3 Solano County Women Honored at Garamendi's Women of the Year Ceremony

Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA) on Wednesday honored 14 extraordinary women at his first Women of the Year Ceremony. The event, which took place in Marysville, celebrates the accomplishments and leadership of women in the 3rd Congressional District who improve our local communities, strengthen our economy, and change lives for the better.

Three women from Solano County were honored at the event: Marci Coglianese, municipal law attorney, former city attorney, and land use advocate from Rio Vista, Samina Masood, advocate to end poverty, homelessness, and domestic violence from Fairfield, and Dr. Frances Gholson Nelson, librarian, educator, and literary advocate from Fairfield.

“The women we are honoring today were nominated by the community for their substantial contributions to the 3rd District. It is inspiring to represent women this driven and determined to make a difference,” Congressman Garamendi said.

Following the ceremony, participants joined in a roundtable discussion on the unique challenges faced by women in the workforce. The women and their guests broke up into eight groups to discuss ways to overcome the gender wage gap and the value of bringing more women into the workforce.

As in previous events focused on the challenges faced by women, the need for flexibility in hours to balance work and family life was a common concern raised. Other topics discussed include the need to:

● Mentor women at every level of educational achievement;

● Enforce anti-discrimination laws in the workplace;

● Pass legislation that guarantees family and parental leave;

● Offer expanded support to empower women who are discouraged by their families from attending college and pursuing careers;

● Preserve women’s reproductive rights and autonomy over bodies,

● Understand that words carry implicit and explicit meaning in our society and that so many regular terms are patriarchal at their root;

● Recognize that subtle discrimination still exists at all levels of society; and

● Encourage more successful women to help women beginning their careers to break the glass ceiling.

About the Honorees

Marci Coglianese, Municipal law attorney, former city official, and land use advocate, Rio Vista – Solano County

Marci Coglianese, past mayor and council member for the City of Rio Vista, has practiced municipal and environmental law for more than 25 years. Her achievements in furthering good land use planning, and environmental and risk management practices for the Delta are extraordinary. Marci represented the League of California Cities on the State Floodplain Management Task Force and on the public advisory committee to update the California Water Plan. She has been instrumental in protecting Solano County farmland and served as co-chair of the Delta Levees and Habitat Subcommittee of the Bay Delta Public Advisory Committee. She is an active member of the Rio Vista Army Base Steering Committee.

Marci has always been a vocal and staunch advocate for fairness and racial and gender equality in local government. After assuming office she was notable for her openness in listening and responding to the needs of her constituents of every political stripe and economic status. A person of the highest integrity and forthrightness, Marci sets an exemplary standard for all in political office, from the smallest village to the national capitol. Despite serious illness and family trauma, she has maintained a manner of openness, grace, and humor towards even her most bitter opponents. Marci Coglianese is greatly loved and admired by all who know her.

Samina Masood, Working to end poverty, homelessness, and abuse of women, Fairfield - Solano County

Since 2012, Samina Masood has partnered with the City of Fairfield to seize the twin horns of homelessness and domestic abuse in order to demonstrate that renewal is possible for homeless, abused, and neglected women and their children. Were it not for her direct intervention and program services, hundreds of women and children would go without hope, a place to live, or resurrected lives. Each year her organization, Heather House, takes in hundreds of needy and vulnerable women, then shelters and supports them. Samina resides on campus with them to run the seven-day-a-week program. Empowered by their experience in a 90-day work program, they are able to leave the shelter with a job, housing, and the skills to achieve economic independence. Samina’s passion and dedication are quite infectious, engaging many city leaders to join hands and work together on behalf of these at-risk local women and their children. She has served as a commissioner on the Mayor’s Commission on Crime to help prevent and reduce crime in the city.

Masood herself is a role model. She came to the United States as an immigrant from the third world country of Pakistan. She is a writer and published columnist with her columns appearing in the Tracy Press nationally and in the US State Department Gazette. Samina has two master degrees—an MA in Communications and an MS in Clinical Psychology. In the 80s and 90s she worked for the World Health Organization, the US Department of State, and US-AID as an advocate for women and children. An abuse survivor herself, Samina talks openly about her childhood growing up in a county where women and children are deprived of rights. She often speaks of how she saved her own soul by fighting for other women who had no voice. She is also writing a memoir.

Dr. Frances Gholson Nelson, Librarian, educator, and literacy advocate, Fairfield - Solano County

Frances Nelson has brought outstanding gifts to the educational community of Solano County. She is a preeminent librarian whose commitment to diversity and advocacy for the teaching of U.S. history and government have enriched the lives of many students and adults. Frances taught more than 15 years in Vacaville’s secondary classrooms and, after her retirement, served as adjunct librarian at Solano Community College for two decades. She is the only African-American librarian that Solano Community College has had in its seventy-year history.

Dr. Nelson has pioneered information access techniques with individuals of all ages and backgrounds. Through the California School Library Association, Dr. Nelson participated on a committee that developed “Standards for Information Literacy: Grades K-12.” This endeavor prompted her to develop a library skill workbook and a video tape presentation on school site curriculum for a Vallejo school library. Frances travels regularly to Oakland to select as many as 75 books that she then donates to the Solano Juvenile facility. She also donates hair care products to African-American girls there when these are requested. Dr. Nelson is a newly appointed Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commissioner for Solano County, is active in the Delta Kappa Gamma Society Beta Psi Chapter, and has served in leadership roles at her church. Dr. Frances Gholson Nelson has elevated the whole community—not just with the time she has spent in community service but in the quality of her service that counts for so much more.

Information submitted from office of Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA)