Sonia Pressman Fuentes was born in Berlin, Germany, and came to the U.S. with her family in 1934 to escape the Holocaust. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Cornell University and a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Miami (Florida) School of Law.

She has been involved in women's rights since l965, when she joined the General Counsel's office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as its first woman attorney.

She is a founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL), and Federally Employed Women (FEW); a charter member of the Veteran Feminists of America; and a board member of the National Woman's Party. In November 1996, Betty Friedan presented her with the Veteran Feminists of America Medal of Honor.

Ms. Fuentes has lectured extensively in this country and abroad on women's rights and has written numerous articles on that subject in law reviews and other publications both in the U.S. and abroad. She has traveled as an "American specialist" on women's rights for the then-USIA to France, Germany, Spain, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Ms. Fuentes served as an attorney with the Federal government (Department of Justice, National Labor Relations Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development) for over 20 years and was an attorney and executive with two corporations, GTE and TRW, for over l0 years.

On October 10, 1999, Ms. Fuentes received the 1999 Women at Work Award given by Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) in Washington, D.C. In 2000, the U.N. High C ommissioner for Refugees included Ms. Fuentes in its Gallery of Prominent Refugees created to commemorate its 50th anniversary. On March 21, 2000, Ms. Fuentes was one of five women inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame for the year 2000. She is also a member of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) Hall of Fame. She is included in the reference book, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, published in October 2002.

Since her retirement from the federal government in May 1993, she has devoted herself to writing and public speaking. Her memoir, Eat First--You Don't Know What They'll Give You, The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter, was required reading for classes at Cornell University and American University.

Ms. Fuentes resides in Potomac, Maryland, and winters in Sarasota, Florida.

Additional Resources: View video of Ms. Fuentes accepting her achievement award at the AILF event March 18, 2005, in Washington, DC. www.speakers.co.uk/Retro/5256.htm