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# ‘Y’ bothers: Women recognized for works
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/y-bothers-women-recognized-for-works/
- Published: 2005-03-26T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:26:09.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Community, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*‘Women of the Year’ viewed as role models*

Economic and social justice. Innovative philanthropy. Empowerment.

Those are words used to describe the four “Women of the Year” honored this week by the Santa Monica/Westside YWCA.

Santa Monica residents Libbie Agran and Jody Priselac, as well as Westside residents Jacqueline Caster and Julie Wilhoit, were tapped by a community-based committee for displaying leadership and passion that has served to inspire young women. “(The committee) looks at what they’ve done, how they’ve been role models and how they have given back to their communities,” said YWCA Executive Director Sally Young.

The women were honored at the Loews Hotel on Thursday during the YWCA annual “Women of the Year” dinner. For 76 years, Santa Monica/Westside YWCA has provided community service programs to women and children in surrounding communities. This is the 28th year the YWCA has selected its “Women of the Year.”

LIBBIE AGRAN As president of Libbie Agran Financial Services, Agran is devoted to economic justice and mentoring young women and girls. In 1964, Agran graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and received her master’s in public health administration from UCLA in 1970.

For years, Agran’s special focus has been on the economics of being a woman in today’s society, working to empower women who are divorced or widowed to take control of their finances. In her leisure time, Agran focuses on supporting organizations that contribute to environmental economic and social justice for women, children and their families.

Agran serves as an advisory board member to the Wonder of Reading, which rebuilds public school libraries in Los Angeles. She launched the first stay-at-home-and-read fundraiser to benefit the program. She is also a member of the endowment of Big Sisters of Los Angeles, among other organizations.

JODY PRISELAC, PHD. Priselac is the executive director of “Center X” at UCLA. The focus of Center X is to use the racial, cultural and linguistic diversity of Los Angeles to ensure a high quality education for children. She has spent much of her life serving as a role model for women.

In 1974, Priselac received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UCLA, and the following year, she received her teaching credential in secondary mathematics. For the next two decades, Priselac taught junior high and high school students mathematics at Le Conte Junior High School and Santa Monica High School.

While working her way through school and raising a family, Priselac returned to UCLA to earn her doctorate in 1999\. She serves as a faculty advisor in secondary mathematics in the UCLA Teacher Education Program. She has been a member of the race and discipline task force at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and was the past chairman of the board for the National Conference for Community and Justice in the South Bay.

For more than 30 years, Priselac has dedicated her life to improving the educational system in Los Angeles.

JACQUELINE CASTER Caster is founder and president of Everychild Foundation, which has provided a means for busy women to give back to their communities in a meaningful way without requiring a time-consuming commitment. The organization awards grants to make a difference in the lives of needy children. In 1999, Caster set out to find more than 200 women who would donate $5,000 annually to make the dream of the Everychild Foundation a reality.

Each year, the women pool their dues and target a different non-profit organization. The foundation has supported the creation of at least four other new charities. The foundation, now with 180 members and serving more than 30,000 children, has given out $2.5 million in grants since its inception. It has funded a mobile dental clinic for children without access to quality dental care; helped build or rebuild 15 new libraries for low-income LA public schools, purchasing books and training volunteers for those libraries; and provided a grant to expand services at the Violence Intervention Program, an agency that assesses and treats children impacted by violence.

Caster earned her bachelor’s degree at Pomona College, her master’s degree in city and regional planning at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and her JD at the Boston University School of Law.

JULIE WILHOIT Wilhoit, the head women’s basketball coach at Loyola Marymount University, enters into her 10th season as the back-to-back West Coast Conference Coach of the Year recipient, steering the Lions to more than 60 wins over the last four years. Her teams have won the West Coast Conference Championship and the NCAA Championship.

Wilhoit believes that intercollegiate basketball is a conduit for young women and women of diversity to be role models to young girls and boys who may not have advantages and opportunities to identify, articulate, plan and reach their dreams.

Wilhoit co-founded a nonprofit organization called “Sneaker Sisters.” The goal of the organization is to give disadvantaged young girls the opportunity to experience success through sports. Utilizing LMU women basketball players as role models, the organization creates opportunities for young girls to experience the values of sports.

In 1985, Wilhoit earned her bachelor’s degree in physical education at Marian College. In 1988, she earned her master’s degree in education from Indiana University.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/032605-02_01.jpg)

of YWCA Left to right: Jacqueline Caster, Libbie Agran, Jody Priselac and Julie Wilhoit. (Photo: Photo courtesy)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 26, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/032605.pdf?ref=smdp.com)