Carter March 2012 E-Newsletter
In 2011, Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter served as a panelist at the Fifth Annual State of Women’s Conference in Rialto held during March, which is National Women’s History Month. The conference highlighted the contributions of four women who were currently serving as elected officials representing the Inland Empire and three younger women. From left, Rialto Unified School District Board Member Joanne Gilbert, Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren, Josie Gonzales, Chair and Fifth District Supervisor, San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and Assembly Member Carter.
Dear Friends,
In honor of National Women’s History Month, I am devoting my monthly E-Newsletter to the recognition of women in the 62nd Assembly District who are making a difference in our community. The groundbreaking leaders I am highlighting have achieved great success as professionals and as volunteers.
I am proud of their commitment, proud of their collaborative efforts and all they have done to improve the quality of life in our cities and neighborhoods.
In this edition, I am also giving special accolades to remarkable young women who are now breaking into their leadership roles. They will pave the way for new ideas and new community partnerships that will build a better future for the next generation.
All these women serve as examples and role models. They inspire younger women to do great things in their community. I applaud them for the leadership and perseverance it takes to tirelessly serve others and make our world a better place.
Sincerely,
Wilmer Amina Carter Assembly Member – District 62
Carolyn Tillman
Carolyn Tillman is a special assistant to Dr. Gary Thomas, superintendent of San Bernardino County Schools. She represents the County Superintendent in both public and private forums. She leads a life of community service, and various state and local agencies have awarded and recognized her for her contributions. She currently serves as a trustee on the San Bernardino County Library Board and a board member of the San Bernardino Community Scholarship Association and the San Bernardino Police Activities League. Carolyn completed training in the San Bernardino City Leadership Program and has served as a board member for the American Cancer Society, San Bernardino Chapter. She is a past president of the National Council of Negro Women, Inland Empire Section. She is also the former director of a mentoring program for the San Bernardino County Women’s Network. Carolyn is a Sunday school teacher at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and co-chair of the Scholarship Ministry.
Eloise Reyes
Eloise Reyes, a Colton lawyer, is known for her support and active involvement in the community. As a leader, she is motivated by the biblical passage that when someone is given much, much will be required in return. She believes it is her responsibility to assist in any way possible. One of the main ways she supports the community is through her family’s Valor Youth Foundation. It provides cultural enrichment programs, educational technology and after-school tutoring to families in need. Her other avenue for service is the Inland Empire Latino Lawyers Legal Aid, which provides free legal services to the indigent.
Pauline Tidler
Pauline Tidler, a longtime Rialto volunteer and civic leader, has a strong sense of community pride. She has been secretary of the Kiwanis Club of East Rialto and stays involved in leadership awards programs. She also started Kiwanis Key Clubs in three Rialto high schools. She serves on the Rialto City PlanningCommission and has been instrumental in the development of programs that enhance and maintain the image and aesthetics of the city and neighborhoods. She helped found the Los Colinas Adopt-a-Neighborhood program, and takes part in the group’s community service projects. Pauline’s devotion to improving the health and well-being of seniors can also be seen at the Rialto Senior Center, where she has volunteered as a scrapbooking teacher.
Veatrice Jews
Veatrice Jews is a retired hospital administrator who devotes her time to non-profit and faith-based organizational management. She is currently the mental health commissioner for the Fifth Supervisory District of San Bernardino County. She has helped form an agency coalition to focus on African American mental health. She serves as acting chairwoman of Option House, which provides 24-hour crisis intervention and transitional housing, community outreach and legal services for families in need. As an advocate, she is committed to raising awareness and educating the community about family violence. She is past health chairwoman of the Inland Empire Concerned African American Churches IECAAC. She takes a leadership role in organizing IECAAC’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast.
Anna Ulibarri
Anna Ulibarri directs facilities planning for the Rialto Unified School District (RUSD). She is credited with the successful construction and opening of RUSD’s state-of-the-art Wilmer Amina Carter High School, and other educational facilities. Committed to community involvement, Anna has served on several advisory committees for the City of Rialto. She and her husband, Willie C. Ulibarri, Jr., run the non-profit Project Life Impact, Inc., After School Impact and Back-2-Basics Family Services. The organizations provide after-school tutoring and programs to hundreds of students and families. She is currently a venue pastor for Water of Life Community Church in Upland. She has also served on the nominating committee for Assembly Member Carter’s 30 Under 30 Latino Native American Recognition Breakfast.
Joanne T. Gilbert
Joanne Gilbert is committed to education. Her passion is helping children succeed. She spent 37 years teaching high school, working in school districts in Long Beach and Moreno Valley. She was elected to the Rialto School Board in 2001 and is now serving her third, four-year term. She serves on the board of the San Bernardino County Community Action Partnership, which provides resources for families in need. She also mentors at-risk middle school girls.
A 13-year breast cancer survivor, Joanne is a member and witness role model for the Southern California Witness Project, breast cancer awareness and support organization. She volunteers for the City of Rialto Relay-for-Life for the American Cancer Society. She is also past president of the Original Rialto Democratic Club, past commissioner (Beautification Commission) for the City of Rialto and past president of the Inland Empire Section, National Council of Negro Women (NCNW).
Lynn Boshart
Lynn Boshart is committed to the health of our community and the environment. The retired Garden Grove High School English teacher believes that what we treasure we should keep in perpetuity. Her environmental volunteerism was stimulated by her appointment to the municipal advisory council for the San Bernardino County Fifth District. She then became an advocate for the El Rancho Verde neighborhood in Rialto. She also started the organization Save Lytle Creek Wash to help preserve the wilderness area.
Dr. Margaret Hill Margaret Hill is assistant superintendent of Administrative Services for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Office. She does whatever she can to make a difference for children, young people, adults or senior citizens in the community. It is her work with education that most distinguishes her community service. She was recently elected to the San Bernardino City Unified School Board, where she taught for many years and headed an alternative high school. She started a food service for children and authored the book “It’s All About the Children.” She is CEO and founder of Maggie’s Kids Foundation, a non-profit organization. Her current community involvement includes board and regular membership in the following: Kiwanis of Greater San Bernardino, Inland Center Kiwanis Club, Highland Family YMCA (charter member), East Valley Corporate YMCA, San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation, Community Hospital of San Bernardino (current board chair), National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Inc., Delta Rho Chapter (former national officer), Highland’s Woman’s Club, Time for Change Foundation, Sheriff Hoop’s Citizen Advisory Council, and the San Bernardino Police Advisory Committee.
Syeda Jafri
Syeda Jafri was inspired by her parents’ commitment to community service. She is communications director for Rialto Unified School District (RUSD) and an award-winning journalist and radio personality. A 12- year veteran of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), Syeda hosted a regional Emmy-nominated environmental show, Green Works with Syeda Jafri from 2007-2009, which can still be viewed on KVCR PBS Television. As the chairperson for the RUSD’s annual Puttin’ on the Ritz Fine Arts Gala, Syeda has assisted in raising more than a quarter of a million dollars for RUSD classroom teachers and students.
Deborah Robertson
Deborah Robertson has played a pioneering and integral role as a woman in the public transportation field. Recently retired, she worked as the deputy district director, external affairs, at the California Department of Transportation. Representing the diversity in her community, Deborah is the first African American woman to sit on the Rialto City Council. She hosts an annual women’s conference in Rialto for National Women’s History Month. In the past four years, she has helped to establish an annual football camp for 11- to 18-year-olds at Cal State San Bernardino that focuses on athletics and academics. She also co-chairs the Los Colinas Adopt-a-Neighborhood Program.
Glenda Bates Glenda Bates, the breastfeeding coordinator for the County of San Bernardino, is committed to promoting breastfeeding education for mothers and ensuring the availability and quality of health care services for breastfeeding mothers. She is also a board member of the Inland Empire Breastfeeding Coalition. She has advocated for a bill that Assembly Member Carter has supported which would require all maternity hospitals in California to have an infant feeding policy that is clearly posted and routinely communicated to perinatal staff. She is also working with San Bernardino area schools and at Cal State San Bernardino, promoting breastfeeding and improving lactating accommodation for student mothers. As a youth survivor of the Jonestown Massacre, she teaches Christianity and independent thinking when it comes to faith.
Karla Morales
Karla Morales works for the San Bernardino School Employees Federal Credit Union in human resources, business development and marketing. Her job has given her access as a volunteer to schools and other organizations to help people in need. Her most rewarding experience has been founding and chairing the Arrowhead United Way Young Leadership Council and Women’s Leadership Council. With these groups, she has focused on early grade literacy, philanthropy and mentoring future community leaders. Karla volunteers for the homeless and helps organize staffing assistance for Mary’s Mercy Center for food, clothing and toy drives. She speaks publicly on young women’s issues and financial literacy. She also serves as a mentor through ASTERISK, a career and employment program for students in San Bernardino schools.
Linda Burton
Linda Burton is the coordinator for the Fontana Community Assistance Program. She helped build a coalition of nonprofits, churches, schools and other agencies to connect residents to everything from marriage counseling and computer classes to child care and food banks. She says she is committed to people, to loving them, caring about them and supporting them. Linda has also taught parenting classes for the City of Rancho Cucamonga.
Beverly Jones-Wright
Beverly Jones-Wright is project coordinator for the Tobacco Use Reduction Now (TURN) program at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department. As a community service volunteer, she is committed to going the distance and perseveres in the face of obstacles. She is the first female trustee of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in San Bernardino. She stays active with regional health-care issues through the Inland Empire Black Health Consortium, which she founded. She is also a leader with the California Black Health Network and the African American Tobacco Education Network. She has served as committee chairperson for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast.
