living in the Bay region and all have been women of achievement. Among the number are Mrs. Alexander Morrison, Dr. Emma Sutro Merritt, Mrs. William Keith, Dr. Milicent Shinn and Mrs. Warren Cheeney. These women believed that "education is the very foundation of civic strength and uprightness" and, as a consequence, this branch has been a force in California in providing and initiating forward movements in education and in procuring opportunities for women in higher education.
The appointment of Mrs. Phoebe Hearst as the first woman Regent of the University of California, was the result of the efforts of this branch.
The American Association of University Women, a constituent member of the International Federation of University Women, is an association whose purpose is "the interesting of alumnae of different institutions for practical educational work—in general, for the maintenance of high standards in education." The major activities fall under three heads: (1) educational opportunities; (2) international relations; (3) wider professional opportunities for women. California has had two national presidents: Mrs. Alexander Morrison and Dr. Aurelia Henry Reinhardt. Mrs. Arthur Heineman is the director for the South Pacific Section and Miss Edna Stangland, the California State president.
The California State Division, of which Mrs. Edward B. Stanwood was the first president, has organized branches throughout the state dedicated to the educational welfare of the country. Opportunities are given the members to inform themselves regarding principles and movements in education, and in the application of these programs to their local conditions. The national study projects have been made possible since 1922, by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial and the Carnegie Corporation. Discussion groups are organized in each branch on pre-school education, elementary education and adolescent education.
Notable work has been done, among other branches, by the San Francisco Bay Branch, under the leadership of Mrs. J. R. McDonald in the Department of Child Welfare and Parent Education, and in the East Bay Branch, where a Nursery School has been established by Mrs. Paul Taylor, and in the Sacramento and Fresno Branches, in providing scholarships. In the spring of 1927, the San Francisco Bay Branch initiated a series of lectures and discussions under the chairmanship of Dean Katharine Adams of Mills College, inviting state-wide
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