Honorees Announced for WAVE 2006

GirlSource honors its 2006 Women of Achievement, Vision, and Excellence on May 4 at the Union Square Grand Hyatt in San Francisco. This year's honorees include:

• Judith Ford
  
• Maudelle Shirek
  
• Roselyne "Cissie" Swig
  

• 
  Judith Ford served as a judge on the Alameda Superior Court for nearly 20 years after a career in computer technology. She was the first African-American woman to become an Alameda County judge, and she served as a mentor to many women judges who have followed her on the Alameda County bench. Judge Ford led Alameda County's efforts to improve the use of technology in the court. Judge Ford was first appointed by former Governor Jerry Brown to the Oakland- Piedmont-Emeryville Municipal Court in Alameda County. She served there from 1983 until 1998, and also served as the presiding judge. She was elevated to the Superior Court in 1998 and served in that capacity until her retirement in November 2002. Judge Ford graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law when she was 39 years old. Before becoming a judge, she worked as a San Francisco assistant district attorney, a private practitioner and a regional director of the Federal Trade Commission.
  
  
• Maudelle Shirek, former Berkeley City Council member and vice mayor was the oldest elected official in California, according to her aide, and her supporters often use "icon" and "hero" to describe her. Her adversaries, while respecting her integrity and dignified presence, are more likely to favor "radical" and "stubborn," or in former days, "Communist." In 1984, at the age of 73, Maudelle ran for Berkeley City Council, eventually serving eight consecutive terms before retiring at age 89. A granddaughter of slaves, she left her rural Arkansas home for California in the middle of World War II, and before long she was campaigning for fair housing and other civil rights for African Americans. She became a union organizer and an office manager of the Co-op Credit Union, and she helped found two Berkeley senior centers, one of which she still actively oversees. She delivers meals to shut-in seniors, or if it's Tuesday, does all the shopping for lunches at the New Light Senior Center, which she founded 27 years ago.
  
  
• Roselyne "Cissie" Swig is founder and president of ComCon International, is a member of the board of directors of The Swig Company, and was the founder of Roselyne C. Swig Artsource (1978-94). She has devoted decades to philanthropic and community service efforts at the local, national and global levels with the principal focus on women’s and social welfare issues, fine art, political advocacy and education. She was appointed by
  President Bill Clinton as director of the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies Program. Roselyne is the founder of SF Partners Ending Domestic Abuse. Her additional board memberships include KQED, Mills College, SF Art Institute, UAM/PFA Berkeley, NPR Foundation, AIPAC, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Jewish Community Federation of SF, the
  Peninsula, Marin & Sonoma Counties, the SF Museum of Modern Art, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum of SF, where she presently serves as chairperson. She has served the City and County of San Francisco as a past president of the SF Arts Commission and the SF Library Commission and co-chairperson of the design committee of the Holocaust Memorial in San
  Francisco.
  

The Outreach and Education Team, a team of GirlSource women who have benefitted from a host of GirlSource programs is producing presentations on each of our honorees' lives.

Contact Holly Million (holly[at]girlsource.org) for corporate sponsorship opportunities and individual tickets to this event celebrating some of the Bay Area's amazing women!