GAE Awards Luncheon

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Listen to the Luncheon speakers and award recipients:

Watch the Luncheon:

About Annie Powell
About Norma Hotaling

Keynote Speaker

Michealene Cristini Risley, is an award winning writer and director. Her first film, Flaschards, won numerous awards, screened in the Shorts du Jour program at The Cannes Film Festival and was picked up by American Public Television for PBS stations. Her new documentary, Tapestries of Hope has also won numerous awards and launched Sept 28th 2010 in 107 theatres. The film is also being used as a tool for grassroots efforts with over 45 groups to push Congress to sign and FUND I-VAWA (International Violence Against Women Act) one of those key partners is FACEBOOK who actually helped her to get out of prison in Zimbabwe. A member of both the Writers Guild and The Directors Guild, Michealene also co-authored the best-selling book, “This is not the Life I ordered”, selling over 50,000 copies. Miss Risley also blogs frequently for the Huffington Post on issues of Women and Children, Human Rights and Africa. She was recently honored as One of Silicon Valley’s most influential Women.

2011 International Women’s Day Honorees
The luncheon will recognize women who have made great achievements in the fight to end discrimination against women. Here are this year’s honorees:

Extraordinary Public Service
	Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, a native of San Francisco, California, was elected to San Francisco County Board of Supervisors in 2001, and served until 2011. During her tenure, she focused on Land Use and Economic Development, Environmental and Health Initiatives, Children Youth and their Families, and Equal Distribution and Access to Resources for All. As Supervisor, her committee assignments allowed her to address some of the most important issues facing San Francisco. She served as Chairperson on Land Use and Economic Development, Budget and Finance, and Safety Guns and Gangs Violence) Committees. She represented the City and County as a member of Board of Directors – California League of Cities, City and School District Committee , and Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). As Supervisor her many legislative accomplishments included a Residential Water Conservation Ordinance: to achieve water conservation by improving the water efficiency of residential buildings by amending the standards; Commercial Water Conservation Ordinance: to achieve water conservation by improving the water efficiency of commercial buildings by changing the standards and much more. She currently serves on the 34th America’s Cup – San Francisco’s Americas Cup Organizing Committee (ACOC) and member of the Executive Committee.
Organization of the Year
The Family Violence Prevention Fund works to prevent violence within the home, and in the community, to help those whose lives are devastated by violence because everyone has the right to live free of violence. For more than three decades, the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) has worked to end violence against women and children around the world. Instrumental in developing the landmark Violence Against Women Act passed by Congress in 1994, the FVPF has continued to break new ground by reaching new audiences including men and youth, promoting leadership within communities to ensure that violence prevention efforts become self-sustaining, and transforming the way health care providers, police, judges, employers and others address violence. FVPF serves families through the following program areas: Children and Families: Because the youngest victims often go unseen and unheard; Judicial: Aiding victims in and out of the courtroom; Global Prevention: Promoting safety for families around the world; Health Care: Domestic Violence is a health care issue: Immigrant Women: Empowering immigrant and refugee communities to respond to violence; Public Communications: Everyone can help stop violence before it starts; Public Policy: Shaping policy, organizing the field: Teens: Keeping teens safe and stopping violence before it ever begins; and Workplace: Creating supportive and responsive workplaces free from violence.
	About Esta Soler, President & Founder One of the world’s foremost experts on violence against women and children, Esta Soler is a pioneer who founded the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) 30 years ago and made it one of the world’s leading violence prevention agencies. With offices in San Francisco, Boston and Washington, D.C., and partners around the world, the FVPF develops innovative strategies to prevent domestic, dating and sexual violence, stalking and child abuse. Under Soler’s direction, the FVPF was a driving force behind passage of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 – the nation’s first comprehensive federal response to the violence that plagues families and communities. Congress reauthorized and expanded the law in 2000 and 2005. She is spearheading efforts to pass the International Violence Against Women Act. Soler is co-author of Ending Domestic Violence: Changing Public Perceptions/Halting the Epidemic. She has one daughter, Marjorie.
Unsung Heroine Award
	Caryl Ito, has been a passionate advocate and volunteer for women’s equity and participation at all levels of the community for over 30 years. She was one of the founding members of a national Asian pacific women’s movement in the late 70′s which resulted in the development of the local bay area group, pacific Asian American women bay area coalition(PAAWBAC). a 30 year old nonprofit organization. Caryl served under 3 mayoral administrations, as president of the San Francisco commission on the status of women and helped to reconstitute this commission in 1989. She played an integral part of the citywide ballot measure to ensure that this commission was part of the city charter. Caryl recently completed 3 terms as a San Francisco airport commissioner under both the Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom administrations.
Annie Powell Community Leadership Award
	Deara Okonkwo is an ambitious twenty year old former graduate of the University of Southern California with a Master’s Degree and Teaching Credential from the Rossier School of Education and a Bachelor’s Degree in English with a minor in Psychology. She is renowned for her outstanding academic accomplishments; at age fourteen, she graduated from high school with an Associate of Arts Degree and at seventeen, she received her Bachelor’s in English with a minor in Psychology from the University of Southern California. Most recently, she earned her Master’s Degree at eighteen years old. She is the Founder and CEO of DeDe Dance Studio, a burgeoning non-profit that works to empower youth through multicultural performing arts and brotherhood and sisterhood clubs. Her motto in life is to recycle the knowledge that she obtained and she has sought to achieve these as an urban educator. Her passion lies in her work, teaching in the classroom and empowering youth through the arts. With only 18 years, she has helped to impact hundreds of children in the communities of South, Los Angeles. She is a true change agent and leader for the youth that she serves.
The Norma Hotaling Community Advocate of the Year Award
	Roma Guy, is a social justice activist and policy leader on homelessness, public health, poverty, immigrant rights, and women’s rights. She has been involved in numerous projects protecting women’s health rights, many in the San Francisco Bay area, including helping to found the Women’s Building and the Women’s Foundation and the California Women’s Agenda, which advocates for universal health care and women’s reproductive rights that respect the rich cultural and linguistic diversity in America. She directs the Bay Area Homelessness Program and was appointed as a member of the Mayor’s Homeless Task Force that developed the care plan to address the homeless crisis in the Bay Area. She also teaches at the Department of Health Education at San Francisco State University, helping to inspire a new generation of social activists interested in pursuing a career in public health. Roma Guy was nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize project
Man of the Year
	Willie Lewis Brown, Jr served over 30 years in the California State Assembly, spending 15 years as its Speaker, and afterward served two terms as the 41st mayor of San Francisco, Willie L. Brown, Jr., has been at the center of California politics, government, and civic life for an astonishing four decades. During his service on the California State Assembly, Mr. Brown spearheaded groundbreaking legislation that gave low income women access to birth control. In 1998, under his leadership as Mayor, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to endorse the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Also known as the Women’s Bill of Rights, he mandated that San Francisco city laws mandated inclusion of women on city boards and commissions and ensured equal rights of women are considered in all decision making. From civil rights to education reform, economic development, health care, domestic partnerships, and affirmative action, Mr. Brown has ensured access, equality and opportunity for women and economically underserved communities. Today, he heads the Willie L. Brown, Jr., Institute on Politics and Public Service, where this acknowledged master of the art of where he shares his knowledge and skills with the next generation of California leaders.
Spirit of Equality Award
	John Trasviña,was nominated by President Obama to be Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in April 2009 and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in May. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) administers and enforces federal anti-discrimination laws and establishes policies that make sure all Americans have equal access to the housing of their choice. Before joining the Obama Administration, Assistant Secretary Trasviña served as President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). There he led the “law firm for the Latino community” by advancing litigation and public policy in the areas of civil rights, immigration, education and related issues. A native of San Francisco, Assistant Secretary Trasviña’s family roots in Mexico date back to the late 1600′s with the arrival of Sgt. Major Juan Antonio Trasviña y Retes, one of the founders of Chihuahua, Mexico. John’s grandfather was Mexican consul in posts throughout the Western states in the 1920s. His parents, Juan and Carmen Trasviña, have been active in school, community and union activities for the past 40 years.

