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Board of Directors


Leadership Team

In 2021, our Board of Directors established a Leadership Team so that the many duties of a President could be shared by the entire team.  The current  members of the team are Vicki Allen, Dianne Black, Laura Haston, Pamela Flynt Tambo, and Claire VanBlaricum.

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Vicki Allen – Vice President, Communications
Vicki Allen – Vice President, Communications
Email: VPCommunications@lwvsantabarbara.org
Vicki was elected to a 2-year term at the June 2023 annual meeting.
Her term ends on June 30, 2025.

As a reporter for her college newspaper, Vicki Allen covered the march in Selma where she saw people risking their lives for the right to vote. “I became a member of the League of Women Voters because of the League’s long commitment to voting rights." Vicki has been on our Board since 2011. As the VP Communications, the Chicago native draws on her expansive career as a reporter for daily newspapers, editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper, magazine travel writer, and public relations officer for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. She has lived in Santa Barbara since 1984. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Illinois. She is also on the Board of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee.

At the June 2023 annual meeting, Vicki was elected to a 2-year term.

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Laura Haston – Treasurer
Laura Haston – Treasurer
Email: Treasurer@lwvsantabarbara.org
Laura was elected to a 2-year term at the June 2024 annual meeting.
Her term ends on June 30, 2026.


Laura grew up in the redwoods in the very northern part of California, but has lived in Santa Barbara since 1978. She received her BA, MA and PhD in Geography (with a focus on Environmental Science and Climate) at UCSB. She then worked as a professor at Cal State Northridge and continued her climate research. When the new Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB opened in the late 90’s, she worked for 15 years as the Bren School’s first Assistant Dean, where she played an instrumental role in building the Master’s of Environmental Science and Management (MESM) Program. While working at UCSB, she obtained a Certificate in Professional Accounting from the UCSB Extension Program and pursued numerous management training courses.

Laura has also been active in the health and fitness world. She was a Jazzercise instructor for 16 years, and a certified yoga and pilates instructor. Laura and her husband Frank Davis (a UCSB professor emeritus) built a small cabin off the grid in southwestern Montana where they spend time in the summer, hike many miles and catch (and release) many trout on fly rods. She enjoys walking her three dogs, reading, gardening, traveling, learning new languages and watching hockey (go Bruins).

Her interest in the League was sparked by her parents who both had PhDs in American Politics. Her mom was a long-time active League member here in Santa Barbara. Her father served as the election and politics expert on the local news station’s coverage of countless elections. As such, belief in the importance of voting, voter education, and getting the vote out was drilled into her at a young age.

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Dianne Black
Dianne Black
At the June 2023 annual meeting, Dianne was elected to a new 2-year term and she joined the Leadership Team. Her term ends on June 30, 2025.

Dianne has lived in Santa Barbara since 1978 when she came to attend UCSB. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies. Her interest in planning through that program, together with her desire to be employable, led her to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Master’s program in City and Regional Planning. She vowed to move back to Santa Barbara when she finished at Cal Poly. She did just that, working for the County of Santa Barbara's Resource Management Department (now Planning and Development). Starting as an intern, Dianne worked in every division, most positions, and every level, retiring as the Department’s Director in 2019.

Since retiring, Dianne has volunteered with several local organizations, including the Foodbank, the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara and the Women’s Fund. She was driven to join the LWVSB by her deep love of her community and her desire to increase voter registration and turnout. Dianne represents the League on the City of Santa Barbara's State Street Advisory Committee.

Dianne enjoys walks with her husband David and puppy Brady, loves to cook, read, garden, and travel.
Pam Flynt Tambo
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Pam Flynt Tambo – Vice President, Social Policy
Pam Flynt Tambo – Vice President, Social Policy
Email: VPProgram@lwvsantabarbara.org
At the June 2023 annual meeting, Pam was reelected to a 2-year term.
Her term ends on June 30, 2025.

Pam brings her rich background in the fields of vocational rehabilitation, mental health, and developmental disabilities to her role as Chair of our League’s Social Policy Committee, which she has co-chaired since 2018. In 2019, she added the responsibilities of a League Vice President. She grew up in central Indiana with short stints in Florida and Washington, D.C. Showing a resourceful nature, she raised her children as a single parent while raising her children living in and rehabilitating Victorian houses in Muncie, Indiana. Her early activism in her neighborhood association resulted in the establishment of a reinvestment corporation to revitalize the area.

Here in Santa Barbara, Pam served as the Executive Director of the nonprofit Hillside, a licensed 59-bed home for persons with developmental and intellectual disabilities. She has degrees in home economics education, community education, and curriculum. She is on the Boards of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee and Hillside. Pam and her husband Dave Tambo have lived in Goleta since 1993. They both enjoy traveling.

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Claire VanBlaricum - Co-chair, Voter Service
Claire VanBlaricum - Co-chair, Voter Service
At the June 2022 annual meeting, Claire was elected to a 2-year term.
Her term ends on June 30, 2024.

