Executive Board
Paula Lopez, President
Paula Lopez is a ninth generation Santa Barbara native. She is a direct descendent of Lt. Pablo Cota a founder of the Presidio Santa Barbara. Paula attended local schools and graduated UCSB with a bachelor’s degree in History of Public Policy and a minor degree in Political Science.
Paula worked as an Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist in the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara television markets for thirty years. While at KCAL in Los Angeles she anchored award-winning coverage of the Los Angeles Riots, the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the Northridge Earthquake. At KEYT Santa Barbara Paula anchored and reported for the evening broadcasts and produced and hosted the award-winning live town hall meetings on important community issues. She also emceed events for Old Spanish Days, and the Unity Telethon for decades.
Paula is the recipient of the Women of Achievement Award from Women in Communications, the Champion Award from the Santa Barbara Community Action Commission, the Community Hero Award from the Santa Barbara County Education Office the Influential Latino Award from Latino Today, and the Hispanic Achievement Award from the Santa Barbara Achievement Council.
Currently Paula is a realtor for Coldwell Banker Realty Santa Barbara and the principal for Paula Lopez Productions. Contact
Dana Goba – Vice President, Organization
Dana Goba was born and raised in the metro-Detroit area where she grew up volunteering at numerous organizations. When she moved to Santa Barbara in 2002, she began a career in health and human service nonprofits. Dana has worked for United Way and Cottage Health, and she is currently with the Central Coast Medical Association. She is a past president of the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara Sunrise and is on the board of ASAP Cats. She joined SBWPC in 2016 and is serving on the Elections & Appointments committee. Contact
Hannah Sullivan – Vice President, Policy
Hannah and her family moved to Goleta, CA in 2006, where she attended and graduated from Goleta Valley Junior High School, Dos Pueblos High School and Santa Barbara City College. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Communication Studies from Sacramento State, she moved to Santa Barbara to serve as a District Representative for former State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson and Assemblymember Steve Bennett, which allowed her the great fortune of seeing the needs of our community first hand.
She remains an active community member in Santa Barbara County and is a strong advocate for reproductive rights, social justice and tenants rights. She co-chairs the Young Feminists committee and serves on the Elections & Appointments and the Legislative & Advocacy committees. Contact
Vicki Allen, Secretary
“I am a native of Chicago and have lived in Santa Barbara for 32 years. I graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism. I was a reporter for the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette—the first woman in that newspaper’s history to be assigned a city beat. I was a writer and editor for several California newspapers, was a partner in a public relations firm, coordinated publicity for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, did magazine travel writing, and volunteered for the PTA and other local organizations.
I am on the board of the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara. I was data entry coordinator for the county 2008 Obama campaign and have been involved in several local political campaigns. I hope to see more women involved in politics and am a strong supporter of SBWPC’s issues and goals.” Contact
Marisol Alarcon, Treasurer
Marisol Alarcon is an immigration attorney located in Carpinteria. She is a dual citizen of the United States and Chile. She was born in the United States to immigrant parents, so she understands the unique challenges of growing up with parents whose first language is not English. She believes in contributing to the community and is currently a board member of the Latina Professional Alliance, Santa Barbara County Bar Foundation and Teen Legal Clinic. In the past, she has served as President of Santa Barbara Women Lawyers and has been a board member of the Carpinteria Children’s Project and Family Service Agency. She is also a member of the Santa Barbara Latino Giving Circle, which was inaugurated in 2019. Contact
Board Members
Rachel Aarons
Rachel is a psychotherapist who has been in private practice for over forty years. She currently specializes in working with trauma and attachment wounds going back into early childhood when there is no language and no explicit memory. Before she discovered her vocation as a therapist, she was a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto. She is the author of four books, three in therapy and one in philosophy.
Rachel’s passion for women’s issues began with the first book gifted to her by a colleague back in the 60’s entitled “Sisterhood is Powerful.” She went on to found and coordinate a Women’s Resource Center in a rural logging town north of Vancouver in Canada. Years later, she reiterated this feminist theme by founding and coordinating the Women’s Empowerment Project at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara including an annual grant, a women’s film series and a women’s speaker series. She is currently a member of the Justice and Equity committee at USSB with a focus on women.
