Every March, my office recognizes Women’s History Month with two key events: the Woman of the Year celebration, and the Women of Distinction. Both events highlight and honor women across the 74th Assembly District for their service and leadership within our communities.
I invite you to nominate the name of a woman who lives or works in one of our six cities, and whom you believe has made a significant or meaningful contribution over the past year. One nominee will be selected as our Woman of the Year, and we will select one additional nominee from each of our six cities.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to my district office at (949) 251-0074.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Who can nominate?
Women who live in Irvine, Costa Mesa, Laguna Woods, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.
How many people can I nominate?
Please nominate as many names as you like.
UC Irvine's Dr. Barbara Finlayson-Pitts Selected As District 74's 2021 Woman of the Year
March 15, 2021
IRVINE — Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris has named Professor Barbara Finlayson-Pitts as Assembly District 74’s Woman of the Year. The California Women’s Legislative Caucus hosts an annual Women of the Year Capitol ceremony where every legislator is invited to select one woman from their district to honor for their distinguished services to California. Barbara Finlayson-Pitts is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, UCI Distinguished Professor and Director of AirUCI. Finlayson-Pitts’s role at UC Irvine ranges includes acting as a researcher, mentor and community leader, with work spanning from carrying out critical atmospheric research, to authoring and co-authoring 180 scientific publications and two books on atmospheric chemistry.
“It is an honor to be able to recognize a scientific leader like Professor Finlayson-Pitts,” said Assemblywoman Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach). “Professor Finlayson-Pitt’s research, education and outreach is helping California and the world address urgent challenges we face in air and water quality, human health and climate change. In a historically male-dominated field, Professor Finlayson-Pitts is also a phenomenal role model and mentor for young women pursuing careers in science and research. I am proud to support and recognize her work.”
Professor Finlayson-Pitts was nominated by long-time UC Irvine colleague Dr. Sergey Nizkorodov, who remarked: “I wanted to nominate [Dr. Finlayson-Pitts] for inspirational leadership of major research initiatives, and outreach activities at UC Irvine.”
Finlayson-Pitts was selected from 150 nominations as the Assembly District 74 Woman of the Year. She will be recognized in a special virtual ceremony with six other Orange County Woman of Distinction on March 25, 2021 at 11:00 AM. Finlayson-Pitts will be presented with a resolution honoring her service to the people of Orange County and the State of California.
Professor Finlayson-Pitts holds an undergraduate degree from Canada’s Trent University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from U.C. Riverside. She joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Cal State Fullerton in 1974, and in 1994 moved to UC Irvine. Her research focuses on experimental studies of reactions that occur in the atmosphere, particularly those that form and grow particles and those that occur on surfaces.