Click on the image above to find out about the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' new website designed to stop R.J. Reynolds from marketing cancer to women and girls. 

Influence Overview

INFluence (Indiana Female Leaders Unite) provides an avenue by which powerful Hoosier women (leaders in government, business, health care, education, media, and faith-based and community organizations) are:

• Educated about critical women’s health issues.
• Given a charge to educate about and advocate for women’s health in their own spheres of influence.
• Provided with toolkits to help them accomplish this goal.

The Vision

Judith A. Monroe, M.D., State Health Commissioner conceived the INFluence vision when she became the first female State Health Commissioner in Indiana.  She believes that women of influence have the power to carry critical women’s health messages far and wide, and make these issues relevant and visible at work, at school, at home, in policy, in the media, in faith communities, and among health care professionals.  

The Beginning

The Office of Women’s Health at the Indiana State Department of Health, in conjunction with Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, hosted the first INFluence Women’s Health Forum on April 18, 2007 in response to the Camel No. 9 marketing campaign specifically targeting young women.  Over 200 powerful Hoosier women attended and learned about Camel’s deadly marketing campaign.  Attendees are using their influence to complete the call to action issued by Dr. Monroe and are educating and impacting women in their communities.

The Next Step

INFluence activities aimed at tobacco marketing at the state and local level will be tracked and outcomes will be monitored.  Each year the women of INFluence will become educated about and advocate for a new emerging women’s health issue as this initiative expands.

For more information about INFluence and to get involved with this important initiative, go to www.INFluence.IN.gov or call the Office of Women’s Health at 317-233-9156.