Women Who Could be President Gala Reception Honorees
Elmy Bermejo

Elmy Bermejo has been dedicated to public service for more than 20 years and has worked in different parts of California and in Washington D.C. She currently serves as Deputy Secretary for External Affairs for the State and Consumer Services Agency. This Agency oversees sixteen departments within state government including the Franchise Tax Board, Department of Fair Employment and Housing, Department of Consumer Affairs, Department of General Services, Victim Compensation and Government Claims. She previously served as Special Assistant to Senator Don Perata, President Pro Tempore of the California State Senate and prior to that for Senator John Burton, the former President Pro Tempore.

Other elected officials for whom Elmy has worked include:  Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey of Marin-Sonoma, former Congressman Mel Levine of Los Angeles, former Lt. Governor Leo McCarthy and for the late U.S. Senator Alan Cranston, where she developed an expertise in immigration issues and procedures. She has also worked as a consultant to various statewide campaigns, as well as worked on Spanish language translations of campaign materials and public service announcements for television, radio and Latino media.

Elmy currently serves as Chair of The Women’s Foundation of California, President of HOPE, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality, a non-profit organization committed to ensuring political and economic parity for Latinas through leadership, advocacy and education. She is also immediate Past Chair of the California State Commission on the Status of Women, board member of Latino Issues Forum, the National Women’s Political Caucus and has served on the California Complete Count Committee for the Census 2000 and the Presidential Rank Review Board. She also serves on the Advisory Board of EMERGE and the National Hispanic Media Coalition.  In 2004 Hispanic Magazine listed her as a Latina of Excellence in Community Service.

Elmy has also served as a panelist/speaker at conferences organized by AAUW,  NALEO,  the S.F. Commission on the Status of Women, NWPC-CA, the Women’s Leadership Symposium of  UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, the Latina Leadership Network Conference of the CA Community Colleges and HOPE. In April 2001 she traveled to El Salvador, where she participated in the International Speakers Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. She met with women leaders and women’s groups in San Salvador to discuss the importance of public service and the importance of women getting elected to public office. In 2003 she was invited to La Paz, Bolivia under a similar program organized by State University of New York (SUNY). In July 2007 she traveled to Haiti to participate in a conference on strengthening institutions.

She has a BA in psychology and a graduate degree in Bilingual Vocational Counseling. Her family comes from Yucatan, Mexico and owns Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant, one of the most successful family operated restaurants in San Francisco.  Tommy’s, named after her father, Tomas, specializes in food from Yucatan and features the largest selection of premium tequila outside of Mexico. Her brother, Julio, is internationally recognized as the Ambassador of Tequila. The restaurant has been featured in various publications, radio and  television, like The San Francisco Chronicle,  The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, CNN and Evening Magazine for KPIX Channel 5.