[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 23917]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO ZONIA SANDOVAL WALDON

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 1, 2003

  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize the achievements 
and invaluable contributions of Zonia Sandoval Waldon over the last 30 
plus years in Santa Clara County. Her dedication to families, adults 
and children has been laudable.
  Born and raised in El Salvador, Zonia Waldon came to the United 
States at age eight and went to school in San Francisco and Daly City. 
She is a proud mother of twin sons and has resided in Santa Clara 
County most of her adult life.
  Ms. Waldon began her career with the Social Services Agency in 1972 
starting out as an eligibility worker--what was then referred to as the 
``blind unit.'' The unit was unique in that it combined the efforts of 
all staff members including eligibility, social workers and supervisors 
in resolving issues.
  Learning to work well with people, both clients and staff, Ms. Waldon 
was given increasingly more responsible positions such as: Supervisor 
for General Assistance, Supervisor for Aid to Families with Dependent 
Children, and Supervisor for the Medi-Cal Unit at Valley Medical 
Center. Zonia's ability to ``get the job done'' led to her next 
assignment as District Office Manager of the East Valley Office of 
Social Services. Her role in management of facilities led to other 
managerial roles such as branching into labor management issues. She 
served as Steward, State Delegate, and Negotiator for the Union Local 
535, SEIU. Zonia created the first Supervisory Chapter of Union Local 
535. She was a co-founder and served as the first President of the 
Supervisory Chapter.
  Other projects Zonia was involved with included a Family Preservation 
Pilot Project awarded by the State Department of Social Services. 
Highlights of accomplishments included: parent education, child respite 
care, counseling, development of Family Resource Centers, community-
based child welfare services and community collaboratives. She also 
helped to initiate the Youth Leadership Gang Prevention Program funded 
by the State and the City of San Jose Mayor's Gang Task Force. This 
program currently serves youth throughout Santa Clara County and has 
graduated more than 2,000 youth to date.
  In February of 2001, Zonia Waldon was promoted to Deputy Director of 
the Department of Family and Children's Services. Zonia believes that 
her greatest accomplishment in her career was her never-ending desire 
to mentor people around her and to assist them in carving out their 
career paths. She has been a true leader and extremely instrumental in 
improving the quality of Social Services our community has today. I 
wish her all the best in the next chapter of her life. She will be 
sorely missed, but never forgotten.

                          ____________________