Branch General Meeting & Installation of Officers
Saturday, June 1, 2024

The June program marked the end of our branch year, celebrated accomplishments of our current year and introduced the branch AAUW 2024-2025 Officers for the upcoming year. It also brought us to a summer of planning as we start a new year of fabulous AAUW programs.

During the meeting, the 2024-2025 Slate of Officers were installed and All members and the recipients of the Connie Inskeep Award and Named Gift Honoree were announced.

After the business meeting and installation, we were entertained by musical partners Pattie and Marc Davidson who sang and described their love of music which they discovered later in their lives.

April Branch Meeting and Program
Saturday, April 6, 2024
Reproductive Rights in a Post Dobbs Nation
Professor Jodi Balma

Fullerton City College Political Science Professor Jodi Balma spoke to us about how reproductive rights have been impacted since the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court decision taking away the Constitutional right to abortion.   PowerPoint of her presentation is HERE.

ANNUAL AUTHOR’S LUNCHEON
March 30, 2024
Long Beach City College
Award Winning Mystery Author Iris Yamashita

The public and all AAUW members attended the Long Beach Branch Author event Saturday, March 30 at 12 noon. A delicious luncheon was served, a silent auction was held, followed by a talk from mystery and screen writer,  Iris Yamashita. Signed copies of her latest mystery, Village in the Dark, were available.   Proceeds from the event support scholarships for LBCC and CSULB female students.

General Meetings:

Branch Meeting   March 2, 2024  (Link HERE)
Program: Francine Kerridge: City of Long Beach Office of Police Oversight (Link  HERE)

Recently appointed Director, Francine Kerridge gave an introduction to the city of Long Beach Office of Police Oversite.. She spoke about the duties of the office as well as the vision for the newly created Police Oversight Commission.  She discussed  the process that created the office, the authority of the office, in addition to how the office will interface with the new commission.

Bio: Ms. Kerridge brings to the City more than 30 years in public safety leadership and law enforcement combined. As a self-proclaimed motivated public servant, throughout her career she has successfully built effective relationships between the community and the City of Sacramento’s Public Safety departments; provided oversight and auditing functions to the internal affairs complaint investigation process; possesses an extensive track record for developing relationships with the community and creating partnerships to improve the understanding of police work and authority; and exemplifies superior leadership talents in community engagement and transparency.

Prior to joining the City of Long Beach, in her most recent role, Ms. Kerridge served as the Inspector General for the County of Sacramento, where she conducted complex investigations and audits of community complaints of Sacramento County Sheriff deputies. In that role, she prepared annual reports for the public, including statistical information and recommendations for improvement for Sheriff policies and procedures, and worked closely with the Sacramento Community Review Commission to support their goal of building trust between the community and Sheriff Department, among other key responsibilities.

Throughout her extensive career in public safety, Ms. Kerridge previously served in law enforcement for 19 years, including 13 years conducting complex and sensitive investigations; has audited over 3,500 misconduct complaints against public safety personnel; has participated in over 100 public forums to provide professional recommendations and guidance for complaint resolution, transparency and conflict resolution resulting in reduced police and community tension; and has provided 35 recommendations to improve public safety policy and procedures following critical incidents such as officer-involved shootings and death in-custody incidents. Additionally, she served as a Governor-appointed Board Member for the California Board of State Community Corrections from 2017 to 2019.

Ms. Kerridge holds a Master of Science in Emergency Management from California State University, Long Beach and a Criminal Justice degree from Madonna University in Michigan

Branch Meeting and Program, February 3, 2024 Link HERE
Program:  Save the Wood Clean the Air – My Life in Kenya
Eric Witten (Link HERE)

Eric Witten presented  his journey and charitable work in Kenya. He spoke about his experience and success working in Kenya and living with the Maasai people for 6-1/2 months during the lock down for COVID. He is an engineer and was able to use his skills to drill water wells for the Maasai people in Kenya. He said also spoke about sending girls to school, saving the forests, and reducing carbon dioxide.

Eric Witten has a B.S. in Engineering from UCLA and has 40 years of experience in Engineering and Project Management in the upstream oil industry. Eric is also a Long Beach City Commissioner serving on the Board of Examiners, Appeals and Condemnation. He is an Engineering Advisor to the La Habra Heights Fire Department and Building and Safety Department on oilfield safety and oilfield projects. He has worked on projects in more than 15 countries around the world. He is a small business owner and has operated his own engineering company based in Long Beach for the past 18 years. He holds 4 patents on mechanical equipment and is an Eagle Scout.

