Sacramento, C.A. – On March 14, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) honored the work of Beatriz Leyva-Cutler as the 2005 District 14th Woman of the Year. Each member of the State Assembly honored one woman in celebration of Women’s History Month for her contributions to her family, community and state.

Assemblywoman Hancock’s honoree has been a resident of West Berkeley for the last 13 years. Beatriz Leyva-Cutler has served as the Executive Director for The Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement (BAHIA) since 1988, and worked for over 25 years in advocacy and community building around bilingual childcare, and accessibility to Hispano/Latino families in Berkeley and Northern Alameda County.

“I am pleased to honor Beatriz Leyva-Cutler for her dedication as an advisor, trainer and educator in child development and for continuing to work hard to provide quality childcare and after school programs for our community,” said Hancock.

BAHIA, Inc. has provided bilingual/multicultural early childhood education to a diverse community of families in Berkeley for 30 years. BAHIA's offers the only full-time programs providing vital bilingual childcare services to Hispano/Latino families of Berkeley, and Beatriz is one of the very few Latina Executive Directors of a bilingual child care program in the Bay Area.

Beatriz Leyva-Cutler is also a member of Latinos Unidos de Berkeley, Vice-Chair of the Chicana/Latina Foundation Board of Directors which provides scholarships to undergraduate and graduate Latina students in the nine surrounding counties, and Vice-President of the Multicultural Institute which provides life skills, GED training and tutoring/mentoring to middle school and high school students. She was honored in 1997 as Berkeley's Outstanding Woman, in 2004 as an Exemplary Child Care Worker in Berkeley, and is currently a fellow with the LeaderSpring Institute which provides a two year fellowship for non-profit Executive Directors. She received her Master of Arts in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California.

The California Woman of the Year ceremony is an annual bi-partisan tradition founded in 1987 by former Assembly Members Bev Hansen (R-Santa Rosa) and Sally Tanner (D-El Monte). The women honored this year are the first group of women featured in The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts (the California Museum) “Woman of the Year” exhibit. The exhibit, featuring the stories of the 120 women honored by the State Legislature, will be on display through April 30, 2005 and become a permanent part of California’s archive collection.