The Luncheon Meeting took place on: Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Topic: “How Health Care Helped Win WWII”
Presenter: Lincoln Cushing
Summary:
Our guest speaker was RPA Honorary Member Lincoln Cushing, and his talk was titled “How Health Care Helped Win WWII”, an examination of the incredible health care program provided in the World War II Kaiser shipyards that set the stage for a transformation in American medicine.
Mr. Cushing was the historian and archivist for Kaiser Permanente from 2011 to 2021, and during that time wrote dozens of articles on KP's underappreciated role in American medicine. He collaborated with the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, CA to share that story. He has taught “Archiving as Social Justice Practice” at U.C. Berkeley, and he documents, catalogs, and disseminates oppositional political graphics of the late 20th century. He was curator for the All Of Us Or None — Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area 2012exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California and continues to catalog their collections. His research and publishing projects can be seen at Docs Populi – Documents for the Public, <www.docspopuli.org>.
