EAST COUNTYEAST COUNTY — Santee City Manager Marlene Best was among seven leaders honored last week at the 17th annual Women In Leadership Luncheon, an event put on by the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce.
More than 400 people attended the luncheon that celebrates women for their outstanding leadership, exemplary character and integrity in the community, as well as their efforts to empower other women to succeed and prosper in life and business.
Forty-three women, nearly all of them East County residents, were nominated for Women In Leadership awards.
The event’s keynote speaker was Amanda Matti, an author who has written two books, a memoir about her life in the U.S. Navy during the Iraq War, and a chronicling of her Iraq-born husband’s life working for the U.S. during the war. Matti and her husband also own and operate a real estate company in El Cajon, where they live.
Other winners were San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob; Mirus Promotions business owner Julie Seal-Gaustad; Mary Jean Anderson, president of Anderson Plumbing, Heating & Air; Catherine Arambula, a financial advisor for Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.; Linda VanFulpen, manager of Volunteer Services at Sharp Grossmont Hospital; and Dilkhwaz Ahmed, executive director of License to Freedom, an advocacy group for women refugees.
Best has been the city manager in Santee since 2016, after working 10 years at the same position in the city of Imperial. She was also a city manager in Calexico and assistant city manager in Lake Elsinore.
Best is a Jamul resident who graduated from Helix High in 1978 and got her start in city employment working in the recreation department in Lemon Grove in 1980. She acknowledged her East County roots and talked about making the long drive to the Imperial Valley before she took over in Santee three years ago.
“I am an East County girl, I have lived here my whole life,” Best said. “I drove for 20 years-plus, 100 miles each way to work. Four hours on the road, but it was worth it because East County is worth it.”
Best said she learned some of her more important life lessons from children’s characters like Horton the elephant from the Dr. Seuss Book “Horton Hears a Who,” Cinderella, country singer Tim McGraw, and the book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum.
“Horton’s theme is ‘A person’s a person no matter how small,’ ” Best said. “Cinderella’s motto was ‘Have courage to be kind.’ Be kind. Because that’s really important. Have respect, small or large, and be kind to them. Be kind, help people. Tim McGraw sings, ‘Always be humble and kind.’ “
Best said it is important to see the big picture.
“Take a look where you come from, look where you’re going, but don’t forget the other people who are with you,” and live each day like it’s your last day,” she said. “Have courage, get out there and really make things happen because you may not have another chance.”
A closer look at the other award recipients:
- Jacob, a native San Diegan with roots three generations deep, was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1992. Currently in her seventh consecutive term representing more than 600,000 residents, Jacob has held elective office longer than anyone in San Diego County history. The Jamul resident will be termed out in 2020.
- Seal-Gaustad launched her San Diego promotions company in 2009 with just one client in San Diego and has since grown the company to a nationwide business representing over 100 different brands and providing thousands of jobs.
- Anderson began her career as a nurse and said she believes that her natural instincts as a caretaker influenced her commitment to exceptional customer service. Anderson Plumbing, Heating & Air, which has more than 180 employees, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
- Arambula is president of MANA de San Diego, a national organization whose mission is to empower young girls and women by providing them with skills, tools and . She also serves as president of WE-U, secretary of Latinas in Business Foundation, and president of the National Latina Business Women Association San Diego.
- VanFulpen has been in hospital volunteerism for more than 35 years and is currently the manager of volunteer services, the gift shop, thrift store and campus shuttle run by Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa. She also manages Sharp Grossmont’s Discharge with Dignity program so that no patient is discharged without a proper change of clothing and other items they may not be able to afford such as walkers, canes, or wheelchairs.
- Dilkhwaz is the executive director and co-founder of License to Freedom, an El Cajon-based nonprofit serving refugee and immigrant survivors of domestic violence and relationship abuse. An immigrant women’s rights activist from Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Dilkhwaz left her home and career as director of the Nawa Center in 2002 to come to the U.S. to victims of domestic violence.
