Gladys Green was inducted into the Community Service Category in 2015.
Gladys Green has made her mark in her hometown of Oakland many times over – as a neighborhood activist, a business leader, a champion of low-income and underserved residents and as a driving force in successful efforts to curb gun violence. Gladys is Board Chair of the Alameda County – Oakland Community Action Partnership, which works to eliminate poverty and blunt its impacts. For more than a decade, Gladys has organized monthly food giveaways and holiday toy drive for families and children at St. Benedict’s Church. She is a longtime member and current Vice Chair of the Board of Oakland Business Development Corporation, which provides loans and consultation to help launch small businesses. She successfully helped launch Oakland’s Pican and Bakesale Betty restaurants. Gladys has also been a leader in efforts to promote public safety. In 1999, she was honored by the State of California for her work on legislation broadening restrictions on assault weapons and she has worked with the Oakland Unified School District on programs seeking to remove guns from school campuses. Gladys is an active member of Saint Benedict's Church, where she is an electoral and Eucharistic minister. She also previously volunteered as the president of the Elmhurst Community Board for the City of Oakland and as a member of the Coliseum Redevelopment Advisory Committee.
