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 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 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.

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 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.

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.