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About Pleasant Hill-Martinez AAUW

The Martinez and Pleasant Hill AAUW Branches officially merged September 2012. The Martinez Branch was chartered in 1948, and Pleasant Hill in 1957.  Our newly established branch offers friendship, support for personal and professional growth, community leadership, gender equity and scholarships to our local community.  We have 100+ members who are a diverse group of professional career women, community activists, elected and appointed public officials, teachers, parents, artists.  We are young, single, married, single again, employed and retired.

Congratulations to our Officers elected during our June Brunch for our 2026-2027 year Co-Presidents: Reba Siero, Trinka March, and Sherrie Moore, Program Vice President: Carlyn Obringer, Membership Vice Presidents: Bobbi Horack, AAUW Fund (EF) Vice Presidents: Gayle Miner and Carolynn Barcklay, Secretary: Sue Greenfeld, and Treasurer: Claudia Bass.

   

Officers 2026-2027

Our Vision Statement: AAUW empowers all women and girls to reach their highest potential.

   

Meet our Pleasant Hill and Martinez past presidents.

Pleasant Hill and Martinez Past Presidents

Members -- The Deposit & Reimbursement Request Form is now available online here. Save, complete, and print the form below.

Barbara Newacheck Memorial Award Winner

Barbara Newacheck was a dynamic member of the Pleasant Hill Branch who embodied the values of AAUW. She passed away in 2004, and in 2005 the Barbara Newacheck Memorial Award was established to honor a member who, like Barbara did, advances the mission of AAUW through her contributions to the Branch and beyond.

This year's recipient of the Barbara Newacheck award is Karen Winters, the editor of our Newsletter. She was born and grew up in Pennsylvania. For college she attended University of Maryland obtaining a BS in electrical engineering. She was a technical writer as she is a good writer with a science background. She joined this branch in 2019. During her membership she has contributed much to our branch and continues to do so. For a couple of years, she was membership VP. Unfortunately, when she took on the job National had changed their computer system. As with any changes there are many glitches along with frustrations. She persevered and got a handle on things and did an excellent job with membership. When our newsletter editor moved when asked she graciously took the task and has produced an excellent newsletter. She is willing to send out blasts when needed.

Other branch activities that she participates in are local scholarship committee, morning books, SAM volunteer, wine appreciation group, and hosts the Nimble Fingers group. For the past few years, she has let some of our members raid her kitchen to cut up fruit for our brunches. For the year 2023-2024 she was a named gift honoree.

Karen is an exceptionally talented knitter. You can always see her hands flying as she knits. She has taken weaving classes and considers herself a fabric artist. Currently she is treasurer of her knitting guild. She gardens as a hobby, grows vegetables, and herbs which she uses in cooking and her dishes are healthy and good. Another activity that she loves to do is yoga and takes regular classes. Congratulations, Karen!

Named Gift Honorees

AAUW Fund supports our work to promote equity for women and girls. There are several different entities included within Funds, and all donations are fully tax deductible. Pleasant Hill-Martinez Branch of AAUW has historically been a generous contributor to AAUW Fund. ranking ninth highest in the state in 2016. In the 130 years of Fund, nearly 100 million dollars in over 12,000 fellowships, grants and awards have been given to recipients from the United States and more than 130 other countries. Every contribution of any amount each of us makes truly helps in some way to make the world a better place.

Our 2026 Named Gift Honorees was awarded to Sherrie Moore, Barbara Minneman, and Helen Periera for thier contributions to our SAM Program at Fair Oaks Elementary School. For several years they have lead the art and music presentations for all the grade levels, planned the lessons, and coordinated the efforts of the volunteers.

Our DVC scholarship recipient for 2026 is Julianna Amaya. She will be transferring to the University of California, Berkeley and her major is mechanical engineering. Her passion for engineering was developed in high school when she constructed an automatic door for her grandparent’s chicken coop. The door is still working today.

As a student at DVC, she was the founder and president of the 3-D printing club. The club was recognized with both New Club Success and Financial Excellence awards. Julianna was an active member of the Math, Engineering, Science Achievement Program (MESA). Also, she was treasurer for Women in Science and Engineering group.

Outside of DVC Julianna was part of Stanford Science Small Groups in which she conducted research on a question. She also participated in NASA’s L’ Space Academy where she was part of a team designing a lunar rover mission to explore the Moon’s South Pole. In addition to the academy, Julianna was a speaker at the MESA’s NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars conference. Her favorite activity was an internship at the Lawerence Berkeley National Laboratory.

With Julianna’s knowledge of science, it is important for her to share science with others as she states, “I have strongly believed that hands-on science is one of the most important ways to inspire curiosity and confidence in STEM.” She accomplished this by organizing a booth at the Tinkers and Thinkers STEM Faire in Pleasant Hill where participants built rockets under her guidance. At Valhalla Elementary School STEAM Night, she demonstrated 3D printing by showcasing functional objects such as a 3D-printed wrench. Through these activities she learned how to take science concepts and make them doable for younger children. When she gets settled at UC Berkeley, she will look for opportunities to work with school children. An instructor at DVC summed up Julianna’s attributes as “she embodies the academic excellence, leadership, service, and dedication.” Julianna’s long-range goal is to continue her education in mechanical engineering and to contribute to the medical device industry. Also, she will continue to pursue opportunities to impart her knowledge of science and engineering to others. We wish her the best as she starts her new chapter in her educational journey.

