Marin Women's Hall of Fame

TEVEIA BARNES
Social Change
2010

     Teveia Rose Barnes has known from early childhood that she wanted to be an attorney.  A self-described skinny kid with large glasses from San Antonio, Texas, she was the one who all the other children would approach to settle disputes.  As a youngster, she was considered extremely studious.  She came into her own in college, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975 from Rice University, as a triple major in economics, German studies and political science.  Upon graduating from Rice, Ms. Barnes attended and graduated from New York University Law School in 1978.

     She practiced law in New York at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett from 1978 to 1983, and from 1983 to 1986 she practiced at Sage, Gray, Toss and Sims.  From 1986 to 1999, she served as Associate General Counsel and Senior Vice President at Bank of America.  Ms. Barnes demonstrated her ability to influence women when she launched the Bank of America’s diversity initiative for women and people of color.  She always remained unassuming and humble in her leadership.

     In 1999, Ms. Barnes accepted a public service calling at the request of former president Bill Clinton.  Clinton appointed Ms. Barnes as Executive Director for Lawyers For One America. (LFOA).  LFOA is a non-profit organization commissioned to work with a collaboration of lawyers and organizations to promote diversity for women and lawyers of color in the legal profession and to provide pro bono legal services for the working poor and underserved communities.  Under Ms. Barnes’ leadership, LFOA produced Bar None: Report to the President of the United States on the Status of People of Color and Pro Bono Services in the Legal Profession, and the video, “Bending the Arc Toward Justice.”

     Ms. Barnes’ full time service to LFOA ended in 2001, when she yielded to the call of public service, to serve as the Executive Director to the Bar Association of San Francisco.  In addition, she maintained oversight of the Association’s Volunteer Legal Services Program, the largest comprehensive pro bono service provider in San Francisco.

    Ms. Barnes is now dividing her time between LFOA and private practice at the law firm of Foley and Lardner LLP in San Francisco, as a partner in the financial institutions and the bankruptcy practice groups.  Still, she is propelled by her passion to volunteer.  She has served as a board member at Equal Rights Advocates.  Equal Rights Advocates is one of the most well-established women’s legal advocacy groups, whose mission is to protect and secure equal rights and economic opportunities for women and girls through litigation and advocacy.  

     Ms. Barnes currently serves as Chairman of the Board of On Lok, Inc., which provides .  On Lok Lifeways, a nonprofit program specifically designed to provide total long-term care for the elderly. On Lok’s comprehensive health plan includes full medical care, prescription drugs, home care, adult day health, transportation, and more, thus allowing its member to remain at home for as long as possible.

     She also served on the Board of Trustees for Rice University, including serving as Chairman of the Audit Committee, the California Minority Counsel Program, the American Conservatory Theater Board, and the Board of the Branson School.

    Ms. Barnes has spoken widely at national and regional bar associations, law schools,  universities and law firms and major corporations promoting diversity and pro bono legal services to the working poor, while taking time to mentor young women lawyers and lawyers of color.

     In 2004 Ms. Barnes was presented with the prestigious Margaret Brent Award from the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women for her “steadfast advocacy and gender diversity crusade.”  Other recipients of the Margaret Brent Award include Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Conner and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  She was also recognized in 2005 with the Marin County Human Rights Commission’s Martin Luther Kin Jr. Humanitarian of the Year Award..

Melba Pattillo Beals
Social Change
2002

     Amid the howling mobs and fiery storm of the 1957 battle to integrate Little Rock Central High School, Melba Pattillo Beals and eight other young warriors risked their lives to change history.  The U.S. Congress voted Beals and her "Little Rock Nine" companions the Congressional Gold Medal for their contribution to the Civil Rights movement. Only 318 Americans have received this award.     

     Warriors Don't Cry is Beals' chronicle of the school integration battle.  Warriors won the 1994 American Library Association Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year, was named a Notable Book of the year by the American Booksellers Association, and received the coveted Robert F. Kennedy Award for books that reflect RFK's "concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and evenhanded justice, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity."      

     Another focus of Ms. Beals' life has been her work with Aid to the Adoption of Special Children (AASK).  During her 20-year tenure on its board of directors, more than 10,000 special needs children have been placed with adoptive families.     