In her more than twenty years in Santa Barbara, Rachel has been involved with the Santa Barbara Women’s Foundation, the SB Women’s March, Dining for Women, the Dolores Huerta Street Renaming Project, the EEL committee of Democratic Women, and the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee. For SBWPC she served on the L&A committee, the ERA committee, the E&A committee and several Candidate Assessment Teams.
She has 2 amazing sons and an equally impressive little grandson. Contact
EJ Borah
EJ has been a political activist since she graduated from UCSB in 1958. She is a retired teacher of 40+ years. She has traveled to every continent on the planet and taken a dip in both the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans (and has the tattoos to prove it). EJ moved back to Santa Barbara in 2003 to help her daughter, Farfalla, raise Rosalind (in college now). Besides serving on the SBWPC Board, she is on the Democratic Women’s Board and is an elected official of the Democratic Central Committee. Contact
Tish Gainey
Tish is a long-time resident of Santa Barbara. For many years she worked as project director for a firm producing children’s television programming and multimedia educational products. She has served on many boards including the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara as Research Chair, Greater Santa Barbara Ad Club, The Cecilia Fund, Santa Barbara Education Foundation and the Leadership Roundtable of THRIVE Santa Barbara County, a Cradle to Career Initiative. She is a member of Social Venture Partners where she has been a “Fast Pitch” coach and worked on projects addressing early childhood education, Adverse Childhood Experiences and capacity building for the local nonprofit Just Communities.
She is a firm believer in the power of education and has been an active advocate for equity and access to quality education for all members of our community. She has a B.A. in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley, a certificate in financial planning from UCLA and a certification in trusteeship from Harvard. As a member of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee, she currently serves as co-chair of the Elections and Appointments Committee and the Candidate Development Committee. Contact
Elsa Granados
Elsa Granados joined the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee Board in 1999. As a board member, she has served as a member of the executive committee in the capacity of Vice President of Policy, Vice President of Organization and Secretary. She has also served as the Chair of the Elections and Appointments and the Outreach Committees. She also participated on the Fund Development, Candidate Development and Membership Committees. Ms. Granados has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Public Administration. For the past 19 years, Ms. Granados has served as the Executive Director of Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center. She has been a member of the board of directors of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), and of the Fund for Santa Barbara. In addition, she served on the Santa Barbara County Affirmative Action Commission. Elsa was the 1st recipient of the SBWPC Oak Award in 2023. Contact
Lisa Guravitz
Lisa has served on the board for 22 years in a variety of positions, including President. As a lifelong feminist loves working with such a dynamic, diverse group of women. Lisa served on the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Board and is currently President of her Homeowner’s Assoc. Board.
She volunteers with Carpinteria Seal Watch, Carpinteria Beautiful, and as a Medicare Counselor. Lisa also enjoys being with her grandchildren as well as playing & teaching mah jongg. Contact
Hathor Hammett
Hathor is an artist and mask maker. She has been a social justice activist since the 1960s. Her awards include 1997 Gay and Lesbian Business Association Humanitarian Award, NASW 2013 Public Citizen of the Year, and 2013 Independent Local Hero award. Contact
Karena Jew
Karena is a graduate of UCSB and the Santa Barbara College of Law. She sees her service on the SBWPC Board as complementary to her other community work on SB Women’s March, the Board of Zona Seca and the Asian American History Committee of the SB Trust for Historic Preservation. She was a member of the District Elections Committee that successfully advocated for district-based elections for Santa Barbara City Council. She is trained as a mediator and has been a long-time advocate for restorative justice, bringing speakers and training to the Santa Barbara Courts, School Districts, and UCSB. She was also involved in creating an elective course in Restorative Justice at the Colleges of Law.
