KTLA's Cher Calvin to return as Emcee for Women For Racial Justice Breakfast 2014

Cher Calvin joined KTLA in 2005 and anchors KTLA’s award-winning 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm nightly newscasts. Before her current role, Cher co-anchored the weekend evening news as well as KTLA’s morning show, where she won an Emmy in 2005. She has also won three Golden Mike Awards: two for Best Public Affairs Program, Access LA, and one Golden Mike for the KTLA Morning Show. She most recently received an Emmy in 2014 for her efforts in producing and leading a fundraiser for victims of Typhoon Yolanda in the Phillipines.

Her on-camera career began in Manila, Philippines. While she was there from 1998 to 2003, Cher served as news anchor and features reporter at GMA, Channel 7, followed by news anchor at CNN Asia Affiliate and national network ABS-CBN Broadcasting. At ABS-CBN, Cher was the national evening news anchor for “News Central” receiving the Golden Dove Award for Best Newscast. Cher also received the Philippine’s Star Award in 2002 for Best Lifestyle Host for the lifestyle magazine show “F” which she co-produced and hosted for four years. At the same time, Cher hosted the weekly political round table talk show “Points of View,” also on ABS-CBN, where she received two Golden Dove Awards in 2000 and 2002 for her work.

Believing it is important to give back to her community, Cher is a spokesperson and annual Master of
Ceremonies for the charity Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches. She has also participated in the Vagina Monologues to help stop violence against women around the world and putting an end to human trafficking. Cher speaks Tagalog, and participates in many Filipino, Asian community and KTLA-sponsored public events, including the annual Lotus Festival in Echo Park. Cher is a New York University graduate with a BA in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Political Science. Cher began her journalism career as a News Desk Assistant Editor for TIME Magazine in New York.

The 12th Annual Women for Racial Justice Breakfast is scheduled for Monday, October 20, 2014, from 7:00 to 9:00 am, and will be held at the Pasadena Hilton Hotel. Individual tickets are $60 each until September 30th and go up to $70 thereafter. Tables of ten can be purchased for $600 until September 30th, and will go up to $700 afterward. To purchase tickets, please click here.

Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals to be Keynote Speaker for Women for Racial Justice Breakfast 2014

“The task that remains is to cope with our interdependence – to see ourselves reflected in every other human being and to respect and honor our differences.”   Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals

The YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley is proud to announce Congressional Gold Medal of Honor recipient, Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals as the keynote speaker for the 12^th Annual Women for Racial Justice Breakfast on October 20, 2014. Dr. Beals holds more than 100 awards for courage in recognition of her work in furthering civil rights.

In 1957, 15 year old Melba Pattillo was one of nine African-American students who risked their lives to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Confronted by a hostile crowd and escorted by the Screaming Eagles of the US Army 101st Airborne Division, they shouldered the burden of integrating a then-segregated public school system.  Although the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education struck down racial segregation in public schools, it was the courageous actions of these nine young champions of school integration that tested the strength of that decision. Their actions not only mobilized a nation to insure that access to a quality education was granted to all Americans, but they helped to define the civil rights movement.  They became known as the Little Rock Nine. Dr. Beals' award winning book, “Warriors Don’t Cry” chronicles the Little Rock incident.

Dr. Beals began her career as a journalist, becoming a NBC television news reporter. She says her career choice took that direction because of her experience during the Little Rock desegregation struggle. "Little Rock taught me that shining a light upon misdeeds can often result in justice achieved.  It’s hard to hang somebody by the neck when news cameras are rolling."

On January 25, 2014, Dr. Beals retired as Executive Director of the Student Success program at Dominican University of San Rafael, CA. She is also founder and Chair Emeritus of the University's Communication Department. In 2012, she founded a program called TORCH (Together on the Road to New Chapters), which supports students entering college with a mentoring program throughout their four year experience. 

“The effort to separate ourselves whether by race, creed, color, religion, or status is as costly to the separator as to those who would be separated.”  Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals

The 12th Annual Women for Racial Justice Breakfast is scheduled for Monday, October 20, 2014, from 7:00 to 9:00 am, and will be held at the Pasadena Hilton Hotel. Individual tickets are $60 each until September 30th and go up to $70 thereafter. Tables of ten can be purchased for $600 until September 30th, and will go up to $700 afterward. To purchase tickets, please click here.