     Now a Professor heading Dominican University's Communications program, Ms. Beals is a sought-after motivational speaker.  She has appeared on NPR's "Fresh Air," on "Oprah," and C-Span's "Booknotes."  She has been featured in USA Today, People, and Newsweek.     

     Ms. Beals surprised all her friends and colleagues when at age fifty she adopted three-year-old twin boys.  She gives praise and thanks to her grown daughter, Kellie, for helping her to raise Matthew and Evan, now aged

Read more about this remarkable woman through this web site.http://www.mccsc.edu/~jcmslib/mlk/beals/family.htm

EVELYN CALLAS, M.D.
Medicine & Social Change
1990

     Over the past 30 years, perhaps no other woman has consistently impacted the lives of so many Marin County children as Evelyn Callas.  It has been said of her, "She is professional, caring, warm and understanding, unpretentious, low-key and devoted to her young patients.  She does it all, from fixing the pediatric department's broken toys, to hugging a scared child, to giving clear instructions to worried parents."     

     Dr. Callas's advocacy on behalf of children has resulted in legislative changes to protect children from abuse and neglect.  Largely due to her efforts, an important bill was passed which allows physicians to photograph children without parental consent.     

     In 1978, Dr. Callas was appointed Chief of Pediatrics by Kaiser Permanente, the first woman to be appointed a department chief.  She was also Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco and has served as Board Secretary of the Easter Seals Society.     

     When she retired from Kaiser in 1989, Dr. Callas focused on her work at UCSF, becoming Director of Pediatric Urgent Care for five years.  In the fall of 1995, she moved to Mt. Shasta where she utilizes her knowledge of pediatrics by volunteering at a medical clinic and spending one day per week at a school-based health clinic organized by the county schools and the local medical group.  Particularly concerned with the care of acutely sick and needy children, she is involved in various committees concerning emergency medical care for children and school attendance.

Read the extended biography by Nancy Nakai

Faye D'Opal
Social Change
2000

     Faye's passion -- helping create communities of justice, equality and peace for ourselves and the earth -- is clear to all who know her.  She works to change existing policies and resource allocation systems so that access and opportunity are provided to those who are most often neglected, especially women, children and the poor.  She strives to eliminate all forms of oppressive discrimination.     

     From her roots in rural Arkansas to the past 25 years in Marin, whether as attorney, feminist,  community activist, mother, educator or former Peace Corps leader, Faye has excelled.     

     Honored by her years of Peace Corps service, Faye's community development, planning and policy skills have served the legal and non-profit community, including Legal Aid of Marin, Marin Abused Women's Services, Marin's Juvenile Justice Commission, YWCA Legal Clinic, Marin County Bar Association, Marin County Women Lawyers, and the Triangle Alliance of Marin, a gay and lesbian political action committee.  Within these contexts, Faye helped to assist victims of domestic violence, improve access to the legal system, provide pro bono legal assistance, including legal clinics in Spanish, improve conditions at Juvenile Hall and Community Court School Program, and empower lesbians and gays to become involved in the political process.     

     Convinced that "we the people" hold the power, Faye does not sit quietly in the face of injustice, but chooses to act and urges others to act so that we all  have a future with integrity, justice, equality and peace.

ELBERTA J. ERIKSSON
Social Change
1996

     Elberta Eriksson is a social worker, family therapist, and a leader in child advocacy and family issues.  A graduate of Sacramento and San Francisco State Universities, she is on the faculty at Dominican College and the California Graduate School of Psychology.  As the Director of the Multi-Cultural Outreach Project at the Family Service Agency in Marin and formerly a family therapy consultant at Operation Give a Damn, Ms. Eriksson has received 20 year service awards from both organizations.  She has developed multi-cultural awareness training programs for teachers and community workers in agencies and schools.     

     Ms. Eriksson is actively involved in the Marin City Project, participating in the design of the social services to be provided.  She is serving her third term on the Human Rights Commission and is the founder of the Marin African-American Coalition, which provides social, political, educational and cultural exchange.  She has received awards for her contributions to the prevention of child abuse from both the State of California and the Marin County Board of Supervisors.  Her Study of "Interracial Marriages (Black/White) in the Bay Area" was published in 1970.  A Mill Valley resident, she is a Board Certified Diplomat, a State Delegate on the Democratic Committee to advance family and children's rights, and a charter member of the American Family Therapy Academy.