Claire is impressed by the League's work in promoting democracy, informing voters about issues and candidates, and protecting the right to vote. She hopes to contribute more to these efforts by serving on our local League Board.

Claire has been a member of the League for over ten years and has served as moderator for many of our candidate forums. She has also presented the League's "Pros and Cons" on ballot propositions to community groups numerous times (pre-pandemic).

A former biology teacher and Santa Barbara School Board member, she is particularly interested in issues of equity in education. She has been an active board member of several non-profits, including the Santa Barbara Education Foundation and Postpartum Support International. She has been a member of the Santa Barbara - Goleta Valley branch of AAUW for 50 years, serving in many capacities including branch President.

Other Officers


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Elaine Rudin – Secretary
Elaine Rudin – Secretary
Email: Secretary@lwvsantabarbara.org
At the June 2022 annual meeting, Elaine was elected to a 2-year term.  
Her term ends on June 30, 2024.


When Elaine retired from her career as a registered dietitian/nutritionist, she dove into work with the League of Women Voters of North Coast San Diego County where she served as President for two years. During her tenure, the North Coast League successfully placed a proposition on the local ballot that passed. She also started a Political Book Club which is still going strong after 21 years. Elaine moved to Santa Barbara ten years ago and joined our Board as Secretary. In September 2018, Elaine started “Overbooked,” our dynamic political book club that educates members about current and prospective League issues. She is also a Master Gardener who also enjoys playing bridge and golfing.

At the June 2020 annual meeting, Elaine was elected to a 2-year term.

Directors


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Ann Bailey , Liaison to the County Equality, Advisory, and Outreach Committee
Ann Bailey
At the June 2022 annual meeting, Ann was elected to a 2-year term.
Her term ends on June 30, 2024.

Ann started her career as a news journalist, navigating major-market and national newspaper and television station newsrooms from the Midwest to the East Coast. Moving to Los Angeles, she turned her focus to corporate and marketing communications for environmental and disruptive technology.

Using her media relations and project management experience, Ann launched and led an independent PR practice for 20 years, serving start-up and established tech companies throughout the United States. Santa Barbara became her adopted new home in 1996, with its dynamic and growing technology sector as one of many attractions at the time. She also became active with local nonprofits, city and county departments, and UC Santa Barbara.

Ann graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in English and holds a professional accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America.

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Lindsey Baker – Observer Corps
Lindsey Baker – Observer Corps
Email: ObserverCorps@lwvsantabarbara.org
At the June 2023 annual meeting, Lindsey was reelected to a 2-year term.
Her term ends on June 30, 2025.


Community Forums first drew Lindsey Baker to join the Santa Barbara League. Observing them from the vantage point of the Membership Committee’s table, she greeted attendees. Next, she joined the Observer Corps, tracking meetings of the Santa Barbara City Council, Planning Commission, and Water Commission. She then served for four years as Co-President of the League.

As Co-President, she attended all Social Policy Committee, Sustainable Communities Committee, Water Committee, and Education Committee meetings. Lindsey reported, “The highlight of my ad hoc committee experiences was the District Elections Committee, which culminated in our League supporting Measure G (County Redistricting Commission) in 2018.” As head of our Observer Corps, Lindsey will be busy observing the Santa Barbara County’s Redistricting Commission in action and encouraging participation by the community.
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Lisa Carlos
Lisa Carlos
At the June 2022 annual meeting, Lisa was elected to a 2-year term.
Her term ends on June 30, 2024.

Lisa Carlos wears several volunteer and public service hats in the community. In 2023, Lisa was appointed by the City Council to serve as a Commissioner for the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and currently serves as Vice Chair for the Commission. She is also a board member of Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County and chairs their Education and Advocacy Committee. As a second-term board member for the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara, Lisa researches and writes position statements on housing, environmental and land use policies for the organization. Before becoming an affordable housing advocate, Lisa Carlos worked in education policy for the federal government and state nonprofit organizations. She attended public schools in Santa Barbara, earned a BA degree from Stanford University and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
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Daniel Gonzalez
Daniel Gonzalez
At the June 2023 annual meeting, Daniel was elected to a 2-year term.
His term ends on June 30, 2025.


Daniel is the Organizing Director at Future Leaders of America (FLA), a group that provides support and leadership training to Latinx high school students in Santa Barbara. He is an experienced youth organizer with strong skills in the areas of nonprofit organizations, youth development, program evaluation, volunteer management, and public speaking.

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Anne Heck
Anne Heck
The Board appointed Anne to a one-year term, ending March 2025, as Assistant Secretary.

Anne has been a League member since the early 1970s, when she took part in a study of municipal finance in Cleveland Heights, OH. A series of relocations led her to join other Leagues (two in California, one in Wisconsin), where her membership enabled her to find meaningful relationships and activities in each new city. When her musicologist husband, Tom, found stable employment at the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, she joined the League in Ohio’s capital city and plunged into Voter Service activities. She served as a board member, while leading a committee taking part in a national study of United States defense policy.

