Alisa Bales Baur joined the Women’s Fund group Helping Hands in 2019. She became a Grantee Liaison this year. Currently retired, she was the Art Director at Santa Barbara Magazine from 2000-2015. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she worked at the design firm Gottschalk + Ash in New York City and later formed her own practice in Houston, Texas, before moving to Santa Barbara with her husband Bob and two young children in 1993. Alisa and Bob have been making contributions to non-profits through their family foundation since 2008, primarily in the fields of education, the underserved, and the arts.

Cece Harris is a retired Corporate Executive from Abbott in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to that, she taught at the U Kentucky Med School, was a Clinical Lab Director, and chaired a Microbiology Dept. in an Iranian Med School. She has a PhD in Microbiology (U Oklahoma) and did post-doc studies at the Harvard School of Public Health. Cece is a past Board Chair for the American Society for Quality and the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society. In 2018, she published a memoir of her experiences in Iran entitled “Khanoum Doctor”. She and her husband bought a home in Santa Barbara in 2009. Recently widowed in 2019, she decided to make Santa Barbara her home and enjoys all it offers. She is Recording Secretary of the local DAR Chapter and serves on the Library Board of Santa Barbara. She joined the Women’s Fund in 2021 because it is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with other women and serve our community.

Chris is a licensed psychologist (now retired) with over 30 years of experience working in a university setting as an administrator, adjunct faculty member, and senior staff psychologist at a university counseling center. She is passionate about women’s issues, having been Assistant Dean/Director of the Center for Women and Men @ UC Irvine. She is a proud member of the 4 Empowerment group in the Women’s Fund.

Cynthia Brown, who joined the Women’s Fund in 2013, is a Research Professor of French (Emerita) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she taught for 40 years, after receiving her PhD degree from UC Berkeley. She retired from teaching in 2019, but continues to carry out research and has published numerous books and articles on late medieval female patronage and the influence of the transition from manuscript to print on 15th - and 16th -century literary culture.
She held several administrative positions at UCSB, including Chair of the French and Italian Department and Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Personnel. In 2013 she was named Chevalier des Palmes Académiques by the French Government. Cynthia has been married for almost 30 years to Art Ludwig, a retired electrical engineer, with whom she has supported and shared a love of music, art and theater in Santa Barbara. They enjoy his two children, six grand-children and four great-grandchildren.

Diane is a retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has provided psychotherapy in private practice and community health centers. Among her community projects as an LCSW, she led a community task force on alcohol abuse among expat teens in Singapore, and founded a bereavement support group for young widows/widowers in Florida. She is a founding member of Maverick Collective, a women’s philanthropy group organized to benefit women and girls in developing countries. Through MC, she sponsored a pilot project in Senegal to reduce maternal mortality, and helped launch a women’s health center in Honduras. In conjunction with Vital Voices in New York, MC members funded the airlift of women activists out of Afghanistan after the collapse of the government in August 2021. Diane’s daughter was diagnosed In 2014 with idiopathic hypersomnia (IH), a chronic neurological sleep disorder. People with IH suffer from persistent, overwhelming daytime sleepiness, which is not alleviated by a full night’s sleep or napping. Soon after, Diane joined the Board of a nonprofit, The Hypersomnia Foundation. She served as Board Chair and CEO for several years before retiring in January 2022. Diane and her husband live in Santa Barbara and San Francisco. In addition to their daughter in LA, they have a son in Boston. Diane is delighted to be a member of The Women’s Fund and is excited to co-chair the COG.

Kathy has been a member of the Women's Fund since 2018. She is Chair of the Volunteer Engagement Committee and a member of the Events Committee and the Operations Management Team. She has a B.S. in Elementary Education, M.S. in Elementary Education, and an M.A. in Educational Leadership. She has taught elementary through high school, and has served as a District Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, California State Board of Education Academic Trustee, and Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services for the Santa Barbara County Education Office. She retired in 2019 after a rewarding 35-year career in public education. She and her husband, Whitt, have lived in Santa Barbara since 2009 and have two amazing children, Meghan (Washington DC) and Trey (NYC). She is thoroughly enjoying travel, hobbies, fitness, play and volunteering with the Women’s Fund in retirement.

Kelly joined the Women's Fund in 2021 with her mother to give back to the community together. Kelly came to Santa Barbara in 2010 from San Diego to study Hydrology at UC Santa Barbara and later received her Masters at the UC Santa Barbara Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. She currently works as an Engineering Capital Project Lead at Goleta Water District managing the research, design and construction of drinking water infrastructure projects, as well as performing as-needed water and economic data analysis. Kelly is involved locally volunteering with Angels Foster Care and a Bren Alumni group focused on water markets research funded by the Walton Family Foundation. She enjoys DIY remodeling of her home, kayaking, sewing and is a passionate Formula 1 Racing fan.

Roberta has been a member of the Women's Fund since 2018, and is currently the Educational Events Committee Chair. She has a passion and a long career related to children and adult learning. Her formal education entails a BA and licensing credentials for teaching and education administration from Sacramento State University, and a MA in History from UC Davis. Her career path includes elementary school teaching, school and program administration, staff development and teacher training through San Francisco State University. Since moving to Santa Barbara with her husband Matt, she has volunteered in various capacities with several nonprofit agencies, and currently serves the CALM Board of Trustees as Vice Chair for Development.