Grant-Making Committee

Yesenia Curiel, Chair
Jo Black
Eric Cárdenas
Nic Centino
Denise Daniels
Lansing Duncan
Muriel Jones
Carol Keator (Board/GMC Liaison)
Mario Perez
Hazel Putney (GMC/Board Liaison)
Monique Sonoquie
Tara Uliasz
Maria Zamudio


 

Carol Keator

Eric Cárdenas is a graduate of UCSB with majors in Political Science and Environmental Studies. He has worked at the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) since 1999, and is director of EDC's Central Coast Environmental Health Project (CCEHP). Through CCEHP, Eric has worked with a variety of individuals and community groups, including farmworker organizations, health agencies, local governments and schools to reduce pesticide use on California's south central coast.

Eric has served on the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara County Action Network (SBCAN), co-hosted 91.9FM KCSB's Grassroots program for 5 years, currently chairs the City of Santa Barbara's Public Pest Management Advisory Committee, and was recently chosen as one of 50 influential Latinos on the Central Coast by Latino Today. Eric formerly played with local band, The Messengers, and in his free time enjoys music, camping/hiking, traveling, surfing, and good company.

Yesenia Curiel is a native of Los Angeles and identifies as a Chicana Feminist Vegan. She relocated to Santa Barbara about six years ago to attend UCSB as a transfer student, where she received her B.A in Sociology. Her community involvement includes work with at-risk youth, young adults with various abilities, immigrants and women. She attributes her passion and dedication to work toward social change to her role as a bilingual and bicultural woman who lives in Santa Barbara.

Currently, she is working at the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center as a Crisis Intervention Coordinator and volunteers at the Isla Vista Teen Center where she mentors youth and their families. Additionally, Yesenia is working on obtaining her Masters in Clinical Psychology and Marriage and Family Therapist License at Antioch University. This choice is a direct result of her dedicated to education and realization of the need to increase mental health awareness in marginalized communities. Yesenia is committed to the Fund for Santa Barbara because of its dedication to empowering people through economic aid in an effort to contribute to much needed social change!

Denise Daniels

Lansing Duncan

Nic Centino

Muriel Jones


Hazel Putney

Monique Sonoquie

Tara Uliasz received her B.A. from UCSB with majors in English and Women's Studies, and a minor in Philosophy. As a student activist, she worked with the A.S. Student Commission on Racial Equality, A.S. Womyn's Commission, self-published a zine on racism and white privilege, as well as a zine on sweatshops, and co-chaired Take Back the Night. She has been working with people with developmental disabilities for seven years, and received her Masters in Education and Teaching Credential from UCSB in 2006. She is now a Special Education Teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High.

Tara has produced an independent queer, anti-racist, feminist radio show (t-rexed media) on KCSB, 91.9 for several years. Additionally, she volunteers and contracts as a facilitator for Just Communities Central Coast in their youth and education programs, working to dismantle all forms of oppression, and recently joined Just Communities' Board of Directors. Tara enjoys playing soccer, all ages music shows, and playing with her two nieces and two nephews in the central coast.

Maria Zamudio

Jo Black

Mario Perez