The Stanislaus County Commission for Women will honor its Outstanding Women for 2018 on Saturday, March 10, in Ceres.
The 16 women offer a wide range of backgrounds, but a constant character of each is their commitment to causes advancing women and agencies in Stanislaus County.
The 39th annual dinner will be held at the Assyrian Cultural Center of Bet-Nahrain, 3119 Central Ave., Ceres. The event begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m. The awards program starts at 7 p.m.
Cost is $45 per person, and pre-paid reservations are required. Contact Jennie Sweeney 209-404- 4414 or or e-mail SCCW01@gmail.com. You can also find information on its winners at www.stanislauswomen.org.
The Stanislaus County Commission for Women is an independent, nongovernmental organization to promote within the community an awareness of issues that concern women.
Following are the biographies on this year’s honorees.
Outstanding Woman
Darlene Barber-Martinez: Darlene is the first African-American Woman elected to Riverbank City Council, as well as only the second African-American woman to hold elected office in Stanislaus County. Darlene is a partner in TSW Financial Tax Service and founder and CEO of Central Valley Community Resources (CVCR). CVCR offers services as diverse as free tax preparation for low income and elderly to temporary housing and supportive services for young adults aging out of foster care. Darlene’s civic and volunteer efforts are extensive, from serving seniors to students and the Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the Executive Leadership Team for Relay for Life, planning this annual event in Riverbank. Darlene holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and an MBA dual degree in Leadership.
Olga Valencia Cardeñas: Olga's career and passion have been focused on literacy, expanding resources for the under-served and increasing access to literature and education in our community. As Youth Services Outreach Librarian for Stanislaus County, she has advocated for and promoted early intervention, literacy training for parents, and worked to remove the barriers faced by those in need. Olga developed and implemented training for library employees, and worked to create more effective policies and procedures and enhanced literacy centers at each library. In 2016, Olga received national recognition for serving youth from the American Library Association, the Carnegie Corporation and the NY Public Library. Olga used the $5,000 prize money to create a library for teens incarcerated at Juvenile Hall. Since 2016, Olga has continued to hold bi-weekly book club meetings for youth in juvenile hall.
Domenica Escatel: Domenica's career has been focused on young children, beginning at the Children’s Crisis Center and later with the Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) as a Head Start teacher and child development specialist. In 2017, Domenica graduated from the Hope Leadership Institute, through the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality. In this capacity, she worked to advocate for DACA recipients from Stanislaus County; work that was recently recognized by the California Legislature. One of her unique endeavors is “Project Fearless and Powerful Women”, a series of photographs allowing women and girls to express their feelings of power and autonomy through photography. She is a member of the 2018 Leadership Modesto class and the Empire Municipal Advisory Council. She serves on the Board of Directors for Mujeres Latinas and was selected as one of the Modesto Bee’s 20 Under 40 class of 2016.
Margaret Hunter: Hunter's devotion to understanding and working in the field of eating disorders began in the late 1990’s-early 2000’s. With the support of her co-workers, she began support groups and preventive work that was lacking in the community and went on to become a co-founder of the Meghan’s Place Eating Disorder Center. Margaret provides eating disorder services and incorporates art therapy through a specialty license as a Registered Art Therapist. She is a published author of a book about art therapy and eating disorders and co-author of a second to which she contributed a chapter specific to art therapy and eating disorders. Margaret works with a number of community based organizations in the county, volunteering her counseling and art therapy services to those who might not otherwise be able to access this critical support.
Lisa Mantarro-Moore: Lisa has a dedicated career of serving the public in a variety of capacities. Professionally, Lisa served as Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Congressional Representative Dennis Cardoza and is the District Director for State Representative Adam Gray. Lisa has had her own public service career as a Ceres city councilwoman and vice mayor. She is active in a variety of service organizations including Soroptimist International, Modesto Rotary and the Latino Community Roundtable. Lisa promotes her hometown of Ceres as the chairperson of the Ceres Street Faire and her work with the Whitmore Mansion Foundation. Lisa lends her expertise in community leadership to Habitat for Humanity and the Stanislaus Family Justice Center, serving as board president for both organizations.
Sue Rich: Sue has been a resident of Oakdale for 40 years. She serves as the assistant superintendent at the Stanislaus County Office of Education. Before working at SCOE, Sue taught high school English in Oakdale for 13 years. In her leadership position at SCOE, she has worked on several cross-sector initiatives including Stanislaus READS, Stanislaus Futures and Destination Graduation. As part of the Stanislaus READS initiative, she has worked on the expansion of the Imagination Library free book by mail for low-income pre-k children and on the launch of Reading Clubs in after-school programs at over 20 schools and Housing Authority sites. As part of Stanislaus Futures, Sue helped launch the 6 Cups to College mentor program, which matches first-generation high school seniors with business and community professionals with college experience. The program now has 175 mentors working with students at seven high schools. Sue herself serves as a 6 Cups mentor to two young women. Outside her professional life, Sue works weekly with her husband and son to feed the homeless and needy in their community through their church. She is also a project leader for the Orange Blossom 4-H Club in Oakdale.
Sue Richardson: Richardson has been the director of the historic State Theatre for over a decade. She has used this platform to provide a wide variety of programming to not only entertain, but inform and inspire. To this end, she has obtained grant funds to allow students from across the county to access educational programs from math magicians, to Science on the Screen to poetry and creative writing workshops. Sue ensures women’s unique stories and all their perspectives are reflected in State Theatre programming. She also supports a number of community nonprofits through events and use of the theater. Sue has been instrumental in the creation and continued support of the WOW fest Women’s Film Festival, the only one of its kind in the area. Her understated commitment to women and children in the community is truly remarkable.
