20th Annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Please join us for our virtual Induction Ceremony, Sunday, March 21, 2021, at 2:30 PM.

The San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame is honored to induct 6 more women into the hall of fame this year.

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Rosalie Schwartz, Historian

Dr. Rosalie Schwartz started college at age 30 after she married Larry and had two daughters, Phyllis and Thelma. During the next decade, she earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in history from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in Latin American history at the University of California, San Diego. Her research, supported by Fulbright and National Endowment grants, took her to libraries and archives in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Spain. In 1980, she was named an American Historical Association Fellow and worked for a year as an advisor on Latin American issues in the Capitol Hill office of U.S. Congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Indiana). Dr. Schwartz taught U.S. and Latin American history at various southern California universities while continuing to research and write on topics ranging from Cuban bandits (Lawless Liberators) to tourism (Pleasure Island and Flying Down to Rio) and a historical novel set in the Prohibition era (A Twist of Lemon).

Margaret Iwanaga Penrose, Cultural Bridge Builder

Margaret Iwanaga Penrose is the president and CEO of the Union of Pan Asian Communities (UPAC), a 501(C) (3) comprehensive human care organization addressing the critical health, behavioral, social, housing, economic, and community development needs of Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino, Middle Eastern, East African, African American, and other ethnic communities in the San Diego region. UPAC recognizes the diverse ethnic and cultural identities and strengths of children, youth, adults, and families and their need for self-sufficiency. UPAC staff, representing 28 different languages and dialects, is dedicated to improving its community members’ quality of life by building trust and achieving sustainable results. Iwanaga Penrose has more than 40 years of experience including public and private administration of service delivery systems, training, consultation and education, public-private partnerships, and policy development and advocacy. Her extensive governmental, non-profit and corporate community involvement has included local, regional, state, and national boards as well as commissions, committees, and task forces.

Susan Jester, Empowerer

Susan Jester’s professional career in politics and community activism began in 1978, working for several non-profit charities while working full time in banking. In 1983, Susan came out as an openly gay woman and quickly dove into current LGBT issues, becoming a well-known lesbian activist and speaking frequently with other LGBT leaders at press conferences and debates. When the AIDS epidemic struck the gay men’s community in the early 1980s, Jester used her organizing skills and political experience to raise public awareness, calm public fears, and raise critically needed money. She mobilized the LGBT community and numerous straight allies to produce the first AIDS Walk in San Diego in 1985. Jester led the statewide CA campaign against Prop 103 in 1988, a discriminatory AIDS CA ballot initiative, and coordinated with Gloria Johnson NOW’s Women’s March for Equal Justice. She currently serves on the Sheriff’s LGBT Advisory Council, AIDS Memorial Task Force, San Diego Citizens Equal Opportunity Commission, and as an appointee to the CA Advisory Committee to the US Civil Rights Commission.

Genevieve Jones-Wright, Activist

Genevieve Jones-Wright proudly served San Diego County as a public defender from 2006-2019, and is now the inaugural executive director of Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance (MoGo)—an impact litigation organization she co-founded with another Black woman attorney. MOGO works to achieve racial justice and holds government accountable to all people, especially those who have been disenfranchised. Jones-Wright is the founder of Motivation.In.Action and is the 42nd president of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association. She is a founding board member of the David’s Harp Foundation and a volunteer attorney for the California Innocence Project. Every day she works to dismantle our criminal legal system, as it now exists, to achieve a more just and equitable system for all.

Hon. Randa Trapp, Trailblazer

In 2003, after practicing law for nearly 20 years, Judge Trapp was appointed by Governor Gray Davis to the San Diego County Superior Court, the third largest court system in the United States. Judge Trapp has been active in all aspects of her community. She is a past president of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association and past regional director of the California Women Lawyers. Formerly, she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the California Association of Black Lawyers and Lawyers Club of San Diego as well as president for five consecutive years of the J. Clifford Wallace Inn of Court. Judge Trapp was also Treasurer of the National Association of Women Judges and Chair of the National Bar Association Judicial Council. She currently serves on the Lawyers Club Advisory Board and as Chair of the Judicial Advisory Board of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.

Niki de Saint Phalle, Spirit

Niki was born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle on October 29, 1930 at Neuilly-sur-Seine in France. After a childhood of moving and changing schools often, she married prominent New York author Harry Mathews. A personal crisis led her to painting and she decided to become an artist in the early 1950s. Experimental assemblages gave way to “Tirs,” or shooting paintings, bringing de Saint Phalle international fame and membership in 1961 with a group of artists, the “New Realists,” which also included Christo, Yves Klein, Arman and Jean Tinguely, among others. A close relationship with Swiss kinetic sculptor Jean Tinguely developed into creative collaboration and marriage in 1971. They worked together for the construction of many of de Saint Phalle’s major sculpture projects, like Hon in Stockholm (1966), Paradis Fantastique (1967), Golem in Jerusalem (1972), Tarot Garden in Italy (1980-1998) and Stravinsky Fountain in Paris (1983). She never stopped exploring and worked with different materials, may it be polyester, bronze, or mosaic. Other monumental projects of de Saint Phalle include the UC San Diego’s Sun God (1983), Noah’s Ark in Jerusalem (1998), the Grotto at the Royal Gardens of Hannover (1996 - 2003), and Queen Califia’s Magical Circle in Escondido (1999 - 2003). Niki de Saint Phalle died on May 21, 2002 in La Jolla, California.

The ceremony will feature our 2021 honorees, performances, and a special celebration of 20 years of the hall of fame.

This year the tickets to attend the ceremony are pay what you can with a suggested donation of $25. All money raised from the WHOF goes towards funding educational programs at the Women's Museum of California.