California Wellness Foundation Honors Two Asian American Leaders

By Amber Hsiao | Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Three honorees were recently presented with the California Peace Prize, a yearly award given by The California Wellness Foundation, including Chinese American and San Francisco native Patricia Lee, who has been deputy public defender in San Francisco since 1978, and Filipina American Cora Tomalinas of San Jose, a full-time volunteer and community activist.

Lee and Tomalinas were honored for their commitment to violence prevention and the promotion of peace in the community. Both have had substantial experience working in Asian American communities with at-risk youth.

A mother of four girls, Lee plays the “mom” role to all her clients. She has worked in the juvenile division in the public defender’s office for 25 years and serves as co-director of the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center. As rates of confinement increase in Asian youth at a disproportionate rate—higher than that of black and Latino youth—Lee has galvanized support for finding a collective voice in Asian communities to combat violence and reunite youth with their families. In doing so, she has enabled local San Francisco agencies to strategically work together to secure funding for projects, rather than compete for the same pool of funds.

“I am just so gratified and honored to get this award and be able to do work that I love doing,” Lee said. “We need to put on our social worker hats to help the community. This award, to me, is a way of opening new doors and passing on the torch to [young leaders in the community], and maybe lend more credibility to addressing the needs of Asian youth.”

A former nurse at Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Teresa Hospital, Tomalinas has served on many boards, commissions, task forces and community advocacy groups, such as the Filipino Task Force for Domestic Violence Prevention and the Early Care & Education Commission. She strives to work with the system and families to ensure proper delivery of needed services in health, increased educational opportunities for at-risk youth, and prevent violence in the community.

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Originally appeared in AsianWeek Newspaper, Bay Area section. See the original article.