Dear Pastor Sean and Lorrianne Gardner,
On behalf of the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) and the 45th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon committee, I’d like to congratulate you on being selected as the The Spirit of Service for Outstanding Pastoral Service Award recipient!
Dear Ocie and Mattie Tinsley,
On behalf of the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) and the 45th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon committee, I’d like to congratulate you on being selected as the The Iola M. Williams Lifetime Achievement Award recipient!
Dear Senator Dave Cortese,
On behalf of the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) and the 45th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon committee, I’d like to congratulate you on being selected as the The Drum Major Award recipient!
Throughout his career, Senator Dave Cortese (D-Silicon Valley) has supported civil rights in many forms and succeeded in making a difference.
As a pro bono attorney, he worked with the local NAACP chapter and its members who needed representation on justice issues. As a Santa Clara County Supervisor he proposed that Juneteenth be a paid County holiday. As a result, Santa Clara County became the first County in the state of California to make it happen. As a state Senator, Dave Cortese has authored countless equity and justice pieces of legislation including religious wear protections for people booked into jail or prison and a bill aimed at reaching a population locked into extreme sentences from decades ago that are inconsistent with our present-day sentencing practices.
When he successfully proposed making Juneteenth a County holiday to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, Cortese said “This idea was born out of dialogue between social justice and civil rights leaders here in Santa Clara County, precipitated, in part, by protests and demonstrations demanding justice for George Floyd across the nation. As we continue to confront social, economic, and racial inequality and remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing justice for everyone, recognizing Juneteenth brings us one step closer toward true equity and representation.”
As a County Supervisor, Senator Cortese also helped inspire the Carry the Vision Community Nonviolence Conference. He hosted Yolanda King, the daughter of Martin Luther King, the late Civil Rights Leader, as a keynote speaker.
Senator Dave Cortese represents District 15 encompassing much of Santa Clara County including Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Along with his accomplished career as an attorney and business owner, the Senator previously served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, the San Jose City Council, and the East Side Union High School District Board. His business involvement includes his early agricultural role as principal in his family farm (wholesale and retail fruit and produce), cattle ranch and other organizations, all of which are thriving businesses today.
Dear BeAfro,
On behalf of the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) and the 45th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon committee, I’d like to congratulate you on being selected as the The Gene Young Award recipient!
Dear Lennies M. Gutierrez,
On behalf of the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) and the 45th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon committee, I’d like to congratulate you on being selected as the Facing the Challenge Award recipient!
Lennies was raised in small rural town in Northern California where Spanish was her first language. She loves engaging in the community, being at the forefront of creating public policy and helping develop tomorrow’s future leaders. Currently she is the Director of Government Affairs for Comcast for the South Bay and Southern Peninsula areas and previously worked at the California State Capitol. She is also a co-facilitator and instructor for the Latino Leadership Alliance Academy.
She has participated in several leadership development programs and is an American Leadership Forum/Silicon Valley Senior Fellow.
She is an active board member of Chamber San Mateo County, the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, the Pal Center, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) and at Comcast she is board member of the National Unidos Advisory Council.
She is a graduate of the University of California at Davis and the Lorenzo Patiño Law School of Sacramento. Lennies is married with two children and enjoys spending time with her family, running outdoors and volunteering in the community.
Dear Valerie Coleman Morris,
On behalf of the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) and the 45th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon committee, I’d like to congratulate you on being selected as the The Iola M. Williams Lifetime Achievement Award recipient!
Valerie Coleman Morris is considered a Bay Area native when it comes to television news. She began her career in the early 70s in San Francisco at KRON-TV as a reporter and then KGO-TV as a long time anchor. She was part of the Van Amburg/Jerry Jensen/Pete Giddings news team that branded "happy talk" as a news genre.
Valerie received an Honorary Doctorate of Doctorate of Humane Letters at San Jose State University on May 26, 2021.
Morris is a former CNN domestic and international business anchor, three-time Emmy Award winner, part of the KCBS Radio Peabody Award winning team coverage of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake and creator of the long running radio column “With the Family in Mind”, which aired nationally on CBS Network Radio.
During her years at CNN, Valerie’s daily reports were seen by more than 290 million households, businesses and airport networks.
Morris views and promotes financial intelligence as an aspect of business and social economics. Her "mind over money matters" approach gives the thought process and mindset for a financial behavioral change by way of this question: “Do you control your money, or does your money control you?”
Her book “IT’S YOUR MONEY SO TAKE IT PERSONALLY ®” provides doable, incremental ways for individuals and families to create, practice and commit to being producers of wealth rather than consumers of debt.
A former professor in the School of Communications & Media Technologies at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Valerie is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and a trustee for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Dear Ruth Silver Taube,
On behalf of the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) and the 45th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon committee, I’d like to congratulate you on being selected as the The Champion for Change Award recipient!
Ruth Silver Taube is the Supervising Attorney of the Employment Law Practice at the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center at Santa Clara University School of Law and an Adjunct Professor at the law school. She is Legal Services Co-Chair of the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking, a delegate to the Santa Clara County’s Human Trafficking Commission, Coordinator of the Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition, an Advisory Member to the Santa Clara County Hate Crimes Task Force, a founding member of the Bay Area Equal Pay Collaborative, and a member of the Santa Clara County Office of Labor Standards Enforcement’s Retail Food Advisory Council. Ms. Silver Taube is also the Supervising Attorney of the Santa Clara County Office of Labor Standards Legal Advice Line.
After law school, Ms. Silver Taube served as a law clerk for the Honorable Ronald M. Whyte, District Court Judge for the Northern District of California, as a Federal Mediator at the San Francisco District Office of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as a panel mediator at the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, and as a partner at the Law Office of Silver and Taube. Before law school, she was President of the International Association of Machinists Local 547 and Senior Field Representative for SEIU Local 535. She previously taught at Njala University in Sierra Leone with CUSO, the Canadian Peace Corps.
She received the Unsung Hero Award from the Santa Clara County Victim Support Network for her workers' rights and human trafficking work. She received the Pro Bono Service Award from the California State Bar, the Pro Bono Recognition Award from the Santa Clara County Bar Association, and the Frances Schreiberg Pro Bono Award from Worksafe. She was also awarded the Wonder Woman of the Year Award from the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women and the Office of Women’s Policy and was a co-recipient of the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award from Freedom Network, USA for her human trafficking work. She received the Promoting Justice Award from the Congress of American Islamic Relations, SF Bay Area (CAIR SFBA), an award from the National Day Laborers’ Association (NDLON) for her work, the Modern Day Abolitionist Award for Outstanding Policy and Legal Work from the San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking (SFCAHT), the Freedom Fighter Award from the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP, the Trailblazer Award from the Filipino Bar Association of North America (FBANC), and the Legal Impact Award from the Asian Law Alliance (ALA).