Jessica Self: Self has been an active member of the Stanislaus County community since 2013. As the vice president of the MoPride board, she advocated for the LGBT community, promoting events and sensitivity training county-wide. She is active in local politics, creating the Blue Wave movement, seeking to recruit and encourage people to run for elected office. She has been particularly effective in recruiting women candidates, especially in areas with little to no representation. Her efforts have increased interest and action in the local political scene as she has hosted free Congressional debates for democratic candidates. Jessica has a J.D. From Western State College of Law and works as a deputy public defender for Stanislaus County.
Alana Scott: Alana is the founder and president of the Women’s Education and Leadership League (WELL), an organization providing physical, emotional and financial wellness to women of all ages and backgrounds. WELL offers community workshops, informational presentations and other events emphasizing women’s empowerment. Alana is a First Vice President at Raymond James specializing in providing financial advice and support to women going through divorce. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and El Concilio. Alana was named one of the Modesto Bee’s top 20 under 40, is a member of the 2017-18 Leadership Modesto class and was a 2016 La Raza Award recipient for her financial literacy work with underserved women.
Woman Living Pioneer
Betty Jean Reynolds: Reynolds graduated in 1950 and spent much of her teaching career at Bret Harte School where she was a Master Teacher. Her target population was migrant children. She wrote several successful grants for Early Childhood education. Betty Is the oldest member of the Delta Kappa Gamma, Epsilon Nu Chapter in Modesto. She received the State Distinguished Career/Professional Service Award at the Chi State Convention in San Francisco. Betty Jean has served for over 25 years in the Youth Art Scholar Program at the Mistlin Gallery. This program reaches junior and senior high students in an after school 11 week program. Betty Jean is a professional calligrapher but her true love is water colors. She is an inspiration to both the young people she teachers and to the older people she has taught and mentored for so many years.
Woman of History
Patricia Bettencourt Tharp (1954-2015): Tharp grew up in Modesto. She attended St Stanislaus Catholic School, graduated from Grace Davis High School and received her Bachelor’s Degree in social welfare from CSU Chico. She and her husband Ray raised two sons, Garret and Jeffrey. Patty had a 32-year career with the Modesto Bee as Circulation/Marketing Manager. She had a strong commitment to her community and her profession. She headed “Kids' Day”, a special fundraiser for the Salvation Army Red Shield Center. Patty was on the advisory council at the Red Shield Center. She was the treasurer for the Stanislaus Police Activity League, which provides recreational, educational and social programs for youth ages 6 -18. Her nominator asks us to remember and celebrate Patty Tharp and how one person can inspire and transform a community.
Outstanding Young Woman
Vanessa Astorga: A senior at Turlock High School, Vanessa very successfully juggles AP and college level classes, sports, work, and a myriad community volunteer activities. She is a three-year member of Key Club, FFA and Leadership Club. Last year she earned a Shaw Academy Digital Marketing Degree. She has also earned the State Seal in Multilingual Proficiency in Spanish and English. Over the last three years she has volunteered at a variety of community events that raise money for cancer research. She was involved with the Turlock Dancing with the Stars, Dinner at Dusk, Relay for Life Luminaria, and Brunch with Divas at Carnegie Arts Center. Her community work also encompasses working at the Policeman’s Ball, ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, volunteering for the Kayla Bernardi Bee Happy Foundation fundraiser, community beautification projects as part of Love Turlock and putting together care packages for various organizations.
Kiana Engel: Kiana is a senior at Gregori High School where she maintains a 4.1 GPA, is the Senior Class President and a member of the California Scholarship Federation. In her years at Gregori, she has been instrumental in creating and strengthening three projects: the all-campus Breast Cancer Awareness event, the adoption of families from the Soroptimist Community Christmas Tree and being a SPOT leader to increase school spirit. Kiana is an active Girl Scout, receiving its three highest awards and as a Girl Scout, has been active in the Future City Engineering competition. She also is involved in Modesto’s Lemonade Day and was selected as the first National Youth Ambassador for Lemonade Day.
Allison Jensen: Jensen is a senior at Central Catholic High School and a member of the 2017-18 Leadership Academy Class. She has received a Religion Class Award, Agriculture Biology Award, Biology and Algebra Award, Block CC Academic Honors and Golden Scholar Athlete award. Allison is passionate about serving the most vulnerable in her community. She is the Coordinator of Community Service for FFA and regularly volunteers at the Salvation Army Child Day Care and Teen Shelter. She independently organized a canned food drive at her school and was able to bring 25 times the number of bags of pantry items to the Salvation Army required as part of her Leadership Academy class.
Mehr Sahota: Sahota is a senior at Turlock High School and a member of the 2017-18 Leadership Academy Class. She has made serious strides to close the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) gender gap. She was the youngest STEM tutor (15) when she began volunteering with CSUS HIMAP program. Mehr has volunteered with the Pre-Freshman Enrichment program at CSUS which primarily benefits underprivileged and immigrant students. She also volunteered as a mentor in the Future Cities Competition and is involved in Girl Scouts, Girls’ State and the American Association of University Women Tech Trek.
Katherine Swartz: Katherine is a senior at Gregori High School where she is an AP student with a 4.34 GPA. She is involved in a variety of school activities including concert band, Academic Decathlon and is a member of the Mock Trial team. Katherine intends to work in the field of journalism; she is a member of the Jag News Network and is the sole producer for JNN. She reports, edits, designs sets and lighting and manages all aspects of production. Off campus, she volunteers at the library and Bethany Home and works for the Modesto Nuts.
This story was originally published March 02, 2018 5:19 PM.