Read the extended biography by Nancy Harris

DONNA GARSKE
Social Change
1997

     Since 1974, Donna Garske has been devoted to spirited activism on behalf of women, working initially with women in the criminal justice system, and then as Executive Director of Marin Abused Women's Services (MAWS).  Throughout her 17 years at MAWS, she has led the way with innovative responses to men's violence against women, including an internationally replicated reeducation program for batterers, and one of the first transitional housing programs for battered women, for which she earned an award from the American Planning Association in 1983.      

     Her advocacy efforts have influenced legislation such as the Federal Violence Against Women Act and a California law establishing minimum requirements for batterers' programs.  In 1992, she guided MAWS in creating "Transforming Communities: Creating Safety and Justice for Women and Girls" as a learning center for preventing violence against women and girls, recognized as a model approach by the National Academy of Sciences.     

     Ms. Garske, a San Rafael resident, was selected as a 1995 National Gimbel Foundation Child and Family Scholar to explore new approaches to preventing family violence.  Her resulting article, "Transforming the Culture:  Creating Safety, Equality and Justice for Women and Girls," was published in Preventing Violence in America (1996).  In 1996, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Prevention Professionals and Advocates.  Donna helped develop Europe's first batters' program and works with the Network of East-West Women to support domestic violence programs in Eastern/Central Europe and the former Soviet Union.  Her tireless commitment, enthusiasm, humor, integrity and vision serve as an inspiration. 

Read the extended biography by Shari Rice

     Felecia Gail Gaston was denied admission to her local school of ballet, when she was a child, because of the color of her skin.  Years later, this painful experience was to become the impetus for one of her greatest accomplishments.     

     In the late 80's, while serving as the Community Relations/Cultural Events Coordinator at the Marin City Multi-Service Center, Ms. Gaston became interested in developing opportunities for Marin City Children to increase their self-esteem.  One such opportunity was a scholarship program she developed in collaboration with the Marin Ballet, which enabled Marin City children to take classes as the Marin Ballet.  By 1990 the Multi-Service Center closed its doors, leaving Felecia without a job and the children without an avenue to pursue ballet.     

     Refusing to let an opportunity die, Ms. Gaston shared her dream with Anne Rogers, executive director of the Marin Community Food Bank, and with Community Action Marin (CAM), an umbrella organization for social service programs.  With their support, she founded "Performing Stars of Marin," a non-profit agency offering low-income children, predominately African American, an opportunity to learn dance, martial arts, grooming, discipline and manners in an environment of respect and support.     

     Ms. Gaston was responsible for bringing "Performing Stars" from a struggling neighborhood program, with no budget, to a successful county-wide organization.  Through her determination and commitment, she has earned great respect in Marin county and beyond and has brought together people of various racial and ethnic backgrounds.  Her successful relationship with other Marin arts organizations impressed the Marin Community Foundation, which has become the major financial supporter of "Performing Stars."

         Ms. Gaston enjoys the enthusiastic support of many Marin City families as well.  They see "Performing Stars" as a positive, inspirational alternative to the perils of poverty.  As one of her nominators said, "Felecia is, herself, a 'Performing Star' in Marin County."

Read the extended biography by Marilyn L. Geary

PATRICIA HALINAN, M.D.
  Medicine & Social Change
1988

     Patricia Halinan was one of the first women to graduate from Stanford Medical School.  Although she was actively discouraged from pursuing medical studies by some of her professors (who did not want female students), she successfully completed her medical program.  When medical internships other than at children's hospitals were routinely denied to women, Patricia Halinan directly negotiated a general medical internship at San Francisco General Hospital.  When she completed her internship, she was the first Stanford graduate in twenty years to be awarded a residency at San Francisco General.  She later entered private practice as a cardiologist.     

