Published on February 13, 2021
| 6:42 pm
Lupe Anguiano will be the recipient of the Rockstar: Lifetime Achievement Award from Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV) in 2021. Anguiano is an entrepreneur and activist known for her work on women’s rights, rights of the poor, and protecting the environment. She has founded two powerful non-profit organizations.
In 1978, Anguiano founded National Women’s Employment & Education (NWEE), which offered a model program that removed many of the barriers women faced in the welfare arena. In the early 1990s, NWEE had 3,000 women employed.
Forty years later, Anguiano founded and ran Stewards of the Earth, a nonprofit that aims to protect the west coast environment from agricultural pollutants, fracking and the disadvantages of development.
Anguiano, the daughter of Oxnard field workers, who will celebrate her 92nd birthday in March, has led a remarkable life organizing grape boycotts for Cesar Chavez, developing a gang program in east Los Angeles, and helping to found a powerful women’s group Gloria Steinem.
An education specialist in the Lyndon Johnson administration, Anguiano worked on the country’s first bilingual education bill and held various positions on the Nixon, Carter and Reagan administrations. She worked closely with President Ronald Reagan and received a President’s Volunteer Award from him in 1983 for her work at NWEE.
“Lupe Anguiano really deserves this Lifetime Achievement Award as she has worked hard for more than 70 years to make our world a better place,” said Kathy Odell, CEO of WEV. “This is the first time that we have given the founder of a non-profit organization this award. This is an opportunity to recognize the importance of this type of entrepreneurship in our society.
“Lupe’s pioneering work with NWEE changed the lives of thousands of women and created a model that is still used.”
Anguiano is the 11th recipient of the WEV Spirit of Entrepreneurship Rock Star Award, which is presented annually to someone who has an indelible influence on the community and serves as a role model for women. Past recipients include Lynne Tahmisian, Sara Miller McCune, Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, Betty Hatch, and Carol Duncan.
Anguiano will be honored at the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Awards event, which will be held practically in May. Information can be found at www.soefoundation.org.
Nominations for the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Awards are now open. Fill out the online form to nominate an Outstanding Entrepreneur. After registering (if you registered last year just log in), provide the nominee’s name, company name, website, and email if possible. Self-nominations are also welcome.
Outstanding women entrepreneurs are recognized in 10 categories for their success, innovation, mission and contributions to the community, as well as for perseverance, resilience and growth:
Arts and entertainment
Green & Social Entrepreneur
health
Hospitality & Tourism
Media & communication
Not for profit
Professional services
retail trade
Science & technology
Wholesale, manufacturing & online trading
Descriptions of the individual categories are listed here. The nominees will be invited to fill out and online application form on February 22nd. Three finalists in each category will be announced in April. The winners are selected by an independent jury, all of whom live outside of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The nominations close on February 21st.
For more information on who can be nominated, see the SOE website https://soefoundation.org/nominate/. For information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Kate MacNaughton at [email protected] or 805-908-0091.
