Selected for their diverse interests, experience, and leadership in both professional and volunteer arenas, trustees establish policy, set priorities, and are responsible for guiding the foundation’s activities.
“We are delighted to welcome our newest board members, who each bring a wealth of professional experience and nonprofit leadership to our team,” said Ron Gallo, president & CEO of the Santa Barbara Foundation. “They join our distinguished Board of Trustees in strategically guiding the foundation’s financial stewardship, philanthropic services, and commitment to Santa Barbara County’s social sector.”
Diane Adam currently serves as chair for the Santa Barbara Foundation Santa Maria Affiliates and was part of the Katherine Harvey Fellows class of 2001-2002. She has served as a board member and capital campaign leader for the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum, as well as stewardship board member, Parents’ Club officer, auction chair, and chairperson of the inaugural annual fund for St. Patrick School.
Diane holds a bachelor of science degree in microbiology/medical technology from Colorado State University. She has worked as a clinical laboratory scientist for both Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria and French Hospital in San Luis Obispo.
A fourth generation Nipomo resident, Diane is married with two children. Her husband Kieran is a fifth generation farmer in the Santa Maria Valley where he and his two brothers run Adam Brothers Farming, Inc.
Fred W. Gluck was with McKinsey & Co. from 1967 to 1995 and led the firm as its elected managing director (CEO) from 1988 to 1994, when he retired and joined The Bechtel Group, where he served as vice chairman and director. Since moving to Santa Barbara in 1998 with his wife Linda, Fred has been active as an entrepreneur in local biotech and medical equipment and serves on the boards of Cynvenio Biosystems (co-founder and chair), TrueVision (co-chair), and CytomX (co-founder).
Fred recently retired after 15 years as a director of AMGEN (Thousand Oaks, CA) [NASDAQ] and was the presiding director of HCA (Nashville, TN) [NY Stock Exchange] prior to its LBO in 2007. He was vice chairman of New York Hospital and recently achieved emeritus status after 36 years of service. He is also active in eleemosynary activities in Santa Barbara, where he has served as a trustee of the Cottage Health System, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) Foundation, and as founding chairman of the Advisory Council of the (Kavli) Institute of Theoretical Physics.
Fred earned a B.S.E.E from Manhattan College in 1957 and an M.S.E.E in the same field from New York University in 1959. In addition, he did graduate studies in Operations Research at Columbia University.
Chris Slaughter brings more than 25 years of marketing, public relations, event planning, and entertainment production to her position as executive director of the Santa Maria Wine Country Association. She previously worked in sales and marketing for CAFEX, an internationally renowned feature film and visual effects studio. Chris has also served as marketing director of Steven Spielberg’s DIVE! restaurants in Century City and Las Vegas.
Since moving to Santa Maria 15 years ago, Chris has been involved in numerous nonprofits including the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum and the Orcutt Children’s Arts Foundation, where she was a founding board member and five-year board president.
Chris studied English, American literature, and television production at the University of California, Los Angeles. She and her husband Joseph, an oral surgeon in Santa Maria, have two teenage daughters.
About the Santa Barbara Foundation
The Santa Barbara Foundation is a community foundation established in 1928 to enrich the lives of the people of Santa Barbara County through philanthropy. As one of the largest private sources of funding for area nonprofits, agencies, and college bound students, the foundation builds and facilitates philanthropy through donor partnerships; invests in nonprofits; and identifies and strategically addresses important community needs. Guided by compassion for the most vulnerable and those most in need of help, excellence in what it supports and with whom it partners, and integrity with a focus on stewardship and transparency, the Santa Barbara Foundation is invested in a more vibrant, engaged, and meaningfully connected Santa Barbara County…for all.