Early Career
After graduating from Smith College in 1966, Aileen lived with a Sikh family in the Punjab in India and travelled throughout the country under the auspices of the Experiment in International Living. Returning to LA, she became a probation trainee, heading one of the girls units at Juvenile Hall. In 1967, Aileen joined the Peace Corps and worked in a small town in the Northeast of Brazil without electricity or running water. Living in a mud hut with two nuns, Aileen developed a literacy program that was used by the Catholic Church over the radio throughout the northeast of Brazil to teach thousands of people how to read. She also started the town's first kindergarten and organized community development projects such as building a community well and raising pigs.
When she returned to the U.S., she went to work for Ralph Nader at the Center for Law and Social Policy where she headed the center's initiative on deceptive advertising practices. Her work led to a new rule at the Federal Trade Commission that required advertisers to substantiate their claims to consumers upon request. She hosted a two part series on public television (WGBH in Boston) about both deceptive practices and the cultural impact of advertising, especially the way that most ads portrayed women as either sex symbols or inane cleaners.
The attorney representing the Center before the FTC, Geoff Cowan, later became her husband. Their first date was attending the General Motors' shareholder's meeting in Detroit where Geoff led the Campaign GM initiative to diversify the board with a noted female consumer advocate, a black minister, and a well known environmentalist. Aileen addressed the all male GM board about the sexualized way in which the company presented women in their advertising campaigns for cars. After graduating from Howard Law School in 1973, Aileen became a Deputy City Attorney in its Consumer Protection Section, prosecuting the first criminal cases ever filed against city nursing homes and organizing hearings on their practices around the city.
In 1984, LA Mayor Tom Bradley, appointed Aileen to serve on the City's Fire Commission, which oversaw the third largest fire department in the country. Serving twice as Commission President during her 8 year stint, she led the implementation of one of the best stress management programs for employees in the country; helped design programs to diversify the workforce; and was proud to announce the appointment of the department's first Black Assistant Chief.