Midge Zupanic
Midge Zupanic has devoted her life to volunteering for non-profits and helping municipalities. She served three terms on the Rialto City Council and was the first woman to complete a whole term. Her work on the Council made the Rialto Senior Center and the skate board park at Margaret Todd Park a reality. She is also vice chair of the Rialto Transportation Commission, and is now seeing the extension of Pepper Avenue, a longtime project of hers, come to fruition. She serves as Treasurer of the Rialto Chamber of Commerce, and is also the interim executive director. She has headed up the Chamber Golf Tournament for several years and originated the idea for Taste of Rialto. Midge is also a member of the Kiwanis Club of East Rialto.
Gwendolyn Heard Nelson
Gwendolyn Heard Nelson is semi-retired and works part-time as the volunteer coordinator for Children and Family Services for the County of San Bernardino. She has been a longtime volunteer for the annual Blood of the Martyrs Blood Drive on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. She is the current president of the Kiwanis Club of San Bernardino. A breast cancer survivor, she has been a longtime volunteer for the Relay for Life, the Komen Race for a Cure, the American Heart Association and the Arthritis Foundation. She is also a member of the National Council of Negro Women and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Eta Nu Omega Chapter, and a steward and chairman of the Visitors/Announcements Ministry for St. Paul AME Church.
Young Women Leaders
Marlysa Thomas
Marlysa Thomas is a graduate of Cajon High School in San Bernardino, and will graduate this year from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in pre-law and African American studies emphasizing race and politics. She plans to pursue graduate degrees in law and public policy and devote her career to education and prison reform. She has interned in Assembly Member Carter’s District and Capitol offices. On campus, she started the Black Transitional Committee, an organization dedicated to raising GPAs for black students by providing writing, math and science support. She directs a sign language ministry at Berkeley and serves on the editorial staff of a publication that creates dialogue between blacks and other communities. She visited Ghana for research on child trafficking that was later published in an international journal. She has participated in numerous fellowships and has been a campus campaign coordinator for Teach for America. She anticipates teaching high school English in an inner city school in Baltimore next year.
Carly Chavez
Carly Chavez has been a teacher at Fontana High School for more than eight years. She received her Bachelor’s in biology and Master’s degree in education with a concentration in curriculum and instruction from California State University, San Bernardino. At Fontana High School, she leads instructor committees in SLC (Smaller Learning Communities) and AVID (Advancement via Individualistic Determination). She also devotes time to student organizations on campus, such as M.E.Ch.A (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan) and a freshman mentoring program, Link Crew. She was recognized by Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter in 2007 for the “30 under 30 Latino/Native American Recognition Award.” She has also been recognized as SLC Teacher of the Year in 2008. She is continuing her education in an educational leadership doctoral program.
Amber Eileen Shattler
Amber Shattler has been the Office Manager for Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter for over five years. She has acted as liaison, photographer and office mom for Assembly Member Carter and the constituents of Assembly District 62. She is very active in raising Autism awareness in the Inland Empire working through her son Wyatt’s Elementary School. Prior to working for Assembly Member Carter Amber operated a photography studio in San Bernardino. She has been married to her husband, Joseph Huston for over eleven years.
Monica Stockhausen
Monica Stockhausen, a Cal State, San Bernardino student and graduate of Wilmer Amina Carter High School, is site leader for Youth Action Project at Arroyo High School. She helped repaint a pre-school in Los Angeles through Enrichment Through Action, a program of New Beginning Outreach Christian Church, for which she has served as president. She also participates in holiday programs, soup kitchens and Christmas toy distributions. She mentors a group of girls at Milor High School, a continuation school in San Bernardino.
Iwona-Maria Luczkiewicz Contreras
Iwona Contreras has had the opportunity to grow, develop and contribute to Cal State, San Bernardino (CSUSB) and the community. She works at the university’s John M. Pfau Library as an administrative analyst specialist. She graduated from CSUSB with a Bachelor’s degree in health science and plans to move up the ladder in higher education. She is currently chair of the Young Leaders Council for Arrowhead United Way. The group’s focus is early grade literacy, philanthropy and mentoring young leaders. She is president of Alumni Pan-Hellenic and vice chair of the alumni group for the Educational Opportunity Program, of which she is a graduate. She was also a student of the Provisional Accelerated Learning(PAL) Academy and the Bethune Center. She believes in giving back to the community because the community has given to her.
Phung Nguyen
Phung Nguyen is a positive role model to youth and is bringing about change in the community. She is a career manager for the City of San Bernardino Employment and Training Agency. At Cal State, San Bernardino, she received a Bachelor’s degree in communications studies. As an Alpha Delta Pi Sorority member, she learned the importance of giving back and has become involved with Arrowhead United Way Women’s Leadership Council. She conducts the Council’s Interview for Success one-day workshops and volunteers as an interviewer for the San Bernardino City Unified School District’s ASTERISK Summer Internship program.
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