Amador alum named Assembly District 3 Woman of the Year

Pleasanton native and Amador Valley High School alumnae Anastacia Snyder was honored last month as this year’s Assembly District 3 Woman of the Year in Butte County.

Assemblymember James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) presented the award to Snyder and five other women who work within his Northern California district at an event in Chico last month.

“It really was an honor to be recognized by the assemblyman for the work that I’ve done and the contributions I have made,” Snyder told the Weekly. “It was also an honor to stand next to those women and hear about all the wonderful contributions that they have contributed in their own community.”

According to his Facebook post, Gallagher solicited nominations throughout the district to honor outstanding women from each of the six counties he represents.

“All of the nominees recommended for this award deserve accolades for their selfless commitment to serving their community,” Gallagher said in his post. “The North State is a special place. We lift each other up and have a reputation for the care and support we offer our neighbors. I am honored to recognize each of these six women for all that they do as they represent the best of what the North State has to offer.”

Snyder — who was raised in Pleasanton, where her mom Sandi still resides — now lives in Chico where she is the executive director at Catalyst Domestic Violence Services, the sole certified provider of crisis intervention services for victims of domestic violence and their children in Butte County.

She has been with the nonprofit for 26 years and is responsible for the overall management of the agency’s operations.

Snyder said Catalyst provides services like a full housing program, emergency shelter, transitional housing, counseling programs and overall support services for Butte County. She added that Gallagher attended the organization’s 45th anniversary fundraiser event and was impressed with the work being done.

She said that some other reasons she thinks she received the award is because of her Rotary Club work and overall community involvement.

Snyder has been an active Rotarian since 2008 and currently serves as the Chico Noon Rotary Club president as well as a member of the Board of Directors for the Chico Chamber of Commerce, where she serves as the board chair.

She has also worked on smaller projects throughout her community such as park maintenance and fundraising campaigns to build a new cardiac care center at her local hospital.

Snyder said that community work is important to her and she wants more people to know that they can and should do more to address concerns in their community.

“It’s important that people contribute to their community, in whatever way that they can; Rotary just happens to be an avenue for me,” Snyder said.

Apart from community work, she sits on the California Office of Emergency Services Domestic Violence Advisory Council, where she is the current co-chair. Snyder is also a regional policy representative to the state domestic violence coalition’s Public Policy and Research Committee.

Additionally, Snyder serves as chair of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Board, is part of the Children’s Services Coordinating Council Executive Committee and is an elected member of the Butte County Continuum of Care Council.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College in Moraga and completed a master’s degree in English from California State University, Chico.