Projects
Making Waves: Inland Empire Women’s Environmental Oral History
The voices of the women who have shaped the conservation policies and environmental politics of the Inland Empire are the focus of Making Waves: Inland Empire Women’s Environmental Oral History.
During the 1960s and 1970s, many of the region’s environmental leaders were also important activists in the women’s movement. Many of these women went on to elected office in the Inland Empire and many are recognized nationally for their contributions to activism.
Making Waves, through oral interviews, reveals the voices of these activists and explores their understanding of the issues that faced them as community leaders. Nationwide research indicates that the environmental movement and the women’s movement are inextricably linked. Making Waves will be the first effort to document this phenomenon in the Inland Empire.
Brief Biographies
Jane Block
Jane Block has been recognized by Lincoln Institute, the YWCA, and the Jurupa Special Services District among others for her work as an environmentalist, feminist and children’s services activist. She is associated with the adoption of the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, the Santa Ana Riverside Watershed, and the preservation of the Santa Rosa Plateau and Mockingbird Canyon. She has served on the boards of the Endangered Habitats League, Western Riverside County Family Services Association and as President of the Riverside Land Conservancy.
Kay Ceniceros
Former Chairwoman and Member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, Ceniceros is primarily associated with environmental and conservation efforts in the Coachella Valley and the Santa Ana River Watershed. She was the principal force behind the passage of the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan that protects 240,000 acres of open space and 27 species, one of the most inclusive legislation of its type in the country.
Liz Cunnison
Ms. Cunnison served for over a decade as an elected director of Western Municipal Water District and represented the district on the Metropolitan Water District Board. She also served as a Commissioner for the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA).
Melba Dunlap
Former Riverside County Supervisor Melba Dunlap represented District 2 which is home to both the Stringfellow Acid Pits and the community of Mira Loma with one of the highest concentrations of particulate matter in the country. Ms Dunlap also served on the South Coast Air Quality Management District from 1983 to 1984.
Beverly Wingate Maloof
Ms. Maloof led the effort to pass Measures C and R to regulate growth and development in the historic Arlington Heights Citrus area and along Victoria Avenue. She was a founding board member of the Riverside Land Conservancy. The Conservancy’s Beverly Maloof Award for effective environmental engagement is named in her honor. She is also the founder and designer of the Maloof drought tolerant demonstration garden and certified wildlife habitat at the Sam and Alfred Maloof Foundation in Alta Loma.
Penny Newman
Ms Newman is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, founded in 1978, to address the impact of California’s highest priority superfund site, the Stringfellow Acid Pits. She and the Center have also taken the lead in addressing the air quality in western Riverside County that holds the record for the highest levels of particulate matter pollution, known as PM 10 (Particulate Matter 10 microns or less) in the nation.
Kathryn Saubel
She if the first recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, Art and Culture Award (1994); the Desert Protective Council Award; and the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award (Riverside County). The award of which she is most proud is her 1998 induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, the first for a Native American Woman. With her husband, historian Mariano Saubel, and friend Jane Penn, she co-founded the Malki Museum. She collaborated with anthropologist John Lowell Bean to publish Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Uses of Plants, a wide-ranging study in Cahuilla ethnobotany. She is also a leader in the effort to preserve the alluvial Chino Cone area at the base of the Palm Springs Tramway.
Rosanna Scott
Former Riverside City Councilwoman Scott was instrumental in the passage of growth control Measures C and R and was a founding board member of the Riverside Land Conservancy. Following her term on the city council, she became special assistant to Supervisor Melba Dunlap.
Ruth Anderson Wilson
Ms. Wilson recently retired from the board of the Jurupa Community Services District where she was a strong voice for improved air and water quality. This district serves the communities of Mira Loma, Glen Avon, Pedley and Eastvale all impacted by the warehouse and trucking industry and the legacy of the Stringfellow Acid Pits. With her friend Martha McLaren, she was instrumental in defeating the Army Corp of Engineers proposal to concrete-in the Santa Ana River and the formation of the Martha McLaren Park.
About the Project Team
The project is being conducted by a team of scholars and community leaders familiar with oral history, women’s studies and the environmental movement. The project team includes: Chuck Wilson, University Archivist, UCR; Dr. Kenya Davis-Hayes, Professor of History and Women’s Studies at California Baptist University and a member of the California Council for the Humanities; Judith Auth, retired Library Director and Women of Achievement recipient; Dr. Su Acharya, Professor of Anthropology at RCC and President of the Center for Environmental Justice; Virginia Field, President of the Riverside Public Library Foundation, a former president of the League of Women Voters and Board Consultant to Mayor Ron Loveridge, South Coast Air Quality Management District; and Marion Mitchell-Wilson, former State Historian, and Riverside Land Conservancy board member.
The interview coordinator will be Stephanie Billman-Hoppe, a graduate of California Baptist University with an interest in women’s studies.
