Dear Abby by Abigail Van Buren

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips. When Jeanne was 14 and needed a little spending money, her mother asked, "How do you intend to earn it?" Her mother, Pauline Phillips, had more in mind than the usual household chores. She had recently started writing a nationally syndicated advice column under the pseudonym Abigail Van Buren. A deal was struck — the beginning of a lifelong partnership.

Dear Abby is one of only three laypersons ever to be granted a prestigious Life Consultant membership in the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), an organization of nationally respected psychiatrists dedicated to shaping psychiatric thinking, public programs and clinical practice in mental health. She is the recipient of the 2015 Proxmire Award for leadership in public awareness of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, and the Hearing Loss Association of America's 2015 Walter T. Ridder Award.

In addition, Phillips sat on the Board of Judges for the Talbots Charitable Foundation Women's Scholarship Fund, the Advisory Boards of the National Alzheimer's Association, the Children's Rights Council, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Kidney Foundation. She has received awards from the National Office of Drug Policy, American Academy of Dermatology for excellence in public education of dermatology issues, American Ex-Prisoners of War, Overeaters Anonymous and the national Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program.