Glendale News Press, CA
March 24 2006
Schiff names Women of the Year
Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who represents Burbank and Glendale,
named Tuesday his women of the year from the cities in the 29th
District in honor of Women’s History Month.
They are: Beth Marcus of Burbank, Seta Simonian of Glendale; Angie
O’Brien of Pasadena; Betty Wang of South Pasadena; Helen Hancock of
Alhambra; Nancy Donohue of Temple City; Pat Maguire Freeman of San
Gabriel; Sandra Thomas of Altadena and Sharon Martinez of Monterey
Park.
Marcus is a family physician who practices in La Cañada Flintridge,
where she has practiced for more than 10 years on the medical staffs
of Verdugo Hills Hospital and Glendale Adventist Medical Center.
After completing her family medicine residency, she went on to
complete a fellowship in adolescent medicine, where she worked with
adolescents struggling with poverty, family estrangement, drug abuse,
homelessness, and other issues.
As Burbank Temple Emanu El’s social action chair, Marcus has
coordinated numerous efforts to help others in the Burbank, Glendale,
North Hollywood area. She has arranged blood drives, collected shoes
and clothing for impoverished children, gathered donations for
tsunami victims and hurricane victims, filled backpacks with school
supplies, assembled items for homeless women, and made sandwiches for
the hungry.
She also volunteers her time to help the PTA at Emerson Elementary
School in Burbank, and is planning to implement a nutrition program
at the school called Food is Elementary.
Simonian, a math teacher at Wilson Middle School in Glendale, was
born in Aleppo, Syria, and at age 11 moved to Beirut, Lebanon.
Upon graduating from the American University of Beirut at the age of
22, she married Hratch Simonian.
The Simonians lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for eight years, then
moved to California in 1985. Since 1987, Seta, her husband, and their
two children, Karin and Sebouh, have resided in Glendale.
Simonian co-founded and chaired the Hamazkayin Educational and
Cultural Society of Pasadena.