Fullerton, March 25, 2013 -

By Tiffany Johnstone and Samuel Montjoy for The Daily Titan---

Cal State Fullerton alumni Rep. Ed Royce hosted the fifth annual Women’s Conference, which focused on issues including health and safety on Saturday at the Titan Student Union.

Author Kathleen Baty was the event’s keynote speaker. She has written two books on women’s safety and empowerment.

Baty was the victim of a stalker for more than 15 years and was nearly kidnapped at gunpoint.

“What started out as harassing phone calls quickly escalated into him showing up at my door with semiautomatic weapons,” said Baty. “I lived my life like a hunted animal.”

Baty has transitioned her experiences as a stalking victim into working as a victim’s advocate and a personal safety and threat assessment expert. She worked with Royce on the state’s first anti-stalking law.

Royce originally became involved in women’s rights because of an incident where one of his staff members was sexually assaulted.

“We began the process of trying to work with victims groups in order to try to strengthen the laws to better protect the rights of crime victims, especially given the results during some of the trials when it was clear that the victims could be humiliated during the trial,” Royce said.

He wanted to achieve balance between the rights of crime victims and the rights of the accused. To address perceived inadequacies in the criminal process, Royce authored Proposition 115, the Crime Victims/Speedy Trial Initiative, which was approved by voters in 1990.

The law he wrote defined the threats and the stalking behavior themselves as a felony.

Previously, making threats was not a crime, and had no consequence.

Under the new law, serious threats were made a misdemeanor, and a felony in cases where a restraining order had already been taken out.

“We have still a task ahead of us in terms of educating judges, prosecutors and especially the general public about the availability of these protections and how to use them,” said Royce.

Preceeding the keynote, attendees were split into smaller groups, called breakout sessions.

At one session on women’s health, Dr. Joanna Tan, the first female family physician in Orange County, spoke at the seminar titled “5 Health Facts Every Woman Must Know.”

According to Tan, the key to being healthy is a balanced nutritious diet, portion control, exercise and getting enough rest.

Tan recommend eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, grains and a lot of protein, but that portion size is key.

Too much of anything is not good, she said. She recommended a fistful of fruit, grains and starches and a handful of vegetables, meats and alternatives.

The Orange County doctor also stressed the importance of vitamin C and sunlight.

Too much causes skin cancer, but sunscreen can prevent the sunlight’s benefits, she said.

Immunizations are also key to women’s health, especially against the Human Papilloma Virus which can lead to cervical cancer in women. Men can also get the HPV vaccine.

According to Tan said, the key to staying young is screening to detect cancer early.

“There is no screening for lung cancer except a CT scan of the lungs that may be able to detect cancer early, so if you’re a smoker you should consider it,” said Tan.

In regards to breast cancer, she recommended women get a mammogram between ages 40 and 50, because young women are more susceptible to the radiation in mammograms which can cause them cancer.

“If your mom got breast cancer at 40, get checked at 35,” she said.

Other session speakers include Kathryn Hackney, who spoke on financial independence, Katerina Soukhorado on home buying, and Leticia Mata on frugal living.

Certified Sommelier Jamie Gwen gave her guide to healthy cooking during her session.

Rod McDermott compared a journey to success to a trip to Las Vegas at his session.

At last year’s conference, questionnaires were distributed to gauge audience ideas for seminars.

This year, every conference topic came from an idea originally submitted by attendees.