The University of San Diego (USD) Copley Library invites you to celebrate Filipino American History Month with an evening of reflection, community, and celebration featuring Judge Rohanee Zapanta, a proud double USD alumna and trailblazing Filipina American jurist as keynote speaker.

Appointed in 2018 by Governor Jerry Brown, Judge Zapanta is the second Filipina American to serve as a Superior Court Judge in San Diego County. Recognized as one of the Most Influential Filipina Women in the World in 2023 by the Filipina Women’s Network, she brings a powerful voice on identity, justice, ethics, and wellness—locally and globally. In 2024, she presented excerpts from her chapter Identity, Law & Justice at the New South Wales Parliament in Sydney, Australia, and later that year spoke on Judicial Ethics and Secondary Trauma at the inaugural Balkan Countries Judicial Summit for Women Judges in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Starting in Fall 2025, she will teach Professional Identity Formation at the USD School of Law.

Deeply committed to student empowerment and values-driven leadership, Judge Zapanta co-created and co-chairs Brown Faces to the Sun, a youth project uplifting cultural pillars through hip-hop. She also co-founded and co-chairs the California Judges Association’s Ethics & Wellness Workshops for first-generation law students, teaches workshops for Silayan Filipina’s youth program (receiving their Legacy Award in 2023), and serves on the USD Alumni Board of Directors Inclusion Task Force. She is the current Managing Chief Editor of The Bench, the official journal of the California Judges Association, where she regularly contributes a self-assessment column on identity and wellness.

The event is free and open to the public. Dinner will be served after the program.