Velma Veloria
State Legislator
Velma Veloria (b. 1950) was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the Bay Area. She graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in medical technology. Throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Veloria was a labor activist and participated in anti-war and Asian American student movements. In 1992, she became the first Filipina American to be elected to a State Legislature, serving as State Representative for South Seattle’s 11th District.
(Portrait by Lindsay Thompson, SFSU 2015)