Bella Comelo was inducted into the Justice Category in 2025.
Bella Comelo has served on San Leandro's Senior Commission for 16 years, bringing the Center of Elders' Independence to the city to support low-income seniors with food, medical care, and transportation. She introduced the WHO and AARP's Age-Friendly Initiative to improve seniors' quality of life and combat isolation through intergenerational housing and services. Honored with a Social Justice Champion Award by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Bella began her advocacy in the Oakland Unified School District. As a union leader, she joined SEIU Local 790's Executive Board, organizing for workers' rights, including at San Francisco Airport and in Richmond. A founding member of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), she has long fought for justice. In 2023, Bella championed a San Leandro resolution condemning atrocities against Kuki women in Manipur, India. She is also a writer, with a children's book, Raju and the Snake Charmer, and articles in India West, The Catholic Voice, San Leandro Times, Global Goan Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Born in Mumbai, she immigrated to Oakland in 1983 with her husband and four children.