     Dr. Halinan eventually became Assistant Health Officer for Marin County.  In this position she became closely acquainted with the special needs of disabled children, children with birth defects and other children with special needs.  She established a program in the Department of Public Health for the protection of battered children.  She was a champion for the rights of the developmentally disabled.  Later, as a representative of the Agency for Infant Development, she worked with State Assembly members to write, sponsor and pass legislation designed to protect California's children.  She actively lobbied in Sacramento and made numerous television appearances on behalf of these laws and other child-related issues.  She was one of the first to address the problem of fetal alcohol syndrome.  Dr. Halinan received numerous awards during her life, including the March of Dimes Meritorious Service Award.

Read Dr. Halinan's extended biography

Elizabeth Thacher Kent
Social Change (posthumans)
1998

     Elizabeth Thacher Kent, a matriarch in the founding family of Kentfield, is one of the few Marin County women to be elected posthumously to the Marin Women's Hall of Fame.  Kent was a distinguished proponent of women's rights and international peace and was instrumental in securing women's right to vote.     

     Kent took up permanent residence in Marin in 1907 and immediately became a vocal activist in support of women's' suffrage.  When her husband, William, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Kent leveraged her position as a Congressman's wife to support the national suffrage movement.  She was a featured speaker at the 1913 and 1914 conventions of the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and shortly thereafter assumed leadership of their Congressional Committee.  By 1915, she helped form the Congressional Union (later re-named the Women's Party), which picketed the White House in support of suffrage.  Kent was arrested twice for her suffrage demonstrating.  However, her cause prevailed and in August 1920 the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed guaranteeing American women the right to vote.     

     In addition to supporting suffrage, Elizabeth Kent was committed to the cause of world peace.  In the 1930's, she provided leadership to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.  She and her husband were also early supporters of the fledging conservation movement.  They donated a large tract of land to the U.S. Government to preserve old-growth redwoods.  Their gift, the Muir Woods National Monument, provides a lasting testimony to the Kents' exemplary lives of public service.

Read the extended biography by Nancy Smity Harris

Heidi Kuhn 
Social Change
2003

      Fifth generation Marin native Heidi Kuhn, the founder of the internationally acclaimed "Roots of Peace" foundation, lives, works, and breathes the motto, "Think globally, act locally."  She attributes her international perspective to her experience as a high school exchange student in Japan.  From that point she was truly a child of the world.

    International events have always been the focus of Heidi's life.  After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1979, she worked in international business management.  When the family moved to Alaska, Heidi started her own media company in 1989.  soon she was providing firsthand news about the Exxon Valdez oil spill and more to CNN, CBS, NBC and all the three-letter media giants.    

     The Kuhns returned to San Francisco and Heidi worked as a reporter and producer for CNN.  Soon after Princess Diana died in 1997, Heidi hosted a UN Land Mines Awareness reception.  She offered a toast in hope that the world would move from land "mines to vines."  With that toast, Roots of Peace was born.     

     Heidi has a talent for bringing diverse potential partners together.  Along with 450 California wineries, she has enlisted many other businesses and supporters ranging from the San Rafael and Croatian Rotary Clubs to the US State Department and the Canadian government.  Roots of Peace's first demine-and-replant project now serves as a model for similar projects from Afghanistan to Zagreb.     

     Family and mentoring also figure prominently in Heidi's life.  As a cancer survivor, she lives each day as a gift.  She instills her global perspective in her four children by taking them on working trips to Washington, DC, Croatia, and other far away places so they can see their mother "doing" diplomacy firsthand.  It's no surprise that they've begun duplicating her example.  What better lesson could they learn than to know that one person's actions can truly change the world?

ROYCE YVONNE McLEMORE
Social Change
2006

     Royce McLemore is a dynamic activist whose "Women Helping All People" fosters personal achievement, economic independence, and a sense of belonging to a community.    

     In 1990, sixteen Marin City women gathered on Royce's front lawn to express their concern for the community's young women who lived in public housing, had nothing to do, and faced a future of more of the same. Under Royce's leadership, Women Helping Women, a grassroots support service, was formed. Through Royce's strong belief that "you can do anything you want to do," WHW gradually was transformed into something greater, Women Helping All People (WHAP). WHAP's mission is to provide low-income Marin residents - particularly those in public housing - with information, support services, and educational opportunities that develop self esteem, economic self-sufficiency, and a sense of community. (WHAP's programs are open to all Marin residents regardless of race, color, sex, or creed.)    

     Impressed by WHAP's plan, the Marin Housing Authority provided office space. With an office, a $1,000 donation, and a lot of hustling for furniture and equipment, WHAP was a business, and Royce was Executive Director. Assisted by the Marin Housing Authority, Community Action Marin, the Sausalito School District and various county agencies, WHAP's mission expanded again, this time to offer goal-directed bootstrap programs for all low income Marin County residents.    

     WHAP offers an impressive line-up. In- and After School Safe House is a tutorial program for K-12 students. Landscape Services, partnering with Marin Conservation corps, trains young men to be gardeners and provides opportunities to own businesses in public housing areas. The Oracle/Independent Studies Program works with MCOE to offer independent study to enable high school dropouts to earn a diploma. The GED/ESL Literacy Class, in cooperation with Marin Literacy Council, provides tutors to teach English to residents who don't speak English. Vietnamese residents of Marin City have benefited greatly from this program.    

     The Cumper Learning Center teaches computer skills that open the door to better-paying jobs. The Housing Authority provided funds for Computer Repair Training classes, with even better jobs in mind. Finder's Keepers, with help from Ritter house, offers clothing and household items to people in need. Finally, WHAP's Scholastic Academy offers a supportive learning environment for students who perform below grade level and need extra help to improve.    

     Royce's determination, fired by her strong personal faith, is the driving force behind all this. Congratulations, Royce McLemore! 

DEBORAH SANTANA
Social Change
2007

   Deborah Santana is a true Renaissance woman. To say she’s an author, business woman, wife, mother, and philanthropist is to scratch the surface. Perhaps the best way to understand this woman is to look at her memoir, Space Between the Stars. With grace and wisdom, she explores issues of faith, spirituality, race, sexuality, love, marriage, motherhood and womanhood. Through writing, Deborah shares her ongoing quest to believe in and express her best self—and, in doing so, to love and serve humanity.    

     Born in San Francisco in the 1950s, Deborah grew up in a culture in profound transition. Her father, a pioneering African-American blues guitarist and singer, and her mother, an independent Irish/British-American career woman, married before interracial unions were legal in many states—and at a time when wives were not expected to work outside the home. They created a colorblind household where all dreams were possible. The speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the songs of Mahalia Jackson helped form Deborah’s sense of equality and social justice.    

      Ms. Santana emerged as a successful entrepreneur in the early ’70s. At the age of twenty-two, she owned and managed a thriving vegetarian restaurant in the heart of San Francisco. She met musician Carlos Santana at a concert at the Marin Civic Center. They married in 1973 and have three children together. In 1994, the couple assumed management of the Santana Band.   

     In 1998, the Santanas established the Milagro Foundation, a nonprofit organization serving children and youth in the areas of health, education and the arts. The Milagro Foundation –milagro meaning miracle – has made hundreds of grants to underserved and underprivileged children and youth in 30 states and 35 countries, with a focus on agencies in Marin County.     Santana’s accomplishments have been widely recognized. In 2000, Ms. Santana received the UCLA César E. Chávez Spirit Award in recognition of her philanthropic work. In 2004, she received a Women of Distinction Award from Soroptimist International for her outstanding achievements in business and leadership. She and Carlos have been recognized by YOUTHAIDS for their efforts battling the AIDS pandemic in Africa. In 2006 Deborah received one of the Marin Human Rights Commission’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Awards. Deborah Santana has earned her place in the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame.

ETHEL SIDERMAN
Social Change
1998

    Ethel Seiderman is nationally recognized for her creative approaches to childcare and family, establishing cooperative nursery schools tied to parent education programs.  Growing up in the Bronx during the Depression years, and educated at Brooklyn College during the McCarthy era, Ms. Seiderman worked in the settlement movement, first at the Henry Street Settlement House in the lower east side of Manhattan and later at the Roxbury Neighborhood Center in  Boston.  Under the auspices of San Francisco State University she directed the nurseries in the Cross Cultural Education programs providing experiences to children and opportunities to parents in order to build a greater sense of community and communications across diverse populations.  She established and directed one of the first infant care programs in the state, the Florence Crittendon Infant Center, geared to providing quality childcare to teenage mothers while they finished school.      

