Frankie Gillette, Bethel AME Woman of the Year

By Lee Hubbard Frank Gillette was recently named 2010 Christian Woman of the Year at Bethel AME Church in San Francisco, where she helped spearhead a fundraising drive to install an elevator and lift at the church The elevator project took over a year to build and cost over $ 1 million. Now completed and paid off by church members, the elevator connects the church parking lot to the offices, helping many of the older members of the congregation enter and leave the building. Gillette, a retired government administrator, social worker and educator, is  president and owner of G+G Enterprises, which specializes in event planning, diversity training and advertising. A graduate of both Hampton and Howard Universities, Gillette moved to Northern California in 1964 to start the Concerted Service Project in Pittsburgh, CA, which was a federal government program that helped to resolve social inequities.  From there, she was Western Region Division Chief of the US Office of Economic Opportunities, a well as part-time coordinator for the Peace Corps and associate professor at the school of social work at Cal State Sacramento. She became a member of Bethel AME in 1976 along with her husband Maxwell, who serves as a  church trustee.  She is also a very influential activist and organizer in the San Francisco’s Black community. In addition to her other accomplishments, Gillette  was a trustee of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, served on a panel to help create the Museum of the African Diaspora and was a member of the Board of Directors at the museum, helped organize the San Francisco Business and Professional Women.  She also has been a volunteer or board member at several public, private and non-profit organizations at the local, state and national levels.