Women's History Month
In our ongoing commitment to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve, KCET and Union Bank honor outstanding women who have made significant contributions to improve our community.
After raising five children, earning her bachelor's and master's degrees later in life and losing her husband to Alzheimer's Disease, Billie P. Weiss has applied her perseverance and immeasurable strength to building safer communities as founder, acting director and a steering committee member of the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles (VPC).
Bea Cohen is one of the few people alive who witnessed the beginning of World War I in 1914, when, at age four, she and her brother, sister and mother watched while low- flying airplanes dropped bombs on the factories next to her backyard in Buhusi, Romania.
Gloria Lazalde is a distinguished community organizer, manager, and altruist. In 2005, she founded the "Celebrando Nuestras Madres" annual event to honor the lives of both her late mother and her sister. The event honors mothers that, due to hardship, would not otherwise be able to celebrate Mother's Day.
For the past ten years, Lisa Watson has been the head of the Downtown Women's Center (DWC), a nationally recognized model program for women living in extreme poverty on Los Angeles' Skid Row. During that time, Watson has initiated new programs, increased the organization's capacity, and developed strategic partnerships to meet the dramatic rise in women's homelessness.
