User:Sumiharu

SUMI SEVILLA HARU is a producer, actor, journalist, writer and poet. Her company, Iron Lotus Productions, specializes in festival production. The 21st Annual Mariachi Festival will on November 20, 2011, and the Santa Cecilia Festival will be on November 22 at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, California. HARU served on the Screen Actors Guild national board for 33 years and on the Hollywood board for two years. She served as acting president in 1995, first national vice president with Bill Daniels, Richard Masur and Barry Gordon, and as national recording secretary in four two-year terms with presidents Edward Asner and Patty Duke. She is the recipient of the 2009 Ralph Morgan Award named after the first Guild president. HARU was a cofounder and national chair of SAG’s Ethnic Employment Opportunities Committee and a co-drafter and negotiator of “American Scene” and affirmative action clauses of the national TV/Theatrical and Commercials contracts. The EEOC Career Days were originated by her, and she and helped develop SAG’s national affirmative action conferences. She chaired the Legislative Committee and served as a legislative advocate on the national state and local levels. She was a trustee and former president of the SAG-Producers Industry Advancement and Cooperative Fund, and is a former board member of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. She was the first and only Asian Pacific American to serve as a national vice president of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations executive council, elected in 1995 and served until 2001. She was a co-founder and executive board member of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and served as president of the Los Angeles chapter.