Helen S. Hawkins (April 3, 1930 – 1989) [1] is best known as a feminist and a producer and host for KPBS. [2] [3] [4]
Hawkins co-founded and was the first president of the San Diego chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). [3] [4] Later, she would be awarded the NOW Susan B. Anthony award for her “courage and compassion and work for women’s rights.” [4]
Along this same vein of work, Hawkins served on the Commission for Affirmative Action and Women’s Rights. She also aided in the creation of Dimensions, a women’s networking group. [3]
After raising a family, Hawkins returned to school and received her doctorate in history at the University of California, San Diego in 1975. After graduating, she became the publications director for the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego. [2] [3] [4]
In the late 1970s, Hawkins went to work at KPBS television as Executive Director of humanities programming. [2] [3] [4] She produced and appeared in over 100 programs. [3] Many of these programs focused on women’s rights and issues. [3] Her production “California Rights” earned her an Emmy and a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. [3] [4]
Hawkins died in 1989 from a rare form of cancer. [4] The Helen Hawkins Memorial Fund was created by the San Diego Independent Scholars Board of Directors after her death. [4] In 2005, Hawkins was inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame. [3]
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is the center for oceanography and Earth science based at the University of California, San Diego. Its main campus is located in La Jolla, with additional facilities in Point Loma.
Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer, former astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center. In 1993, Ochoa became the first Latina woman to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012. She was the first Latina director and the second female director of Johnson Space Center.
San Diego Mesa College is a public community college in Clairemont Mesa in San Diego, California. It is a California Community College and one of four colleges in the San Diego Community College District.
Valerie B. Ackerman is an American sports executive, former lawyer, and former basketball player. She is the current commissioner of the Big East Conference. She is best known for being the first president of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), serving from 1996 to 2005. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
Bree Walker is an American radio talk show host, actress, and disability-rights activist. She gained fame as the first on-air American television network news anchor with ectrodactyly. Walker worked as a news anchor and reporter in San Diego, New York City, and Los Angeles.
Lynn Alice Schenk is an American politician and lawyer from California. A Democrat, she served one term in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995.
Lee Ann Kim is a first-generation Korean American who was an anchor and general assignment reporter for KGTV Channel 10, the San Diego, California ABC television affiliate. She worked at KGTV from 1996 to 2008. She was also the executive director of Pacific Arts Movement until 2016. Pac-Arts presents the annual San Diego Asian Film Festival, an event she founded in 2000 with the Asian American Journalists Association of San Diego. She has been married to Louis Song since 1997, with whom she has two sons.
Coronado High School (CHS) is a public high school in Coronado, California. It is the only high school in the Coronado Unified School District.
Margaret "Midge" Costanza was an American Presidential advisor, social and political activist. A lifelong champion of gay and women's rights, she was known for her wit, outspoken manner and commitment to her convictions.
Marianne McDonald is a scholar and philanthropist. Marianne is involved in the interpretation, sharing, compilation, and preservation of Greek and Irish texts, plays and writings. Recognized as a historian on the classics, she has received numerous awards and accolades because of her works and philanthropy. As a playwright, she has authored numerous modern works, based on ancient Greek dramas in modern times. As a teacher and mentor, she is highly sought after for her knowledge of and application of the classic themes and premises of life in modern times. In 2013, she was awarded the Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Classics, Department of Theatre, Classics Program, University of California, San Diego. In 1994, she was inducted into the Royal Irish Academy, being recognized for her expertise and academic excellence in Irish language history, interpretation and the preservation of ancient Irish texts. As a philanthropist, Marianne partnered with Sharp to enhance access to drug and alcohol treatment programs by making a $3 million pledge — the largest gift to benefit behavioral health services in Sharp’s history. Her donation led to the creation of the McDonald Center at Sharp HealthCare. Additionally, to recognize her generosity, Sharp Vista Pacifica Hospital was renamed Sharp McDonald Center.
Cori Schumacher is an American surfer, activist and former politician. She is a three-time Women's World Longboard Champion, earning the title in 2000, 2001 and 2010.
Ingrid Croce is an American author, singer-songwriter, and restaurateur. Between 1964 and 1971, Ingrid performed as a duo with her husband, Jim Croce, releasing the album Jim & Ingrid Croce in 1969.
Martha Longenecker was an American artist, Professor of art, and founder of the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, California.
The Women's Museum of California (WMC) is a nonprofit museum in San Diego, California, dedicated to women's history. It was first organized under the names the Women's History Reclamation Project and then the Women's History Museum and Educational Center. It was founded in 1983. In addition to exhibits and programs offered, the WMC also co-founded and hosts the San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame. The museum is located at Liberty Station and has exhibit space, archives, a library, and a store that features items made exclusively by women. Other museum offerings include speakers and monthly lecture series.
Anita V. Figueredo was an American surgeon and philanthropist, the first woman medical doctor from Costa Rica and the first woman surgeon to practice in San Diego, California. She was posthumously inducted into the San Diego Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.
Judith Munk was an American artist and designer associated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She was inducted into the San Diego Women's Hall of Fame posthumously, in 2008.
Marilyn J. Boxer is a historian in the field of women's studies, one of the earliest in that field. She served as chair of the women's studies program at San Diego State University, the first program of its kind in the U.S., and later in various academic and administrative leadership roles there and at San Francisco State University.
Geneviéve LaChelle Jones-Wright is an American attorney and activist who served as a San Diego County public defender from 2006 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she was an unsuccessful candidate for San Diego County District Attorney in 2018 and Mayor of San Diego in 2024. She gained notoriety for being falsely handcuffed and held at gunpoint by a San Diego police officer in 2016.
Samara Reck-Peterson is an American cell biologist and biophysicist. She is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, San Diego and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is known for her contributions to our understanding of how dynein, an exceptionally large motor protein that moves many intracellular cargos, works and is regulated. She developed one of the first systems to produce recombinant dynein and discovered that, unlike other cytoskeletal motors, dynein can take a wide variety of step sizes, forward and back and even sideways. She lives in San Diego, California.
Olivia Graeve is a mechanical and aerospace engineer and Professor at University of California San Diego. She is also the Director of the CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials and Systems at UC San Diego — a binational research institute on both sides of the California-Mexico border.