Roberta Achtenberg

Education After graduating from Morningside High School in Inglewood, California, Achtenberg attended University of California, Los Angeles, and then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. Achtenberg also met her ex-husband, David Chavkin at Berkeley. She began law school at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, before eventually receiving her Juris Doctor from the University of Utah in 1975. During a San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade, Achtenberg and Mary Morgan hugged and kissed while riding a float with their son, which generated controversy during her entrance to her federal political career.

In 2015, she spoke at the University of Utah's S.J Quinney College of Law's Commencement ceremony.

Career Before becoming a public official, Achtenberg worked for more than 15 years as a civil rights attorney, public interest advocate, nonprofit director, and legal educator.

Between 1975 and 1976, she served as a teaching fellow at Stanford University Law School. In 1976, Achtenberg became the Dean of the New College of California School of Law. The paper outlines how to properly represent LGBTQ+ juveniles, how to tackle First Amendment issues regarding LGBTQ+ people or speech, and more.

Achtenberg has formerly worked at the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco on the Board of Directors from 1997 to 2002 where she chaired the Affordable Housing Committee, and worked as a Staff Attorney for the Lesbian Rights Project of Equal Rights Advocates.

She is the founder and a partner at ABK City Advisors, serves as a senior advisor at Lennar Corporation, and is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bank of San Francisco. ' Political career Achtenberg unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the 1988 California State Assembly special election to replace Art Agnos, losing to John Burton. She was elected as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1990, the first time that two lesbians (alongside Carole Migden) won seats to the board. In her tenure on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, she worked on issues from individuals' rights to small businesses to making domestic violence shelters. From 1995 to 1997, she was appointed as the senior advisor to the Secretary of United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Achtenberg left the post in 1995 to run for mayor of San Francisco, and placed third behind Frank Jordan and Willie Brown (who would win in the runoff). From 1998 to 2004, Achtenberg helped develop the policies for both the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the San Francisco Center for Economic Development.

In 2000, she was appointed to the Board of Trustees of California State University by Governor Gray Davis, becoming chair of the board in May 2006, serving on the CSU Board of Trustees until 2015. Roberta Achtenberg was the first openly LGBTQ+ individual to go through the senate confirmation process, and subsequently was the first LGBTQ+ individual to hold a federal position.

She also expressed her own viewpoints and goals related to the position.

Awards Advocate Article, a gay and lesbian magazine, named Achtenberg the Advocate's "Woman of the Year" in 1993. Received the Women of Achievement Award from the National Organization for Women Received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters at California State University and California State University San Marcos Was inducted into the LGBTQ Victory Institute's Hall of Fame as part of the Founding Class in 2021 Recognized as #WomenWhoBuiltHUD by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2022 during Women's History Month

Publications "Behavior Modification: Legal Limitations on Methods and Goals", 50 Notre Dame Lawyer 230 (1975) Sexual Orientation and the Law, by Roberta Achtenberg (editor) (1985) "Partner Benefits Litigation: Expanding Definitions of the Family", Matthew bender Family Law Monthly (May 1987) The Adoptive and Foster Gay and Lesbian Parent, in Gay and Lesbian Parents, Bozett, Ed., Praeger Press (1987) Nicaragua's New Constitution: Report of August 1986 National Lawyers Guild Delegation to Nicaragua (May 1987) AIDS and Child Custody: A Guide to Advocacy, National Center for Lesbian Rights (1989) The Lesbian and Gay Book of Love and Marriage: Creating the Stories of Our Lives, by Paula Martinac, Roberta Achtenberg (contributor) (1998) Preserving and Protecting the Families of Lesbians and Gay Men, National Center for Lesbian Rights (1986, 1990) Lesbian Mother Litigation Manual, Second Edition, national Center for Lesbian Rights, with Donna Hitchens (1990) Protecting the Lesbian Family in Our Right to Love, Vida, Ed, (1990) Helping Gay and Lesbian Youth: New Policies, New Programs, New Practice'', by Teresa Decrescenzo (editor), Roberta Achtenberg (contributor) (1994)