EJS 25th Anniversary

Thank You for Making Equal Justice Society’s 25th Anniversary Gala a Success!

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We cannot thank you enough for coming out to join us this past Friday at our 25th Anniversary Gala at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

It was an incredible evening of reflection – on our 25 years of achievements in harm repair, health and education equity, implicit bias, democracy defense, and protecting DEI – and of sharing our vision for what we plan to accomplish in the future.

We were blessed by the presence of our co-founder and past president, Eva Paterson, the driving force and incredible power behind EJS for more than two decades.

Congratulations to our Champions of Justice honorees Michael Harris, Professor Kimberly West-Faulcon, and the Civil Rights Enforcement Section of the California Department of Justice. We were inspired by Professor West-Faulcon’s powerful keynote, and we look forward to sharing the video with you soon. Read more about the honorees.

We’re grateful to Pastor Mike McBridge for his blessing and applaud our EJS board chair Fernando Gaytan for his opening remarks, and our legal director Mona Tawatao and our board member Don Tamaki for their wonderful introductions of the honorees.

The evening, emceed beautifully by Cecilia Phillips, would not have been possible without our sponsors and patrons. The full list is below, but we want to especially recognize:

Henry L. Hecht
Donald K. Tamaki and Suzanne Ah-Tye
Susan Pritzker
Arlene Mayerson

Quinn Delaney & Wayne Jordan
Eric Gibbs and Sandy Kassis
Gibbs Mura, A Law Group
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
The California Wellness Foundation
Minami Tamaki LLP
Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
Black Freedom Fund

We owe a debt of gratitude to the many people who helped make our evening possible:

Staff at Palace Hotel
Eva Paterson
Leftwich Event Specialists Inc.
Pablo Lago Dantas (photography)
Kevin D. Johnson, Jr., NorthStarr Media Group (videography)
Jesus Baraza (program book)
The Coolerators

Finally, thank you so much to all of our EJS staff, including Keith Kamisugi, but especially Anna Basallaje, Heather Snedeker, and Ginger Johnson, who labored, steered, and wove the gala together. A lot of outstanding work went on behind the scenes by these three powerhouse members of our staff. Thank you!

If you weren’t able to join us, you can still celebrate our 25th anniversary with your donation!

The Equal Justice Society is here because of you and we thank you again from the bottom of our hearts.

Lisa Holder
President

Contact Director of Development Heather Snedeker at HSnedeker@equaljusticesociety.org or 850-320-2336.

Thank you to our sponsors and patrons for your generous support!

SPONSORS
Quinn Delaney & Wayne Jordan
Eric Gibbs and Sandy Kassis
Gibbs Mura, A Law Group
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
The California Wellness Foundation
Minami Tamaki LLP
Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
Black Freedom Fund
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
San Francisco Black Firefighters Association
Shauna I. Marshall
Brown, Neri, Smith & Khan, LLP
David Oppenheimer and Marcy Kates
ACLU of Northern California
BLIS Collective
Live Free USA & CA
Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)
Western Center on Law & Poverty
The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)
Council on American-Islamic Relations, California (CAIR CA)
Association of Black Women Physicians
Black Californians United for Early Care and Education
National Center for Youth Law
Earthjustice
Fernando Gaytan

PATRONS
Henry L. Hecht
Donald K. Tamaki and Suzanne Ah-Tye
Susan Pritzker
Arlene Mayerson

EJS25 GALA HOST COMMITTEE
Eva Paterson, Honorary Chair
Aimee Allison
Ellen Barry
Renel Brooks-Moon
Shawna Charles
Charles & Paula Collins
Quinn Delaney & Wayne Jordan
Bob Demmons
Willie Demmons
Kelly Dermody
Elaine Elinson & Rene CiriaCruz
Nicholas Espiritu
Alfred Fraijo Jr.
Fernando Gaytan
Eric Gibbs
Henry L. Hecht
Judge Thelton Henderson
Bill Hing
Parshan Khosravi
Kim Kruckel
Gyöngy Laky
Thomas Layton
Dale Minami
Paul Ocampo
Vincent Pan
Margaret Russell
David Salniker
Cheryl Stevens
Don Tamaki