Frances Perkins (Photo courtesy Frances Perkins Center)
The 2026 inductees to the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame will be Dr. Alane O’Connor, director of perinatal addiction medicine at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center who has been in the forefront of addiction medicine in the state, and the late Frances Perkins, U.S. secretary of labor under President Franklin Roosevelt and architect of New Deal programs that Americans rely on today.
The honorees will be inducted in a ceremony on Saturday, March 21 at the University of Maine at Augusta during Women’s History Month. The public event begins with a reception at 1 p.m., followed by the induction ceremony at 2 p.m.
This is the 36th Maine Women’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to improving opportunities for all Maine women. Organizations and individuals nominate outstanding women whose achievements have made a significant statewide impact and improved the lives of women in Maine, and whose contributions have enduring value for women. Inductees are selected by an independent panel of judges.
O’Connor, an innovative, compassionate, purpose-driven leader in addiction medicine, was born and raised in rural Maine. She earned an undergraduate degree at Colby College, a master’s from Boston College, and doctorate from Vanderbilt University. In 2005, she returned to Maine as the opioid epidemic was intensifying. She began caring for patients with substance use disorder as part of her rural family practice and later became board certified in addiction medicine.
O’Connor was one of the first providers in Maine to serve pregnant women with substance use disorders. She became the state’s leading expert and served as the medical director of the Maine Maternal Opioid Misuse initiative, a five-year, $5 million federal grant to expand access to substance use treatment for pregnant and postpartum women. She is the first director of perinatal addiction medicine at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center and is core faculty in Maine’s only addiction medicine fellowship.
Perkins, the first woman to serve on a presidential cabinet (1933–1945), was a social worker, public servant and trailblazer who championed workers’ rights. She is best known as the architect of many of the New Deal programs that protected workers, helped the country recover from the Great Depression, and created the modern middle class: Social Security, unemployment and workers’ compensation insurances, minimum wages, maximum work hours, bans on child labor, health and safety reforms, and more.
The Perkins family settled in Newcastle in the mid-1700s. Fannie Coralie Perkins (she would later change her name to Frances) was born and raised in Massachusetts but returned to Maine each summer to spend time with her grandmother, Cynthia Otis Perkins, who she said was the most influential person in her life.
Dr. Alane OConnor (Photo courtesy Katie Sprague)
The picturesque 57-acre family homestead remained a place of respite and reflection throughout Perkins’ busy career and later years. She inherited the property in 1927, owned it until her death in 1965, and was buried alongside her husband in a nearby cemetery.
In 2014, the Frances Perkins Homestead was designated a National Historic Landmark, and in 2024, the Frances Perkins National Monument.
Perkins’ education and early career took her first to Mount Holyoke College, then Illinois to teach at a girls’ preparatory school and volunteer in settlement houses, and eventually to New York City, where she received a master’s degree at Columbia University and lobbied for worker protection laws with the New York Consumers’ League. In 1911, Perkins witnessed the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 people, consequently investigating similar tragedies and recommending new state fire safety practices. Perkins rose in New York State politics during the 1910s and 1920s, working closely with Gov. Al Smith and later serving as the inaugural New York State Industrial Commissioner for Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In 1933, FDR asked Perkins to join his presidential cabinet as secretary of labor. Later, Perkins wrote a bestselling biography of FDR, was appointed to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, and lectured at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Relations.
Perkins’ professional achievements were accomplished in addition to her personal responsibilities as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, grandmother, caregiver, parishioner, community member, and beloved friend to many.
Perkins and O’Connor will join an impressive list of inductees to the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame that include authors, athletes, artists, activists, administrators, political and religious leaders, educators, doctors, lawyers, scientists, and college presidents.
To attend the induction ceremony, RSVP by Sunday, March 15 to mainewomenshalloffame@gmail.com. The snow date for the event is Sunday, March 22.
For more information, including a full list of inductees, go to bpwmefoundation.org.