     In 1973, she founded the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children's Center which has served as a model for other programs throughout the nation.  The Center consists of the infant-toddler program, pre-school and after-school programs, and the "Get Well Room."  Her exemplary Parents Service Project provides workshops, support groups, respite care, and family events, all of which contribute to  enhance the  leadership and sense of competency of low income families from diverse backgrounds.

SYLVIA M. SIEGEL
Social Change
1990

     A long time consumer activist, as founder of TURN (Toward Utility Rate Normalization) in 1973, Sylvia Siegel became the main protagonist and protector of all utility paying consumers.  After finding that no one was really challenging the utilities companies, Ms. Siegel became a self-taught expert of complicated utility law.     

     Ms. Siegel's work led to the utility industry changing its rate structure to eliminate a discount for increased usage - so that it now supports reduced use.  Her efforts also helped to mandate a "lifeline rate" - a minimum amount of gas and electric made available at reasonable rates for those who needed it most - the segment of the population on fixed incomes.     

     She utilized her ability to interpret complicated data and communicate the findings into the "everyday language that consumers can understand," and make it "juicy" enough so that people would listen.  Among some 250 consumer advocates in California, Ms. Siegel became the most visible and viable advocate in the state.  Upon her retirement from TURN, she was hired by the Marin County Board of Supervisors to represent the interest of the consumers of Marin with Viacom Cable.  She went on to organize a statewide group called Consumers Cable Commission.    

     Recently elected to the Marin Health Care District Board,  Ms. Siegel continues to be an active advocate and voice of the consumer, and serving her second term on the Board of KQED.

Read Sylvia Siegel's extended biography

Gloria's work and focus are from three sources: love and respect for children; an understanding of the profound benefits of art and play as healing tools; a belief that everyone has something of value to contribute and that everyone needs opportunities to give back.

At thirteen, she became a child advocate, as a volunteer in a NYC pediatric hospital where she painted with critically ill children. After high school she traveled and founded three small schools for children in Spain, Holland and Peru. Using art she followed her lifelong dreams and passion and created a unique way for children to cope and to begin healing.

Gloria received a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union in New York City and an M.A. in counseling psychology and an honorary M.A. degree in expressive art therapy from The California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. In 1980 she moved to the Bay Area. In 1981, she began therapeutic art programs at two San Francisco hospitals; California Pacific Medical Center/University of California, and San Francisco’s Moffitt Hospital. At the Children’s Cancer Research Institute, she created an arts program to help children cope and express themselves. "The children," she remembers, "taught me to listen and to sit with pain."
In1989, she founded the DrawBridge Foundation: An Arts Program for Homeless Children, in the canal district of San Rafael.  It has served over 10,000 children in family shelters: providing safety, stability and respect for homeless children offering art, collage, role-playing and other artistic methods.
DrawBridge also has 30 sites in seven bay area counties. As one of the earliest and most successful programs for the homeless population of Marin, DrawBridge has become a model for other states and also established international partnerships with groups in Afghanistan, Palestine, India and Mexico. Over the past ten years, Gloria offered training in working with children in crisis in Europe and Africa, with a focus on children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Gloria Simoneaux was founder, fund-raiser and Executive Director of Drawbridge for nineteen years.  She recently started a new organization, Harambee Arts, which partners with African grassroots programs to train local caregivers to provide art programs for vulnerable children in an environment that fosters their sense of joy, creativity and exuberance. Harambee, a Swahili word for "Let’s Pull Together" sums up Gloria’s desires for helping children.

Gloria’s vision and perseverance have raised social consciousness and advanced human rights throughout the world. Her work has empowered others, especially children. In 2008 Gloria was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to lecture and do research at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, for a year.

The Hall of Fame honors Gloria in Social Change, for her continued dedication to help homeless children.