November 4, 2023 Branch Meeting
Program: Post COVID Mental Health
Amy La, Ph.D., MBA
Click for Videos of Meeting and Program
Click HERE for PDF of Presentation

October 7, 2023 Branch Meeting and Program
Program: Alyce LaViolette: Perpetrators of Violence in Intimate Relationships

Click HERE for Video of Meeting and Program

Reasons for violent behavior and the reasons to hope it can change were explored.. Alyce told stories of some of the people she works with. Although most of the perpetrators of domestic violence are male, she has also worked with females who are abusive. She spoke about her own experiences doing this work and the rationale for the way she does her program. She welcomed questions and comments.

Ms. LaViolette has worked with victims of intimate partner violence since 1978. In 1979, she founded one of the first programs in the country to work with abusive partners as a program of WomenShelter of Long Beach.  In 1984 she went into private practice in Long Beach and in West Los Angeles with a specialty in domestic violence and with high-conflict couples and gender issues.  She has a broad-based private practice.  Alyce speaks nationally and internationally and has served on the Speaker’s Bureau for the U.S. Department of State.  She has developed programs for the Probation Dept. in California and Los Angeles County and for the Department of Children and Family Services for Los Angeles and Orange Counties.  Alyce has served as an expert witness in criminal, family and civil court since 1984.  She appears on local and national television and radio and has co-authored one of Sage Publication’s best-selling books “It Could Happen to Anyone: Why Battered Women Stay”. She has a B.A. in Psychology, and M.S. in Community-Clinical Psychology and is a Licensed Marriage/Family Therapist.  She also has a lifetime teaching certificate for Community Colleges.

September 9, 2023:  AAUW Long Beach Scholarship Recipients and Presentation by Afghan Women (LINK to presentation)

Afghan Women – Introduction

It has been two years since our government’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover. In August 2021 Masoma, Reema and Hameeda, graduate students in a master’s program in agronomy at the University of Kabul, were evacuated together with their 12 classmates, other students and faculty of Michigan State University’s Grain Research and Innovation project (GRAIN).

They were at risk from the Taliban for being in this USAID sponsored program. Further risk factors for Masoma were belonging to the Hazara minority group that is the target of violence and also worked for a European bank in Kabul. All three women were endangered because family members worked in the Afghan government. (After the women arrived, we learned that Masoma and Hameeda are married; their husbands in Germany studying & working.)

Initially they were flown to Albania where GRAIN program was restructured at the Agricultural University of Tirana. After 7 months they came to the US in March 2022 on Humanitarian Parole, arriving in Long Beach in April. Supported by a Welcome Circle sponsored by NCJW Long Beach they were connected with resources and services including housing, government benefits, medical care, legal representation, and employment. They completed the graduate program with online classes and in September graduated with a Professional Master’s in Advanced Techniques in Horticulture.

The women have faced many challenges adjusting to life in a new culture, improving their English and applying for asylum.  They completed paid Internships with A Growing Experience, an urban farm in North Long Beach, and worked in other part time jobs.

Masoma, Reema and Hameeda hoped that their education and experience will lead them to fulfilling careers where they can make a difference – like farming, organic food certification, food science, hunger nonprofits, water science, landscaping, or aquafarming.

They miss their families in Afghanistan terribly and worry about their safety. The economic situation is dire, girls and women are denied education and work, fathers & adult siblings have been dismissed from their jobs. Family members continue to be threatened and some are in hiding. As the situation in Afghanistan worsens, Hameeda, Reema and Masoma have written congress members, to remind them to seek assistance for those left behind.

Over a year after coming to our community, the women have transitioned from the support of the NCJW Welcome Circle, are living on their own and working. Until asylum is granted, their futures remain uncertain. Hameeda and Masoma had their asylum interviews in December & Reema in April. They are waiting for the asylum decisions which have not come within the promised 6 months. Masoma’s husband was visiting when her asylum interview was scheduled; her interviewer surprised us all by adding him to her case. He is now waiting for Employment Authorization so that he can work. We hope that they will be granted asylum soon and they can move forward with their lives and contribute to our community.

2022 – 2023