The 2021 National Conference for College Student Leaders (NCCWSL) will be held the end of May 2021 and will be virtual. Our student from Diablo Valley College who will be attending is Bryanna Nicole King, and she is 19 years old. She is majoring in communications and marketing and will be transferring next fall. Her sights are on a variety of UC campuses in which she has applied. A common theme from her references were that she is an excellent student, very motivated, encouraging towards others and displays leadership skills. Her school and community activities reflect her leadership skills. Bryanna had an internship with Professional Businesswomen of California conference in 2021. Her role was marketing the conference. In addition to school, Bryanna has started her own online business Bree Sticks Company.

Bryanna was excited about attending NCCWSL. She feels developing leadership skills will help in pursuing her goals. In her essay she said, This conference will help me further develop my voice and use it in school, my business and in the workplace in my future. At our end of the year brunch via Zoom we had the pleasure to hear from Bryanna who attended the virtual from Bryanna after attending NCCWSL this year. She said it was amazing and thanked us for giving her the opportunity to attend. Bryanna enjoyed the workshops. She did highlight a few speakers. One was about rage and the ability to acknowledge your rage but make it productive. Another was how to brand yourself which was especially helpful as Bryanna runs her own business. Next fall she will be attending UCLA, majoring in communications and marketing.

Here is a photo from the 2019 Northern California AAUW October Fund luncheon with members from our branch and Saalem Adera, Fellowship recipient. Part of her grant came from the Martinez Branch 50th Anniversary fellowship. She is attending UC Berkeley and working on her Ph.D. in hydrology (study of water). Once finished with school, Saalem wants to improve planning for access to plentiful and good quality water availability through various parts of the world.

AAUW American Fellowship scholar, Cloe-Mai Le Gall-Scoville, spoke at the 2016 Fund October Luncheon about her doctoral studies. Part of her fellowship also consisted of funds from the Martinez Branch 50th Anniversary fellowship established in 1998. It was particularly meaningful for Branch members, who usually don't get to meet a Fellow who benefited directly from the Branch's fundraising efforts, to meet Cloe. The grant is allowing the language and literature major to concentrate on finishing her thesis on the role of race and gender in 19th century literature. She is pursuing her doctorate at UC Davis.

American Fellowship doctoral scholars pictured are: Dena Al_Adeeb, New York University, Middle Eastern and Islamic Art Studies, Cloe-Mai Le Gall-Scoville, UC Davis, Language and Literature; Maria Tourtchaninvoa, UC Berkeley, Social Work, Abisola Kusimo, Stanford, Mechanical Engineering, Connie Wun, Mills College, Education and Womens Studies.

Special Recognition for Lifetime Member Carol Baier

Lifetime Martinez AAUW member, Carol Baier, was recognized at our 2017 Soup Supper by the speaker, Dianna Vanni Matthias. Carol was Dianna s chemistry teacher in 1953-54 at Alhambra Union High School. It was her first year of teaching at Alhambra and the first of 63 continuous years of membership in our Branch. Dianna was a bright, hard-working junior at the time. When she graduated, she received a $50 scholarship from the Martinez AAUW Branch. She used it to buy a textbook for one of her DVC science classes. In those days, science books were by far the most expensive.

Dianna spoke movingly of Carol s impact on her life. Carol, spotting her abilities, even used contacts at UCSF to obtain bacteria samples so Dianna could learn to transfer them to slides. In her quiet way, Carol strongly encouraged Dianna to pursue education and a career in science even though it was a difficult choice at the time for a woman both in gaining the education and in opportunities for meaningful work.

Dianna has never forgotten Carol, the only female instructor she had in all her education up to and including the doctorate, and Carol s encouragement, her seeking out extra experiences to add interest and challenge to Dianna s classwork and her steadfast support. Dianna had a newspaper picture of herself, Carol and a few other students (all boys) from a 1954 edition of the Contra Costa Gazette, enlarged and framed to present to her. Dianna and her husband have created a $1000 scholarship in Carol s honor for a young woman in the Alhambra Class of 2017 who wants to pursue a career in mathematics or science.

Carol, a biology major from Beloit College in Wisconsin, is an avid environmentalist having been active on the Friends of the Franklin Hills and the creation of the Briones Bio Region. She has been honored by several groups and she has contacts with a number of environmental organizations.

We often don t realize the positive impact our actions, fueled by the values and goals of AAUW, have on the women and girls with whom we interact. Thank you, Carol.

We will dearly miss our friend, Marilyn Tubbs , who passed away in June 2013 and touched so many lives. Marilyn was a member of the Pleasant Hill branch since 1963 and filled just about every position available, including chapter president twice. She was especially interested in education and served on a commission instituted by the City Council. For the branch, she worked very hard at Fair Oaks in the Student Store and volunteered a tremendous amount of time toward the SAM program. She also published our Newsletter for several years and was our first Webmaster. A scholarship fund has been set up in her name. Congratulations to Annie Rana, who was chosen as the recipient in 2013. She is attending the nursing program at the Dominican University of California in San Rafael.

To contact us, email the webmaster at www.aauw-pleasanthill-martinez.org