Rep. Adam Schiff honors local Women of the Year
Kimberly Holland of La Crescenta-Montrose and Dr. Frieda Jordan of Glendale were among 14 women honored by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) as Women of the Year last Friday from the communities in the 28th Congressional District.
“Today, I met with nine women with varying backgrounds and interests, who have all worked tirelessly to make our communities a better place to call home. It was an honor to recognize their outstanding work in the 28th District,” Schiff said in a statement. “Each of these women has worked to support a myriad of charitable, business and local causes.”
For nearly three decades, Holland has been working with the Professional Development Center at Glendale Community College, serving as its executive director for the past decade, and has overseen the training of employees from organizations and companies in Southern California.
Over the years, the Professional Development Center has been providing technical services and training for Southern California employees, and is recognized as one of the most innovative training agencies in California.
Employees who undergo training provided by the Professional Development Center currently experience an average earnings increase of $5.40 per hour, according to the school.
The center has trained 34,000 California workers and has created relationships with numerous clients including USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, Glendale Adventist Medical Center, DreamWorks Animation, Lexus of Glendale, Whole Foods Market and the Cheesecake Factory.
In addition to her work at the Professional Development Center, Holland spends time participating in local and community fundraising events.
After graduating from high school in Tehran, Iran, Jordan moved to England, where she received a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate degree in biochemistry from King’s College in London. She also became a certified histocompatibility specialist with the American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.
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Jordan is currently director of DNA molecular typing at Foundation Laboratory, and is a laboratory inspector with the European Federation for Immunogenetics, representing Armenia. Prior to her work at Foundation Laboratory, Jordan was associate director of the Human Leukocyte Antigen and Immunogenetics Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
She is co-founder and president of the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry as well as chair of its support group for patients and their family members.
The registry, which was founded in 1999, recruits and provides matched unrelated donors for stem-cell or bone-marrow transplantation to patients who are facing life-threatening blood disorders. It has identified more than 3,531 potential matches for patients around the world, and has facilitated 26 stem-cell transplants. This organization has also brought new medical technology to Armenia, where it established a stem-cell harvesting center in 2009.
Jordan is an active member of and participant in various medical organizations including the Armenian Medical Assn., the World Marrow Donor Assn. and the National Marrow Donor program.
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Mark Kellam, mark.kellam@latimes.com
Twitter: @LAMarkKellam
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