2022 Local Heroes and Early Learning Partner Award Honorees Announced to Recognize Individuals Dedicated to Making a Difference in Southern California
Press Contact
JP Shields
JPShields@kcet.org
747-201-5886
kcet.org/localheroes & pbssocal.org/localheroes
Los Angeles, Calif. – Dec. 1, 2022 – PBS SoCal and KCET Southern California’s flagship PBS stations as well as the home for award-winning, original local content, announced today the individuals named as honorees of their Early Learning Partner and KCET Local Heroes initiatives. The awards recognize the accomplishments of those who are dedicated to making a difference in the community: recognizing activists, educators, community leaders and visionaries doing critical work that often goes unrecognized in the Southern California region. While East Los Angeles Supervisor of Plaza La Roca Verde Childcare Center Graciela Cerezo was named the recipient of the Early Learning Partner Award, UCLA Asian American Studies Center Academic Research Librarian/Archivist Marjorie Lee and Watts Chosen Angels Founder/Executive Director Dr. Cynthia 'Big Mama' Mendenhall were selected from the field of eight outstanding and well-qualified nominees as the 2022 KCET Local Heroes honorees.
PBS SoCal and KCET’s Local Heroes Honorees and Nominees were put forth and selected by the organizations’ Community Advisory Board (CAB), an active group of volunteer leaders from around the region that plays an integral part in the planning and implementation of many outreach programs including the Local Heroes initiative. The complete lineup of this year’s local Local Heroes nominees and honorees be found at kcet.org/localheroes and pbssocal.org/localheroes while a short promotional video featuring the 2022 Local Hero Honorees will begin running on-air on both stations in the new year.
Due to COVID preventing an in-person gathering the past two years, the 2020 and 2021 individuals selected as Local Heroes nominees and honorees will be recognized alongside the 2022 Local Heroes lineup at an annual private Holiday Community Celebration event in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 7. The event will bring together the nominees of the Local Heroes program from the past three years with PBS SoCal and KCET’s executive team, the organization’s Board of Directors, and the current members of the Community Advisory Board.
Cynthia "Big Mama" Mendenhall is the founder of Watts Chosen Angels. From activities for kids to helping pay rent, Cynthia "Big Mama" Mendenhall does everything she can to support Watts and surrounding communities through her Watts Chosen Angels organization. She has been serving the Watts community for more than 30 years. Mendenhall started her own non-profit organization, Watts Chosen Angels, which provides wraparound and community building services for foster care youth and families, formerly incarcerated, battered, homeless, and/or economically unstable youth and adults, the disabled, and their families. Their services provide family reunification and (foster) parent coaching, prison community re-entry programs, housing and employment assistance, counseling and mental health support, immigration services, youth mentorship and development for boys and girls, utility bill aid, LGBTQ support for youth and adults, and numerous other community programs and resources.
Marjorie Lee (M.A., M.L.I.S.), Librarian, Information Specialist, and Archivist, has been collecting, preserving, and honoring the history and heritage of Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center for decades. Her archival and preservation work focuses on documenting neglected histories and expanding the historic and cultural narrative of America’s past. Lee’s professional engagements in partnership with community include a more than 25-year search for and archiving of evidentiary records verifying Chinese American veterans’ WWII military service. Other accomplishments include serving as a consultant to the Asian Division of the Library of Congress, and editing Duty & Honor, a compilation of military records and photos that documented WWII military contributions of Southern California’s Chinese Americans. More recently, she co-chaired an all-volunteer Southern California Regional Committee of Chinese American Citizens Alliance Los Angeles that diligently confirmed and verified with documentation more than 400 Southern California WWII veterans. Each one was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal presented through individual distribution, virtual YouTube streaming, and at several large ceremonial events—the last one occurring this past April on the main deck of the Battleship USS Iowa.
The additional individuals selected as the 2022 PBS SoCal/KCET Local Heroes nominees are as follows:
- Champion of diversity and inclusion U.S. Army Major Victor Shen
- Mentor/Tutor/Executive Director of the JOYA Scholars Christian Esteban
- Drummer/Healer/Founder of S.H.I.N.E. MUWASI Rene Fisher Mims
- Healthcare Activist/Executive Director Korean Community Services Ellen Ahn
- Political Advocate/CEO of Hispanas Organized for Political Equality Helen Iris Torres
- Education Director for the School of Performing and Visual Arts/Plaza De La Raza Executive Director Maria Jimenez-Torres
The profiles and photographs of this year’s nominees, as well as past years’ KCET/PBS SoCal Local Heroes, can also be found at kcet.org/localheroes and pbssocal.org/localheroes.
The Early Learning Partner Award recognizes passionate individuals who work with the nation’s youngest learners, from infants to second graders, to help all children achieve school readiness and lifelong success. The award celebrates the broad spectrum of early learning educators, including Pre-K, Head Start and early elementary teachers; center care providers and directors; museum and community educators; and home care providers and owners. Together, these individuals are significantly improving the lives of families and children across Southern California, empowering caregivers, and creating opportunities for children that will unlock a world of possibility.
Graciela Cerezo is the program director for Plaza-La Roca Verde Child Development Center, providing child care to the most economically disadvantaged families in East Los Angeles. She has been the Site Director for the last 15 years and feels very passionate about supporting/working with the children, families and coaching staff for Plaza Community Services. Having known that she has always wanted to work with young children, Cerezo has been in the early childhood education space for more than 25 years now supporting young children, teachers and parents. She went to La Verne University for her undergraduate studies and to National University for her graduate studies. Cerezo has a B.A. in Child Development and a Masters in Early Education. When she is not teaching or working at the site, she enjoys helping out in her community, cooking and reading with her granddaughter.
Join the conversation on social media using #LocalHeroes and #EarlyLearningPartner
About PBS SoCal and KCET
PBS SoCal and KCET are both part of the donor-supported community institution, the Public Media Group of Southern California. PBS SoCal is the flagship PBS station for diverse people across California and delivers content and experiences that inspire, inform and educate. PBS SoCal offers the full slate of beloved PBS programs including MASTERPIECE, NOVA, PBS NewsHour, FRONTLINE, and a broad library of documentary films with works from Ken Burns; as well as educational content including PBS KIDS programs like DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD and CURIOUS GEORGE. KCET showcases the best of PBS and is a leading source for arts, culture, and news in Southern California. Through innovative storytelling, KCET explores and expresses our dynamic local communities helping residents understand and connect with the region's diverse communities and ideas. For additional information about both KCET and PBS SoCal productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org and pbssocal.org KCET Originals and PBS programming are available to stream on the FREE PBS App on iOS and Android devices, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Chromecast. KCET is also available to watch live on YouTube TV.