and founded “Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month”, which is nationally recognized each May. Additionally, she is one of the founders of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Council of North Carolinaand the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and a former President of the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention (now Healthy Teen Network).

The SC Campaign and the state of South Carolina owe a huge debt of gratitude to the “godmother of adolescent sexuality and teen pregnancy prevention.” Barbara spent untold hours advising local level start-up programs here in South Carolina in the early 1990’s. In those early years, her expertise, counsel, and moral support were invaluable to the SC Campaign and local teen pregnancy prevention groups. After moving on to her next role atAdvocates for Youth in Washington, DC she continued watching over us. Two of our three executive directors participated on the European Study Tour on Adolescent Sexuality – a brainchild of Barbara’s established to gain a better understanding of why European countries have such better adolescent reproductive health outcomes than we do here in the US. Barbara also played a key technical assistance role on three sequentially funded CDC projects allowing a number of our staff over the last 10+ years to have the opportunity to work closely with her.

Those who had the pleasure of knowing and working with Barbara, like we did at the SC Campaign, understand that she was much more than the collection of these accomplishments. She was an amazing supporter, a wonderful mentor and teacher, and a very special friend. Her impact on our work, our lives and our learning cannot be overstated. Barbara taught us all what it means to be passionate about a cause; what making a commitment to young people looks like; and, that one person really can change the world! Thank you Barbara; we will miss you.

Sincerely,

Forrest Sig