Annie M. Powell Community Leadership Award
About Annie M. Powell

In May, 2004, gun violence ended the life of Annie M. Powell. She was only 23 years old. When the gunman pulled the trigger with no concern for the value of a life we lost a brilliant young woman. She wanted to be a criminal attorney. After completing City College she planned to continue on to study law and eventually work in her community of Bayview Hunters Point. In an interview published in Audrey Shehyn’s “Picture The Girl”, Annie shared that most kids in Bayview do not believe they will live to see their twenty fifth birthday. Her hope was to one day meet her grandchildren. Annie was shot and killed just twelve days after her 23rd birthday.

Global Arts and Education’s basic leadership program is named in honor of a young woman who believed in herself and when she finished talking to you, you believed in her too.

If Annie were alive today, this program would not be named for her, it would managed by her. Annie had drive. She had vision. She was a community leader, a team builder and a future politician.

Norma Hotaling Community Advocate of the Year Award
About Norma Hotaling

SAGE Founder Norma Hotaling turned her own experience with homelessness, addiction and prostitution into a mission of social entrepreneurialism. She was determined to make it easier for other women, men and youth who wanted to leave the sex trade and addiction behind, and find their way from the harsh effects of sexual exploitation to restored wellness, confidence, vocation, and overall wholeness.

In addition to a degree in Health Education from San Francisco State University, Ms. Hotaling had over 25 years of professional experience in public-health research, education and outreach, including in-depth expertise in systems of prostitution, domestic and international trafficking in women and girls, HIV/AIDS research and prevention, and the long-term physical and psychological effects of physical and sexual violence on abused women. Norma Hotaling, a nationally recognized advocate for the sexually exploited, died in 2008 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer at the age fifty-seven.