In 2001, after Tom retired, they moved to Santa Barbara and the League once again provided a way for Anne to make local connections. For six years she served on the LWVSB Board as editor of the Channel Voter (back when it was still printed and mailed to League members). She was also very involved in the International Relations Committee and with adjacent topics, such as the national study on immigration policy. More recently, she served as secretary to the Education Fund, which has since merged into the LWVSB. She is now excited to be rejoining the Board and learning new technological skills.

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Gail Osherenko – Chair, Criminal Justice Reform
Gail Osherenko – Chair, Criminal Justice Reform
At the June 2022 annual meeting, Gail was reelected to a 2-year term.
Her term ends on June 30, 2024.


Gail joined our Board in 2020. She has had an influential career in environmental law and policy. With a Juris Doctor degree from UC Davis, she began her career as a legislative assistant to State Senator, later Congressman, Anthony Beilenson where she worked to create the California Coastal Act and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. She was an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. After marrying Oran Young, they moved to Vermont for 25 years where Gail shifted to academe. In 2003, they relocated to Santa Barbara where Gail conducted research and taught coastal and ocean law at UCSB.

Reinventing herself as an documentary filmmaker,  three of Gail's films have premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, including Broke: The Santa Barbara Oil Pipeline Spill of 2015 and Birds of Los Baños. Gail has served on several other nonprofit Boards.
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Revae Moran - Co-chair, Voter Service
Revae Moran - Co-chair, Voter Service
Email: VoterService@lwvsantabarbara.org
At the June 2023 annual meeting, Revae was elected to a 2-year term.
Her term expires on June 30, 2025.


Revae was drawn to the Santa Barbara League by its promise of “Making Democracy Work.” She joined our League in 2018. Her experienced, evenhanded leadership of our Voter Service work is a natural outgrowth of her many years as a top manager of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the highly respected oversight arm of Congress. As a Senior Executive there, her Division oversaw the Dept. of Labor's regulatory agencies, including the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), the Wage and Hour Division, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).  She met with the Secretary of Labor annually to discuss proposed improvements in their agencies and testified before the Congress on how to improve these programs.

Fundamental to both GAO and our Voter Service work is the commitment to factual, accurate, and nonpartisan reporting. Her dedication to improving the lives of women and children is also evidenced by her work with the Santa Barbara Women’s Fund and as Co-chair of one of Santa Barbara’s 10 chapters of Dining for Women, a nonprofit that supports programs that benefit women and children in the world's poorest countries.

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Shane Stark
Shane Stark
At the 2022 annual meeting, Shane was elected to a 2-year term.
His term ends on June 30, 2024.

Outwardly a bit grumpy, Shane is an incurable optimist who loves democracy. Shane has 50 years’ experience as a lawyer, mainly for local governments. He served as Santa Barbara County Counsel from 1994 to 2008. He is known for intergovernmental agreements with federal and state agencies, Public Officials Ethics Training (“Eaglet’s Guide to Public Law”) and strategic humor.

After retirement, Shane joined the League Education Fund. He later became its President. Following consolidation with the Education Fund, he remains on our Board. His main interests are the Pros&Con Forums, Candidate Forums, and voting rights. Shane is a member of the Santa Barbara Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), where he represents the interests of the general public in good and orderly government services. He is grateful for his good fortune and the simple life in Santa Barbara he shares with his wife and the love of his children and grandchildren.

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Carol Thompson
Carol Thompson
At the 2022 annual meeting, Carol was elected to a 2-year term.
Her term ends on June 30, 2024.

Carol’s concern that our democracy is in peril led her to take a leadership role in our League as Treasurer of the Education Fund Board prior to our consolidation. She believes that the League’s emphasis on voter education and encouraging informed citizens can be one of the solutions to the problem. Carol supplemented her Masters in Library Science from UC Berkeley with a personal financial planning certificate and an accounting certificate from UCSB. She handles the accounting for her husband’s dental practice.

An active volunteer for several organizations, Carol often volunteers her accounting skills as Treasurer, most recently for the local AAUW branch and the League’s Education Fund.

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Megan Turley, Chair, Housing Committee
Megan Turley
At the June 2023 annual meeting, Megan was elected to a 2-year term.
Her term ends on June 30, 2025.


Associate Director of Development at UCSB's Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, and Vice Chair of the Santa Barbara County Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission. Megan is a Santa Barbara native with a background in nonprofit fundraising and social advocacy. She has been serving as chair of the League's housing committee.

Individuals in Off-Board Positions

Eva Maria Catalan, Chair - Nominating Committee

Susan Horne - Special Projects

Colin Jones - Community Choice Energy




Joanie Jones - Membership and Roster Manager


Linda Phillips - State and National Action


 


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