Heritage & Health Series Program
Join Us in March! WHM 2026
Because of Her...
Please join us in community, celebration and love for our WHM events in March. Check the campus events calendar for all upcoming events.
Tuesday, March 3
Yoga & Health with Mona Ahuja
11:15 a.m. –12:15 p.m. BIPOC Center
Join us for a special workshop as we kick off Women’s History Month!
Mona Ahuja of Crescent Moon Yoga in Los Altos will guide us in a mindful physical practice that opens our hearts and powers our minds through a gentle yoga flow class. She will also share her wisdom on how to practice stress reduction, understanding hormones, the long-term importance of proper posture, and explain the power of the mind-body connection and how this all ties together so that we may practice leading a more balanced and confident life.
Discover the power of Yoga and learn that it’s not just a series of poses done on a mat, but really a practice of how to align the body, mind, and the strength within you.
Wednesday, March 4
Women's History Month Opening Ceremony with Fund the Future Club's Global Summit
Noon–1:30 p.m. Dining Hall
Join us for the opening event of Women's History Month, with the support of the Fund the Future club as they welcome three local NGOs who will give brief overviews of their work and how YOU can get involved. Topics will cover Immigrant Rights, Settlements in Palestine, and Girls Education in Côte d'Ivoire. Educate yourself and be proactive to help make the world a better place.
Guest speakers will include Juritzi Mendoza, Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN); Nadine Mansour, Arab American Cultural Center of Silicon Valley; and Evelyn Keomian, Karat School Project.
Complimentary food and beverages provided.
Virtual Artist Talk with Photographer Rita Leistner
2 p.m.– 3 p.m. Register & Join via Zoom
About the Artist
Canadian artist Rita Leistner uses photography and film to create portraits of communities in extreme conditions—such as soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, female patients at psychiatric hospitals in wartime, women wrestlers in the United States, and loggers and tree planters in Canada—exploring themes of purpose, struggle, and belonging. Each unique world shapes her conceptual approaches and aesthetic styles, resulting in distinctive, large bodies of work that merge art and documentary and often consist of books or films in addition to photographs for installation and exhibition.
She typically invests months or years in a project. From 2016 to 2019 she lived with and documented a community of tree planters in British Columbia, Canada. The resulting art trifecta consists of an award-winning feature documentary film “Forest for the Trees”, a 256-page photography book, and large-scale fine art photographs, “The Tree Planters” and “Enchanted Forests”.
Rita’s writing and photographs have been published in thousands of outlets (magazines, books, all manner of digital media) worldwide, exhibited in more than twenty countries and are in major art collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the TD Bank Art Collection. She has written about photography, art, and war for publications such as the Routledge Companion to Visual Culture, The Literary Review of Canada, GEO France and The Walrus. She has published four books of photography including Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq (2005), widely considered one of the most influential anti-war books to come out of the Iraq conflict.
From 2010-16 she was Associate Professor of the History of Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the University of Toronto. She has been captured by insurgents, assaulted, and shot at; and has run into gunfire to get a photograph.
During the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rita continued her explorations of community, struggle and belonging in two photography series about the human desire for connection in the face of strict pandemic rules such as stay-at-home orders and social distancing: The darkly poetic night journey “Infinite Distance” made with actor/filmmaker/screenwriter Don McKellar; and “Some of the Parts”, an uncannily emotional series of socially distanced portraits of the artist with friends and family in Toronto, Canada. She is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto and divides her time between Toronto and Montreal.
Thursday, March 5
Art Workshop with Artist Deborah Shea
1–3p.m Room 1601
Please join Deborah Shea in a presentation of evolution in a creative life and art as a pastel artist and muralist. Deb will discuss her early years as a student and then as a designer, illustrator and creative director in tech and manufacturing and then her move to full time artist in 2017.
In the last few years Deb has worked in large pastel florals and still lifes while teaching for the Georgia O'keeffe Museum. In 2025 she was part of a three artist team creating the San Carlos Centennial asphalt mural and will be working on a mural for the Hiller Aviation Museum in late April. Deb will also discuss her work with Cora (Center for overcoming Relationship Abuse) in curating exhibits at their intake offices and visiting exhibits.
Deb will lead a workshop in pastels to create beautiful poppy floral pieces using sketches, underpainting techniques and pastel layering.
Deborah Shea was born and raised in San Francisco. At the age of 14 she attended a
summer arts program with Ruth Asawa and created images for the Hyatt Fountain and
a UCSF mural. Deborah received a BA in Studio Art & Design at UC Davis, where she
studied with Wayne Thiebaud and Roland Peterson. She had a career for over 20 years
as a creative director, designer, and illustrator before becoming a full-time fine
artist in 2017. She has won numerous awards in juried and solo exhibitions, and has
taught pastel classes at Filoli, the Pacific Art League, the Atherton Art Foundation,
and at Art Bias, to name a few. Deborah also teaches pastel workshops online and onsite
for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2023, she was selected
as one of seven San Mateo County artists for a yearlong exhibition in the Chan Zuckerberg
Community Center in Redwood City. Her painting The Big Day was chosen for the Triton
Salon Exhibition in 2025. She was a lead artist on the San Carlos Centennial Mural
in San Carlos. Deborah currently resides in Redwood City.
For more information please see her website at deborahsheastudios.com or her Instagram @debdsheastudios.
Monday, March 9
HealthyU
Noon–1:30p.m Library Quad or Dining Hall (depending on weather)
Join us to learn about being the healthiest version of you! There will be mocktails, food, music, yoga, fun, and many wellness resources.
Questions? Email fhmhwc@foothill.edu
Learn more about on-campus and virutal Mental Health and Wellness Center resources.
Tuesday, March 10
A Talk on Modern Beauty Standards with Dolores Davison
1 p.m.– 2 p.m. Toyon Room 2020
Beauty standards through the ages have meant many different things to the world’s societies and cultures, based on the intersections of those cultures and societies with a wide range of other influences. Join Dolores Davison, professor and chair for Foothill College’s History & Women's Studies departments, for an interactive discussion regarding the changing roles and expectations around beauty and gender, from the ancient world to modern times.
Wednesday, March 11
Women's History Month Closing Ceremony
Noon–1 p.m. Library Quad
Join us for the closing ceremony for Women’s History Month. We will have a special program with music honoring the women of Foothill and the month's theme of "Because of Her...".
Additionally, we'll have crafting tables with fresh flowers and cards to deliver to women of meaning in our lives.
Complimentary food and beverages will be provided.
Questions? Please contact Victoria Strelnikova at strelnikovavictoria@fhda.edu.
WHM Planning Committee Members
Thank you to all our students, faculty and staff who helped plan our WHM events this month.
- Dana Manor, Chair
- Judith Walgren
- Ridhi Thapar
- Christopher Yang
- Dolores Davison
- Lianne Carla Catbagan
- Victoria Strelnikova
