University Hospitals Nurse Featured on Obama Ad

University Hospitals nurse Becky Leaven said she doesn't mind having her picture on a billboard in Des Moines -- at least it's a good one.

"My eyes are open," she said.

Leaven, a member of Local 199 of the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, was selected months ago to have her photo taken for the group's Walk a Mile In My Shoes campaign.

"They just wanted to get photos of working people," she said.

Her photo was used on campaign materials for the group's initial support of presidential candidate John Edwards. The former North Carolina senator dropped out of the race for president in late January.

Now, she is the main subject of the union's new billboard supporting presidential candidate Barack Obama. The billboard is on Fleur Drive in Des Moines.

"I asked my daughter to drive by and take a picture," Leaven said.

The national SEIU organization, representing nurses, child care workers, janitors and other service workers, officially announced its endorsement of Obama on Feb. 15, according to information on its Web site.

Leaven said she was disappointed when Edwards left the race, but she is pleased with the endorsement. She said union members from across the country were polled to see what candidate they would want as a second choice.

"It was a real democratic process," Leaven said.

She said she can get behind Obama's health care plan and his stance on many other campaign issues, at least more so than she can for Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Leaven said she's started making phone calls on behalf of the campaign.

"I'm pleased that, as a union, we'll be able to give him support," she said.

Leaven said she has been active in the union since the first SEIU group formed 10 years ago and helped organize Local 199 in 1999. She said she volunteers often and is a member of the executive board. She has worked at University Hospitals since 1977, most of that time in the mother-baby unit.

She said she likes the way Obama reaches out to young people and hopes the endorsement might also help to bring more young people into the union.

"I think the change message is good," she said. "I think people feel he has a real energy. We're going to work to see he's successful."

In the meantime, Leaven said she's alerted family members across the country to keep an eye out, too. The photo will be plastered on the side of a mobile advertisement to travel to other parts of the country.

"Maybe my relatives will see the bus going by in Colorado," she said.

Copyright © 2008, Iowa City Press-Citizen.