Josie Mena
Josie Mena was a founding member of the League of Mexican American Women, serving as its first president. Her extensive portfolio of community action and leadership puts her at the forefront of most major campaigns for Latinas and women locally and statewide, Olgin said.
She once served as a district field representative for Congressman Tony Coelho and in 1979 she was named by Governor Jerry Brown to two four-year terms on the California Commission on the Status of Women representing the San Joaquin Valley.
Mena‘s activism began in the early years of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at Fresno State. After earning a bachelor’s degree in social welfare and a master’s in social work at Fresno State, the Ventura County native moved into community action and blazed a trail for Latinas in politics and other areas by aligning with the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA). Through MAPA, she helped organize the “Comision Femenil” (Feminine Commission) and later the first Latina Woman’s Conference in the Fresno area that gave birth to the Adelante Mujer Conference, an annual event sponsored by the League of Mexican American Women.
Her list of involvements and accomplishments include serving as state secretary of MAPA, which once named her its Woman of the Year. She has been a consultant for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, the Low-Income Women’s Project, and the California Commission on the Status of Women – Pathways to Work for Women. Other memberships include La Comision Femenil, Mexican American Women for Political Education, the International Women’s Year State Conference planning committee, and the Arte Americas Cultural Center Museum in Fresno.
