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| For Immediate Release | Contact: Felicia M. Torrez |
| March 25 , 2008 | Phone: (559) 934-2132 |
West Hills College Coalinga Celebrates Women’s History Month
with Presentation by Janice Olson
Daughter of Col. Olson, Pilot, 5th Bomber Command pilot, Olson’s Pacific Theatre B-17 Project’s mission is to collect, preserve and make available to the public the history of the B-17s and their crews serving in the Pacific Theatre of WW II. Ms. Olson will give a presentation at West Hills College Coalinga on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 6 p.m. in the Speech/Arts Building.
Ms. Olson has taken three trips to the mainland of New Guinea and four to New Britain. From these trips, she has located and documented B-17 sites. Future plans call for a visit to Milne Bay to locate the remains of three B-17s, or to New Britain to locate two more B-17s.
Ms. Olson’s work has been featured on “Good Morning America.” Her presentation will focus on the extraordinary losses of U.S. aircraft and crew, her decades-long search for missing B-17 Flying Fortresses and the startling outcome of one particular search into the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
Janice began her career in retail real estate over 35 years ago at Homart Development Company, the shopping center development arm of Sears Roebuck & Co. At Homart she was responsible for developing, leasing and managing shopping centers, office buildings and multi-use business parks. She rose to become director of public affairs and corporate marketing, responsible for national and local image development and building access to new growth markets.
Sears sold the company in the early 1990’s and Janice moved to join the global asset management firm of Jones Lang LaSalle, retiring a year ago to pursue work documenting the history of the B-17 Flying Fortress in the Pacific Theatre.
The presentation is open to the public and admission is free. The college is located at 300 Cherry Lane, Coalinga CA 93210.
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West Hills Community College District serves the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and is part of the California Community College System. Its two colleges, West Hills College Coalinga, which includes North District Center, Firebaugh, and West Hills College Lemoore, serve more than 6,000 students on campus and online each semester.