A woman who works to prevent violence and help those who’ve been traumatized
Nominator said: Rebecca is a good friend of mine and her volunteer engagement is an inspiration to me and to many others. Her professional life has been devoted to family violence prevention. The approach she developed to help women facing violence is now a national model. Her job was intense and demanding, however, Rebecca still made time to volunteer countless hours in our schools. Rebecca’s volunteer work began when a friend’s Berkeley high daughter experienced harassment at school. She took on the role of advisor and mentor to students seeking to change systems and culture to stop harassment and make school safer for all students. Over many plates of snacks at her kitchen table, Berkeley High School Stop Harassing was born and flourishes to this day. This student group attends school board meetings to advocate for individuals and has been effective in changing policy, including bringing consent education into every middle school in Berkeley. She has also worked on improvements to the complaint reporting structure for students who have been sexually harmed and was instrumental in improving that structure, and in helping Berkeley Unified to create a working and fully funded Title IX office where students are able to file complaints that will be responded to in a timely manner, as well as provide thorough investigations of those complaints. This is only a partial list of her contributions as I am already over the word-count limit. Rebecca’s generosity of time, spirit, (and always great snacks at meetings for the kids) is extraordinary.
