SACRAMENTO, March 10, 2008 - Assemblymember Curren Price honored 36 year-old Margaret Fortune as 51st District Woman of the Year on the Assembly floor.   Fortune, a graduate of Morningside High School, is CEO of Project Pipeline, a Sacramento-based nonprofit with a 20-year track record of credentialing public school teachers. Earlier this month, she was appointed to the California State University Board of Trustees.

“Ms. Fortune is a remarkable woman who sets a wonderful example of what young students in our District can achieve,” said Price.  “Her commitment to public service and improving our educational system is unparalleled and worthy of this recognition.” 

Since 2006, Margaret Fortune has been a senior advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger.  From 2005 to 2006, Fortune served as an education advisor and director of public affairs in the Office of the Governor.   Prior to that, she was superintendent of St. HOPE Public Schools, a Sacramento-based K-12 charter school district serving 1,800 students.  Sac High Charter School, which she helped to establish, has drawn national attention and was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.   Fortune’s experience also includes two years as Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Secretary for Education and Chair of the Commission on Teacher Credentialing and service on the California Children and Families Commission.   She holds a Political Science degree from the Berkeley, where she was the first African American woman elected student body president, and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.  Fortune is a Democrat.

The Woman of the Year event was started in 1987.  It is held during Women’s History Month to celebrate the contributions to society made by remarkable women throughout California.  Each year, one woman from each Senate and Assembly District  is  invited to the Capitol and honored for their accomplishments in a formal ceremony on the Senate and Assembly Floors. The Woman of the Year event is sponsored and organized by the Women's Caucus.