BRANCH MEETING – November 8, 2025
9:30 AM – FIRST FRIENDS CHURCH WHITTIER
Profile of an Unknown, Yet Very Important Woman
Did you see that? Did October just fly by on a witch’s broom or was I so entangled in a ghost’s nightmare for the past few weeks that I totally missed it? Whatever the case, November is here, and the Program is set. We will be welcoming guest speaker, Celeste Candida, who will speak about Henrietta Lacks and her little-known, but important, story.
Celeste Candida is a retired professor who has a voracious appetite for taking in life experiences that continually feed her appetite for learning. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan, earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism at Wayne State University, and later earned her master’s degree in English at Loyola Marymount University.
She began her career as a journalist in Detroit. Her travels took her to Honolulu, Hawaii, where she worked as an assistant editor for a tourist newspaper, and finally to Los Angeles, where she was a copy editor for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, before moving on to teaching. She has taught composition courses at Citrus College, Pasadena City College, Whittier College, and Rio Hondo College, where she encouraged students to write essays on less common topics. Why? Because she looks to history to bring out the stories of people who are often overlooked, like Henrietta Lacks, whom she will tell us about at our upcoming Branch meeting.
Now that Celeste is retired, she has gone back to writing, but this time, she’s writing fiction, and has already published a romance novel titled Second Chance for Love. She is presently working in a new genre, the detective novel.
When Celeste is not creating vivid characters for her novels, we might find her taking photographs of interesting objects, keeping up with Linkin Park concerts, baking, or volunteering at Union Station Homeless Services in Pasadena. What she likes best, however, is spending time with her thirty-something daughter, Maria.
Celeste’s curiosity in people, in history, and in her research keeps her intellectually active, and an ideal teacher! I hope you will be able to join us for Celeste’s presentation of Henrietta Lacks on November 8th at our Branch meeting. We would love to see you there to learn more about this African American woman, Henrietta Lacks, who changed medical history.
Written by:
Claire Koehler, AAUW VP Program Director