Randa Trapp’s busy schedule could fill several calendars. A TWIN honoree in 1998, Trapp is legal counsel for Sempra Energy. She’s an adjunct law professor at the University of San Diego and is involved in numerous community activities.

A past president of the NAACP San Diego chapter, Trapp is vice chair of the Community Leaders Forum. The group focuses on the African-American community and getting people energized about elections.

Trapp chairs the San Diego Law Library Justice Foundation board and recently was appointed to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer National Foundation African-American Advisory Committee. She has served on the city’s Human Relations Commission and chaired the Southeastern Economic Development Corp. board. Trapp was a member of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Judicial Advisory Committee and a director on the County Retirement and the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau boards.

“I think it’s important to work in the African-American community and represent the community throughout the county,” she says. “I have a very supportive employer. It helps the company to have employees out in the community.”

Trapp’s family is supportive, too. She and her husband, Larry, have two sons. Lawrence, 9, and Langston, 8, go to many events with Mom. “They’re very proud to go. Hopefully they’ll get it — it’s important to give back to the community,” she says.

Trapp, who wears her TWIN pin at work, says of the recognition, “I still feel honored.” That’s just one of her honors. The San Diego City Council proclaimed Oct. 15, 2001, as Randa Trapp Day. And Palvara Tree, a local community-based organization, named Trapp an African-American Legend in 1999.

A native San Diegan, Trapp graduated from Lincoln High School and earned her law degree from Georgetown University. “I credit a lot of people here — community activists beating down the doors so I could go to college, to law school. I’m happy to come back and give back. I wanted to help people. As a lawyer, I thought I would be more effective,” she says.

“I hear stories from people of color who had trouble being hired at SDG&E. It’s changed; I’m proof of that,” she adds. “It’s exciting being able to represent a Fortune 500 company.”

— Liz Swain