Annette Smith honored as AAUW Naperville Area's 2020 Woman of the Year

AAUW Naperville Area recently honored Annette Smith as the 2020 Woman of the Year for her exemplary leadership and service to the Naperville community through many years of voter education and advocacy.

Since joining the Naperville League of Women Voters in the mid-1980s, Smith has served for over 20 years as voter service chair, as president for two terms, and on the board of directors of the League of Women Voters of Illinois.

As voter service chair, she organized numerous candidate forums, often partnering with AAUW for mayoral and council forums, developed and published the League's non-partisan voter guide, Vote411.org, from 2006-2019, and organized voter registrations that resulted in thousands of new voters.

In 2017, she developed and currently oversees the Birthday Box project which in 2019 delivered over 1,000 boxes filled with non-partisan voting information for students turning 18 in Naperville Unit District 203 and Indian Prairie Unit District 204 high schools.

Additionally she is the Naperville coordinator for DuPage County League's mock election in the high schools and has been a part of Naperville's League award-winning "Stroll to the Polls" in which students from District 204 high schools canvass low-voting precincts asking residents to vote which has increased voter turnout in the targeted precincts in each of the elections.

Smith credits the help and support of members of the Naperville League of Women Voters for accomplishing all the above activities.

To learn more about the Naperville League of Women Voters, visit lwvnaperville.org.