A former employee of PUEBLO (now CAUSE), she edited the Immigration Committee’s participatory oral history project, In the Shadows of Paradise: Testimonies from the Undocumented Immigrant Community in Santa Barbara. Karena formerly worked with Babatunde Folayemi at the Pro-Youth Coalition Community Initiative to Reduce and Prevent Gang Violence, and has been involved with other youth work, including Primo Boxing, Say Yes to Kids Program and City at Peace. Karena was appointed to serve on the City of Santa Barbara Community Development and Human Services Committee for over a decade. Contact
Carol Keator
Carol Keator is the former director of the Santa Barbara Public Library System, an avid reader, and passionate champion for intellectual freedom, social justice and equality for all. Contact
Sandy Kievman
Sandy Kievman retired after thirty years of working for Los Angeles City Council and the City Attorney of the City of Los Angeles. Although her jobs had different titles, her role in each job involved community relations, helping to solve problems by building coalitions of residents, nonprofit organizations, service clubs, local businesses and City and County organizations, for the purpose of collaborating in finding solutions to community problems.
Sandy founded and chaired two organizations, Keep Youth Doing Something (KYDS), a successful program aimed at keeping underserved youth from being involved in gangs and also the San Fernando Valley Coalition on Gangs, a community based policing program, consisting of 52 organizations, aimed at breaking down barriers between police and at-risk youth.
Upon retiring, Sandy moved to Santa Barbara and volunteered in the Mayor’s office; is on the Community Relations Committee for Jewish Federation; and is a Member of the Board of Santa Barbara Gray Panthers. She served on the Board of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee for several years and has been a member of the E&A Committee for close to seven years. Contact
Pam Flynt Tambo
Pam grew up in central Indiana with short stints in Florida and Washington, D.C. She was a single parent for 19 years with a son and daughter, living in and rehabilitating Victorian houses in Muncie, Indiana. There she was active in her neighborhood association and helped to establish a reinvestment corporation to revitalize the area.
She has degrees in home economics education, community education and curriculum. She worked in the fields of vocational rehabilitation, mental health and developmental disabilities as a counselor and administrator.
She moved to Goleta 23 years ago and is married to David Tambo. She enjoys traveling around the globe since retiring from Hillside House in 2012. At home she serves on the Hillside House board as well as SBWPC and is involved with the League of Women Voters and the Association for Women in Communications. In the evening she likes to knit and do needlework. Contact
Angie Swanson-Kyriaco
Angie Swanson-Kyriaco (she/her) is a lifelong Californian who moved to the Central Coast nearly eighteen years ago. She began her nonprofit career working for a local housing provider before spending t
he next fifteen years working in the field of reproductive freedom and justice for organizations such as Planned Parenthood California Central Coast and MPower Alliance. She recently made a career pivot and is now the Outreach & Membership Coordinator for the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara. Angie holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from Antioch University Santa Barbara. In 2022, she was appointed to the Santa Barbara County Third District Commission for Women and serves on the Board of Directors for LEAP. Angie has a Gen Z daughter and lives in Goleta with her husband James and their two cats. In her free time she enjoys reading, painting, riding her bike, tending to the plants and flowers in her tiny garden, and seizing any opportunity to see a play, musical or concert that she can. Contact
Diana Villanueva
“I was born in Gu
atemala and was brought as a child to Santa Barbara. I went through the school system in Santa Barbara from elementary school to high school. When I was 16, my mother passed away from cancer and I, along with my sister, were adopted. My adopted parents helped me go through the immigration system and be able to get my citizenship 9 years later.
During this difficult time, I graduated from high school with honors, attended college at Westmont and majored in Political Science with a minor in Spanish. After college, I received my master’s in public administration with honors from the University of San Francisco.
Throughout my professional career I have worked for non-profits, private companies, and now for the Federal government. I have worked for childcare programs, in the healthcare industry, and have done housing rights in San Francisco. I have been working for the Congressman and have gained a lot of
experience in the past six years. I am now the Deputy District Director and Scheduler and have learned several skills throughout my different positions. I am passionate about contributing to my community, creating opportunities for others, and uplifting the voices of those who aren’t always represented.” Contact
