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Local Leaders To Be Honored In San Diego Women's Hall Of Fame

Dilkhwaz Ahmed talks to Yazidi women who have escaped from ISIS in Duhok, Iraq, March, 2016
Dilkhwaz Ahmed
Dilkhwaz Ahmed talks to Yazidi women who have escaped from ISIS in Duhok, Iraq, March, 2016

Retired federal judge Irma Gonzalez was one of six people named Monday to the San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame.

Hon. Irma Gonzalez
Courtesy photo
Hon. Irma Gonzalez

Gonzalez was the first Mexican-American woman to become a federal judge when she was named to the bench in 1992. She served 20 years, the last seven as the district's chief judge. Before that, she was a lawyer in private practice, assistant U.S. attorney and Superior Court judge.

Other inductees include Lilia Velasquez, a lawyer who represents immigrant women, particularly those impacted by domestic violence, sexual abuse and prostitution; Joyce Nower and Carol Rowell Council, who co-founded the first women's studies program in the United States at San Diego State University, introduced a 24-hour hotline for victims of domestic violence and started an underground network of private homes throughout the region for women and children fleeing domestic violence; Dilkhwaz Ahmed, who came to the United States from the Kurdistan region of Iraq and has assisted more than 3,000 women and children from other countries who have experienced domestic violence; and Darlene Davies, who serves as historian of the Old Globe theater and works with the San Diego History Center.

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Selected out of more than 200 nominations, the honorees will be inducted on March 5.