RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - Josie Steelman was born in Mile Branch West Virginia February 15, 1939. She and her husband Dale moved to Rancho Cordova in 1963.

Steelman started volunteering at Cordova Villa in 1964. In addition to being the neighborhood "Mom", she was the PTA President, yard duty, and the first Parent Coordinator for Folsom Cordova Unified School District in the 1970s and `80s.

A graduate of Cordova Adult School, Steelman also had six children who were raised through the school district.

Many of her grandchildren have followed in these footsteps.

Everyone who lived in the Cordova Villa neighborhood when it was a fledgling group of young parents and their children, remembers her as a volunteer at the pioneering neighborhood school, Cordova Villa.

In the words of the Grapevine Independent (2006) "That volunteerism led to her being elected to serve with the distinction on the FCUSD School Board from 1983 to 1991. During her time with the school district's board of directors, Steelman said she helped expand the district's bilingual programs and establish the business partnership programs that remain successful today. She also worked at establishing what she called an adolescent parent program at school."