“Together We Rise!” is the theme of this year’s Women’s March & Rally in San Francisco on January 18. The Rally will begin at 11 am at San Francisco Civic Center Plaza, with the Programming starting at 11:30 am. The pre-registered lineup of contingents then starts at 1 pm, followed by the March kickoff at 1:30 pm down Market Street to the Embarcadero (approximately 1.7 miles).
The emcee at the Rally will be Kimberly Ellis, former Executive Director of Emerge California and now a Special Advisor to the Board of East Bay-based Black Elected Officials (BEO). At Emerge California, Ellis grew what had been a regional training program into a statewide electoral powerhouse for Democratic women.
Rally Speakers
Carmen Chu, Assessor-Recorder, The City and County of San Francisco
Chu was appointed by late Mayor Ed Lee to serve as San Francisco Assessor in 2013 before she was re-elected in November 2014 and again in 2018. Since taking office, she has the distinction of being the only Asian American female Assessor in all 58 of California’s counties.
Malia Cohen, Chair, Board of Equalization, 2nd District
Cohen serves as a Member of the California State Board of Equalization (BOE), California’s elected tax commission. Elected in November 2018, she is the first African-American woman to serve on the Board. In January 2019, her BOE Board Member colleagues unanimously selected her to serve as Chair of the Board.
Saru Jayaraman, President, One Fair Wage
Jayaraman is the President of One Fair Wage, Co-Founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. After 9/11, together with displaced World Trade Center workers, she co-founded ROC, which now has more than 30,000 worker members.
Teresa Mejía, Executive Director, The Women’s Building
Mejía is a community activist, feminist, single mother, Puerto Rican, and the Executive Director of The Women’s Building, which stands in the heart of the Mission District brilliantly painted with a mural dedicated to women, Maestrapeace.
Toni Newman, Author and Executive Director, St. James Infirmary
Newman is the author of the 2011 memoir I Rise-The Transformation of Toni Newman, discussing her 25-year difficult transition. The memoir was nominated in 2012 in two categories for the Lambda Literary Awards, honored in 2012 by Wake Forest University for Faces of Courage, and has been featured in The Advocate, Ebony magazine, and the Huffington Post.
Shannon Watts, Founder, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America—the nation’s largest grassroots gun violence prevention group, with chapters in all 50 states and a powerful network of volunteers and survivors who have successfully effected change at the local, state, and national level.
“We’re at a pivotal moment for women’s rights globally—there has been vicious backlash against the advancement of women over the last year that has resulted in increased violence and harassment,” says Sophia Andary, chair of Women’s March San Francisco. “This year’s theme of #TOGETHERWERISE! will serve as a motivator to once again unite as a rich and diverse community and march for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families worldwide.”
Published on January 16, 2020
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