Dolores Huerta and Byllye Avery to Speak at PUSD Womens’ History Month Event

Dolores Huerta and Byllye Avery will headline the ACSA Region#15, Pasadena Unified School District Women’s History Month event.

The theme of this year’s event, which will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on March 22 at Marshall Fundamental Secondary School, 990 Allen Ave., Pasadena., is My Body, My Choice, My Rights.

“We are truly honored that these two stalwarts in the fight for women’s rights and human rights are here to inspire a new generation. Undoubtedly, our students will benefit from the valuable lesson they will learn from Ms. Huerta and Ms. Avery,” said Superintendent Brian McDonald.

Huerta, President and Founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation will be talking to the audience via Webex and Avery, founder of the Black Women’s Health Imperative has provided a pre-recorded keynote address.

Avery is a health care activist whose work began in the early 1970s when she and other feminists co-founded the Gainesville Women’s Health Center and Birthplace.

She then founded The National Black Women’s Health Project and later, the Black Women’s Health Imperative.

She has won numerous awards including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for Social Contribution and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Impact Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women among many others.

Huerta is a celebrated Latina labor leader, activist and community organizer. In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union.

She is a two-time US Presidential Award Recipient; she received the Medal of Freedom Award from President Obama in 2012, the highest civilian award in the United States, and the Eleanor D. Roosevelt Human Rights Award from President Clinton in 1998.

The assembly is free and focuses on the history of women in the United States, including the women’s liberation movement and it looks to the future of women’s rights in the United States and globally.

The ACSA Region #15 PUSD Women’s History Month Assembly was co-created in 2018 by principal Lori Touloumian and PUSD Trustee Jennifer Hall Lee.