12th Annual Women's Hall of Fame

Past Winners

2005 Category Winners

Elaine de Coligny – Business and Professions

Elaine de Coligny is the Executive Director of Building Futures with Women and Children of San Leandro (formerly San Leandro Shelter for Women and Children). She has developed this entity into an agency that provides a full continuum of emergency and support services to some of Alameda County’s most at-risk families -- battered women and their children who are concurrently dealing with issues of homelessness, substance abuse, and/or mental illness. Under her leadership, Building Futures has expanded from a basic, nights-only 30-bed shelter into an agency providing 55 emergency shelter beds in two shelters, and a 20-bed domestic violence safe house. On a broader scale, Ms. de Coligny has provided consistent vision and leadership for far-reaching collaborative efforts to improve the status and living conditions of women and children in Alameda County.

Arabella Martinez – Community Service

Arabella Martinez has recently retired as the Chief Executive Officer of The Unity Council, Alameda County. She has broken racial and gender barriers by being the very first Latina to be appointed by a United States President to a cabinet-level position. in 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed Ms. Martinez to Assistant Secretary for the Office of Human Development Services, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. She also has broken economic barriers by convincing private companies, lenders and foundations to invest significantly in a low-income inner-city minority neighborhood. Her efforts have netted over $65 million to date for the Fruitvale Transit Village. This level of private investment in a community like the Fruitvale is unprecedented.

Joan Tarika Lewis – Culture and Art

Joan Tarika Lewis is Art Instructor/Counselor for Healthy Babies Project, Inc., Oakland. At the Healthy Babies Project, Ms. Lewis has developed a successful model for women in recovery. Her weekly workshop directs her students to visualize on canvas past issues, traumas, addictions, present insights, transformations and future goals of developing drug free lifestyles. Violinist, illustrator, writer, lecturer, teacher, mentor, dancer, mother and grandmother -- she is constantly perfecting and using her talents to set an example and make significant changes in her community. In 2001, Ms. Lewis was awarded the Congressional Recognition Award by Congresswoman Barbara Lee for Performing Artist and Recognition of Community Work. Ms. Lewis has demonstrated her commitment to Alameda County for over 36 years.

Rory Darrah – Education

Rory Darrah is Early Care and Education Director for Every Child Counts in San Leandro. As a teacher and director, Ms. Darrah has first-hand experience with the under-appreciation and under-recognition of childcare providers. These providers, who are doing the crucial work of educating our youngest citizens, are for the most part as highly educated as public school teachers but are paid significantly less. She has a keen understanding of teachers’ rights to decent wages, benefits and workplace recognition. Fueled with this purpose, she, along with her colleagues, founded the Child Care Employee Project, which later became known as the Center for the Child Care Workforce. Their mission is to improve the quality of childcare services by upgrading the wages, benefits, training opportunities and working conditions for child care teachers and family child care providers.

Priscilla J. Banks – Health

Priscilla J. Banks has been the Chairperson of the Associated Community Action Program’s Community Action Board. For over ten years, she has championed and led the Board, which focuses on development, review and monitoring policy and funding recommendations for the very low-income in all designated areas outside of Berkeley and Oakland. Ms. Banks’ leadership and direction have proven invaluable components countrywide. Partnered with her ACAP activities, Ms. Banks has been heavily involved in women and health care with a particular focus on African- American women and health. She co-founded two organizations: Sisters Three and Recycle-2000. Sisters Three has touched the lives of hundreds of women -- those diagnosed with and survivors of breast cancer. Her involvement led to an organization that supports networks in five counties to African-American women who are breast cancer survivors.

Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong – Justice

In 1991, President Bush appointed Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong to the United States District Court. With her appointment, she became the first African-American woman to serve on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Judge Armstrong’s accomplishments also exemplify her ability to break down racial and gender barriers. In 1970, for example, she became the first African-American policewomen, and only one of seven policewomen overall in the Oakland Police Department. Fascinated with the legal issues she encountered on the job as a policewoman, she decided to attend law school while continuing to serve her hometown of Oakland as a police officer until 1977. In addition to devoting her professional life to public service, she has immersed herself in reaching out to the community in myriad ways.

Dona Crawford – Science

Dona Crawford is the Associate Director of Computation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Ms. Crawford is among the first of two women to be named as associate directors. It is through her technical skills and leadership that the Laboratory’s Computation Directorate has become a world leader in high-performance computing capability/environments. Her organization maintains its leadership by straddling three technology curves, guaranteeing the delivery of world-class computing to Laboratory programs today and ensuring that it will be able to deliver next-generation computing solutions in the future. Ms. Crawford does extensive volunteer work in the Tri-Valley area, promoting math and science careers for young women through her participation in community outreach activities. She is also a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

Themy-Jo Adachi – Sports and Athletics

Themy-Jo Adachi has been the Director of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation at Mills College for the past four years, although her impact upon the Mills’ faculty, staff, students and the extended Alameda County community actually involves over twenty-two years of service. According to the most recent statistics of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, women comprise a mere 17% of all athletic directors in the United States. Out of this small number, Ms. Adachi is one of only six minority female athletic directors and one of only three female Asian-Americans to serve in this position in the entire country! Ms. Adachi has the courage to be different, to challenge the current paradigm of a culture that values “winning” often at the expense of personal and professional integrity. Gender and ethnicity aside, what most distinguishes Ms. Adachi from her peers is her holistically grounded philosophical approach to sport that informs her administrative decisions on a daily basis.

Casey Oto – Youth

The students at Casey Oto’s high school are required to do a minimum of 60 hours of community service before they graduate. Casey has more than doubled the goal in less than two and a half years. Meeting the goal has not stopped her volunteerism or the clever ideas she envisions and implements for her community. During her freshman year, Casey began a library project for the Lincoln Childcare Center. She started from scratch with a dark basement storage room and developed it into a working library for students and teachers at the Center. She coordinated the donation of over 3500 books from various sources. The library has been a huge success and she continues to see it through by working on an on-line database to manage the library effectively. Casey is on outstanding young woman who identifies the needs of her community and sets out to meet them through her creative ideas and incredible follow through. She gives anywhere from one to four hours of time per week to her community (even more during special projects) and has supported more than 15 organizations in the past three years.