Former Pasadena Arts Commission Chair is 2014 Woman of the Year

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) on Wednesday honored Pasadena Arts Commission founding member and former chair Alice Steere Coulombe as one of the 2014 Women of the Year in the 28th Congressional District.

Schiff said Coulombe, who was a docent at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens for 35 years and a volunteer at the Music Center of Los Angeles for three decades, was “a passionate advocate for the arts and arts education.”

Coulombe, as well as 12 other women from the 28th Congressional District, was awarded in celebration of Women’s History Month.

“It is an honor to pay homage to outstanding women who are making a difference in my Congressional District,” Schiff said. “Each woman honored today has demonstrated an ability to help others to work tirelessly for a cause important to us all, and to make our communities a better place.”

Coulombe; her husband, Joe; and three children: Joe, Charlotte and Madeleine, moved to Pasadena in 1983. Coulombe volunteered at the Music Center of Los Angeles for three decades and served as chair of Music Center Presentations and Coordinator of Volunteer Activities. She was also a member of the City of Pasadena’s Centennial Committee.

Schiff said “Coulombe’s special love is opera.” He said she was the founding president of the Music Center Opera League and one of the founders of the Los Angeles Opera Company, where she currently serves on its board. For the past nine years, she has served on the Colburn School Board of Directors as a member of their Governance Committee and as chair of the Board Relations Committee.

She is also the president of Metropolitan Associates, a local nonprofit that raises funds to support the arts for children.

“For her selfless service to supporting the arts, Ms. Coulombe received the YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley’s Woman of Distinction Award and has been honored by the Los Angeles Master Chorale,” Schiff said.

Coulombe was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Humanities and her Master’s degree in Education from Stanford University. At Stanford, she met Joe Coulombe, and they got married when both were still students at the university.

In 1958, the Coulombes founded Pronto Markets, a chain of grocery stores in Southern California. In 1967, Joe, the original Trader Joe, added a South Seas motif to the stores and changed the name to Trader Joe’s.

The annual Women of the Year event honors inspiring women from communities in the 28th Congressional District such as Hollywood, West Hollywood, Burbank, Pasadena, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Elysian Valley, Los Feliz, Sunland–Tujunga, Glendale, Atwater Village, La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta.

The other honorees for this year are Alexandra Helfrich of Burbank, Barbara Ferris (Los Feliz), Blaire Lennane (Elysian Valley), Cheryl Davis (La Crescenta), Christy Schilling (Glendale), Drian Juarez (Hollywood), Martha Burns (La Cañada Flintridge), Nadine Trujillo (Silver Lake), Elizabeth Garo (Echo Park), Ruth Williams (West Hollywood), Shelli-Anne Couch (Atwater Village) and Sonia Tatulian (Tujunga).

“It was an honor and a pleasure to meet with the 2014 ‘Women of the Year’ awardees, and to recognize their outstanding work and community leadership,” Schiff said. “They serve as a shining example of service throughout the 28th Congressional District, and it was wonderful to recognize their extraordinary work and capabilities.”

The organizers said there are no specific criteria for nomination, and that the honorees are chosen based on how their work or volunteerism helped improve the quality of life of their community.