South Bay CATHOLIC JEWISH
women's dialogue
2023 Speakers
ValLimar Jansen
ValLimar was blessed with an extraordinary voice. She is a highly regarded singer, composer, and recording artist. Her education and experiences are as a university/college professor, a leader of worship and prayer and workshop presenter at conferences across the United States and abroad.
She received most of her training in music and performance at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and she holds professional degrees in the Arts from California State University and The University of California. Today, ValLimar tours regionally, nationally and internationally as an inspirational speaker, a storyteller, a psalmist, a song leader, a principal vocalist, and/or an emcee.
ValLimar has been a co-cantor (song leader) for numerous liturgies at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress. She has been a performer or presenter at: the Los Angeles Liturgy Conference; the East Coast Conference; the National Pastoral Musician Conference; the National Conference for Catholic Youth Ministers; the National Catholic Youth Conference; the National Encuentro Conference; the National Jubilee Justice Conference; the National Catholic Educational Association Conference; the Fashion Me a People Conference; the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership; the National Conference for the Catholic Health Association; the International Holy Music Festival (Italy) and many other major events.
ValLimar composes all her music with her husband, Frank. They live in southern California.
Kyomi Kowalski
Kiyomi is a social justice advocate who is focused on eradicating racism and antisemitism. To that end, in 2020, she created and chaired the Social Justice Collective for the Board of Jewish Education at Valley Outreach Synagogue in Calabasas, California. Kiyomi launched the Social Justice Collective with the Anti-racism Task Force, which provided anti-racism programming to the local Jewish community, including a speaking tour during which Kiyomi spoke to the congregations of several local synagogues about her experiences as a Jew of color, both within and outside of the Jewish community.
Kiyomi is a mom, a Marine Corps veteran, an activist, and a social justice advocate. From 1997 to 2001, Kiyomi was an active-duty Marine, during which time she served both at home and abroad and achieved the rank of Corporal. After being honorably discharged, Kiyomi attended the California State University of Northridge, where she earned a Bachelor’s in political science. Kiyomi then went on to law school, earning a Juris Doctorate with Public Service Distinction from Southwestern Law School in 2012. Since graduating law school, Kiyomi has continued her education, both formally and informally, and, most recently, earned a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.
In addition to her work within the Jewish community, Kiyomi also works with the local schools to help educate teachers and students about racism. Recognizing that racism intersects with and is embedded in many social ills, Kiyomi advocates for and works on several issues that, while not expressly tied to racism, nevertheless reflect or build upon the systemic racism in our society.
In addition to all of the above, Kiyomi is active in local and statewide politics. She is an Assembly District 46 (formerly Assembly District 45) Delegate, serves on the Executive Board and the Platform Committee of the California State Democratic Party, and holds a position on California State Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel’s advisory counsel.
Kiyomi lives in the suburbs of Los Angeles with her partner and two children. When she is not taking on the patriarchy, racism, and antisemitism, you can find Kiyomi watercolor painting, embroidering, and sewing pieces of flare to inspire a more just world.