Colette Marian Womens Health 1

Marian Colette moved to the Cumberland Mountains in the 1970s to work with some of the Glenmary Sisters who were involved in community projects there. She eventually became a central figure in Mountain Women’s Exchange, a Women’s collective and education program in Jellico, Tenn. Here she discusses how Mountain Women’s Exchange developed, beginning with workshops and growing into an umbrella organization for a thrift shop, college programs, and job training. She also talks about the main issues she saw in rural Appalachia in the 1970s and 1980s, from insufficient housing to maternal health issues and strip-mining.