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Annette Holdman

Committee
Position
Researcher
2021-22
Year Joined
2019
Biography

Annette joined the Women’s Fund four years ago and has been on the Research Committee since 2021. She taught Spanish at San Marcos High School before retiring in 2019 and has been on the faculty at Santa Barbara City College since 2004. Her volunteer work includes leading construction projects in Latin America for Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center for Housing. She is also an accredited representative, helping provide legal assistance to immigrants at the Santa Barbara Immigrant Legal Defense Center.

Carolyn Jabs

Position
Research Liaison
2017-18
Year Joined
2013
Biography

Carolyn has been a member of the Women’s Fund since 2013 and joined the Research Committee in 2016. She has worked as an editor and writer, with an emphasis on family issues. Her articles and essays have appeared in publications ranging from Self and Working Mother to Newsweek and the New York Times. She writes the award-winning column Growing Up Online and recently published a book entitled Cooperative Wisdom: Bringing People Together When Things Fall Apart. Carolyn received her BA from Wittenberg University and her M.A. from the Applied Ethics Program at Bowling Green State University. She and her husband raised their three children in Ohio where she served as president of the local school foundation and started a support group for families with children who are deaf. In Santa Barbara, she is the Chair of the local chapter of the Association for Women in Communications and practices Tai Chi whenever she can.    

Cathleen Grabowski

Committee
Position
Researcher
2018-19
Year Joined
2015
Biography

Cathleen has been a member of the Women’s Fund since 2015 and joined the Research Committee in 2016. She is a pharmacist and spent her career in a clinic setting until she went to work for Direct Relief International where she worked for 20 years until retirement 2013. She is also a  volunteer consulting pharmacist for the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics for the past 12 years. She loved working with Direct Relief's partners around the world and was fortunate to visit many of them. She is the mother of two, grandmother of four, a tennis player and long time follower of yoga.

Gail Bogle

Committee
Position
Researcher
Researcher
Biography

Gail and her husband returned to Santa Barbara after spending 36 years in Denver, where they raised their three children. She graduated from UCSB with a BA in economics, then later earned an MBA with an emphasis on research from UT Dallas.  After working in finance for several years, Gail decided to pursue her first career choice, teaching, and finished a master’s in curriculum and instruction from CU Denver.  She taught high school English for 15 years and never stopped emphasizing the importance of credible sources. In Santa Barbara, Gail has volunteered as an adult literacy tutor and ESL conversation partner and worked as a UCSB freshman application reader. She remains a perennial learner exploring at least half of the offerings in SBCC’s School of Extended Learning.

Janessa Van Vechten

Committee
Position
Researcher
Researcher
Year Joined
2022
Biography

A new member of the Women’s Fund since 2022, Janessa has a Masters of Science from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Berkeley. Her background is in nonprofit work including in the microlending space at Kiva Microfunds and at The Foodbank of Santa Barbara. She currently serves on the board of directors of Veggie Rescue, a nonprofit that distributes excess local produce countywide to nonprofits working with vulnerable populations. She is thrilled to be joining the Women's Fund in their important work.

Janis Salin

Committee
Position
Researcher
2022-23
Year Joined
2017
Biography

Janis joined the Women’s Fund in 2017 following her retirement as the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Tetra Tech, Inc. She served on the Research Committee from 2018 to 2021 before re-joining it in 2022, and as Co-Chair of the Grants in Action Committee from 2019 to 2020. She also serves on the Women’s Fund Governance Committee. Janis enjoys directly serving local non-profits through membership on the Boards of CALM, the Carpinteria Children’s Project, the Tribal Trust Foundation and Prepare Kids for Life. She recently co-founded Friends of the United Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County, and is also active with the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara and the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County. Raised in the San Fernando Valley, she earned her B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Kate McGuinness

Committee
Position
Researcher
2021-22
Year Joined
2019
Biography

Kate McGuinness practiced law for 20 years at O’Melveny & Myers and later became an executive of the Times Mirror Company. After she left the corporate world, she focused on her son to his great dismay and studied writing. Her essays and articles about women’s rights have appeared in publications such as Fortune and the Guardian. Also, Kate published a legal suspense novel centered on sexual harassment. Recently, she published a non-fiction book for women with confidence building strategies. Kate moved to Santa Barbara County because of its beauty from the coast to the Santa Ynez Valley. She especially enjoys the birds that visit here.

Laurie Hoyle

Committee
Position
Researcher
2022-23
Year Joined
2014
Biography

Laurie Hoyle joined the Women’s Fund in 2014. She is an alumna of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education and is retired from UCSB's Division of Student Affairs where she served as founding director of the Student Affairs Grants and Development Office. She has more than 20 years’ experience in fundraising and grant writing for institutions ranging from UCSB to smaller, community-based non-profits such as the Council on Aging and the Kor Community Land Trust in Bend, OR. She served as a board officer for the Sequoia Parks Foundation from 2005 to 2012.

Michele Neely Saltoun

Committee
Position
Researcher
2022-23
Year Joined
2014
Biography

Michele was born in Central New York State in 1962, and attended Georgetown University to pursue Intl. Economics and German and rec’d a Fulbright to study and teach in Vienna, Austria for 2 years. Subsequently, she worked in NYC, where she earned an MBA from New York University and eventually became a Vice President for Citigroup’s Private Bank. Michele transferred to San Francisco with Citigroup in 1992 and moved to Santa Barbara in 2005 with her husband, Andre, who passed away recently. Michele maintains her status as a Certified Financial Planner and does some work for friends and family. She is a board member of the Community Arts Music Association; a sustainer in the Junior League; and a Daughter of the American Revolution. The 2021/22 research cycle will be her sixth year serving on this Women’s Fund committee. Michele also enjoy tennis, baking, reading and loving her Havanese, Brody.

 

Patricia Sherman

Committee
Position
Researcher
Researcher
Biography

Patricia moved to Santa Barbara after graduating from Cornell University with a BA in art history and a BFA in painting. She worked as a self-employed flooring contractor here for 26 years. After selling her business in 2001, she started a new and rewarding career as an English as a second language (ESL) instructor for SBCC Adult Education. She retired from teaching recently and continues to manage local rental property on a part-time basis. She served on the board of Santa Barbara Middle School for 5 years and has volunteered for The Foodbank for 2 years. She enjoys her four children, their spouses, and one grandchild all living close by. She and her retired husband, Mike, love to travel the world.

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