ANNETTE KLANG  SMAIL
Social Change
1991

       In the 1940's, Annette Klang Smail began her career as a social reformer by working for the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) in Chicago.  Long an advocate of solutions to economic problems, she has lobbied at the local, state and national levels against poverty, racism and gender discrimination.  Ms. Smail spearheaded the grassroots efforts to have a bill passed in Congress to extend medical and pension benefits to divorced wives of men who had been in the military twenty years or more, overturning a Supreme Court case denying those benefits.     

     Ms. Smail was co-founder of the Novato Human Needs Center and served on its board for seven years.  In 1980, she was selected as a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging, and in 1984, she was a member of the California Task Force on the Feminization of Poverty.  She was the founder of the Older Women's Political Caucus and served as its President from 1977 until 1995.  Annette has long been a leader in the movement for gender equality on government commissions, and was instrumental in the creation in 1996 of the President's Interagency Council on Women.  This Council is designed to identify and eliminate laws and policies that hinder the lives of women.  The recipient of the 1994 Eleanor Roosevelt Women of Vision Award, Annette has actively supported a Marin Abused Women's Services program to address the problem of domestic violence.

Read Annette Smail's extended biography

THE REV. JANIE ADAMS   SPAHR
Social Change
1993

    The Rev. Spahr first began serving people in Marin in 1975 as Associate Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in San Rafael.  In 1979 she was forced to resign as Executive Director of the Oakland Council of Presbyterian Churches when she "came out" as a lesbian.  She founded and served as Executive Director of Spectrum Center for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns (Formerly Ministry of Light).  Since 1980 Spectrum has been the only social service agency serving the needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Marin County by starting such programs as the Marin Aids Project, Marin Chapter for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Rainbows End Youth Program, Lesbian/Gay Parents Group, AIDS Interfaith of Marin, New Horizons and Women's Spirituality Group.     

     In December, 1991, the Downtown United Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York chose the Rev. Spahr to be one of their four co-pastors.  Eleven months and two Presbyterian court battles later, the Rev. Spahr was denied permission to act as pastor due to her sexual orientation.  In spite of this setback, the Rev. Spahr was chosen as the first nationwide lesbian Presbyterian Evangelist educator.  She has and will continue to encourage and strengthen thousands of people who share her hopes and dreams for the just treatment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in our community and throughout the country.

SUSHMA TAYLOR, Ph.D.
Social Change
2005

   Sushma Deva Taylor, Ph.D., a native of India, has been Executive Director of Center Point, Inc. a private substance-abuse facility in Marin, since 1981.Center Point provides long-term adult residential and outpatient services, adolescent services, in-custody drug treatment service, case management services for parolees, and a wide range of other services. The organization has grown under Dr. Taylor's stewardship and today serves more than 6,500 clients annually in Sacramento, Contra Costa, San Diego and Marin counties, treatment to 2,400 inmates daily in seven California prisons, and parolee management in 18 California counties.       

     Dr. Taylor co-directed the Marin County Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime Project (TASC) for five years and was Director of the Sonoma County TASC for two years. The mentally ill diversion program she developed at Sonoma TASC became a national model. She directed the Phoenix Project at San Quentin, served on the Marin County Adult Criminal Justice Commission, and chaired the Commission for four years. Dr. Taylor has also served as a special consultant to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The Residential Women and Children's Program she developed at Center Point in 1990 is one of the best in the country.      

     Dr. Taylor has a Master's in Public Administration, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, a MFCC, and she is a Certified Practitioner of Psychodrama and Group Sociometry. She holds office in the Therapeutic Communities of America (TCA) and chaired the California Therapeutic Communities Association (CTC). She serves on several statewide advisory boards and commissions, chairs the California Perinatal Treatment Network, serves on the Proposition 36 Statewide Advisory Group, co-chairs the Department of Alcohol and Drug Program's Access to Recovery Project, and serves on Department of Corrections Office of Substance Abuse Program's Policy Advisory Committee.       

     As a consultant for the State Department, Dr. Taylor toured India, Burma and South East Asia as an expert in narcotics treatment. Her team was sent to train psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and counselors in the latest techniques. She has lived in the West Indies, Sweden, England, Laos and Bangkok and speaks several languages. Married to another clinical psychologist, Dr. Taylor has one son, Thaine, who recently completed a four-year enlistment with the US Marine Corps. He was deployed to Afghanistan immediately following September 11, 2001.