Board Member, 1970s to 2018
Founder, NAMI Santa Barbara Chapter
Ann began her long-term commitment to providing for the mental health of others at Northhampton, Massachusetts State Mental Hospital on her way to becoming a registered nurse at New England Deaconness Hospital in Boston. This was at a time, the 1950s, when major mental illness was thought to be caused by problems in the family environment and mothers were especially held to blame.
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Board President 1972- 1973
Professor Emeritus, Research Professor UCSB
John Foley, Ph.D. served as Board President of the Santa Barbara Mental Health Association from 1972- 1973, before it was rebranded as the Mental Wellness Center. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he had a happy child-hood dominated by school, sports, and scouting. He attended the University of Notre Dame and majored in physics, yet as he was entering college, his older brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
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Board of Directors, 1983-2001
1997 Volunteer of the Year
Maribel Jarchow grew up in Chicago and has an early memory dating to the time when she was just six years old, of accompanying her mother to visit her uncle, who was institutionalized in a state hospital in Illinois. Those experiences are ingrained in her memory and were the catalyst for her interest in mental health. Many years later, when Maribel settled in Santa Barbara, her friend Eleanor Wright suggested that she join an auxiliary that was forming at the Mental Health Association, and Maribel was intrigued.
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Board Member, 1980s
Anita Mackey was born 1914 in Riverside County, California. At 109 years old, she shares her memories of how she first got involved with the Mental Wellness Center, back in the 1980s and 1990s.
Anita graduated with a BA from College of the Redlands, where she was offered a teaching position.
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Board Chair, 1994-1996
NAMI volunteer for 30+ years
Ann Eldridge Award recipient
“Over the many years of my son’s illness, it became a primary focus of my life to work to improve mental health services for folks with mental illness and substance abuse,” said Jan Winter.
“I was fortunate early in those years to know and learn from Ann Eldridge. Together we initiated and co-taught the first local NAMI Family-to-Family educational and support series, now carried on by a large corps of trained teachers in English and Spanish and in north and south Santa Barbara County.”
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Chair of the Mental Health Arts Festival Committee
Board Member, 1998-2022
Cottage Health Administrative Director, Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine
Darcy Keep has gravitated towards people with mental illness for as long as she can remember. As a psychiatric nurse who directs the Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at Cottage Health, she has aligned her profession with her passion.
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Board of Directors, 1998-2000
Education Committee Chair
Dorothy LeWolt’s background, consisting of a degree in health education as well as training as a registered nurse, made her especially valuable to the Mental Health Association (as it was previously named). Now 99 years old, Dorothy’s career started in 1945, training as a U.S. cadet nurse during World War II. By the time she graduated the war was over and her nursing career turned to clinical work on Long Island, New York, where she lived with her husband, who had earned a Purple Heart in the army. The couple would eventually move to warmer climates, ending up in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
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Board Chair, 1998
Nancy Chase was a young mother and member of Las Aletas, an auxiliary of the Assistance League, when she was first introduced to the Mental Wellness Center, known at that time as the Mental Health Association. Nancy had a family member with a mental health diagnosis and was particularly interested in serving this community.
Each month, Nancy and others would visit with women at the Mental Health Association’s Fellowship Club, to take an outing, do a craft or socialize, at the original small house on Chapala Street.
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In 2000, NAMI SB and Mental Wellness Center completed the first Family-to-Family education program. The program, which is still in place today, is designed to help all family members understand and support their loved ones who are living with mental illness.
Board Chair, 2000
Gil Garcia was born in 1939, and with limited community resources due to the war effort, he credits the campesino interdependent working-class lifestyle – living with multiple generations in a tightknit Goleta neighborhood – for guiding his approach to life. His was a community filled with immigrant families from Mexico, working the fields and raising their families, with open doors and a focus on hard work and interdependent support. This ethos carried Gil from the fields to the founding of his architectural firm, Garcia Architect Inc., and development firm, Blankenship-Garcia Inc., to the City Council chambers, where he focused on community service and human development. Gil’s strong connection to his communal home upbringing would come to play a significant role years later in helping the Mental Wellness Center secure their own permanent home.
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Board Chair, 2005-2007
Board Member, 2001-2011
Santa Barbara NAMI President, 2014- 2022
NAMI Steering Committee, 2000 – 2014
Like most people associated with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), George Kaufmann found his way to the organization when a member of his family presented with mental illness. In George’s case it was his son, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia 28 years ago. NAMI is a national grassroots nonprofit with chapters nationwide which provide emotional support, educational resources and advocacy for individuals and families affected by mental illness.
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Board of Directors, 2000-2003, 2005-2006
2001 Volunteer of the Year
Jan Luc is the kind of mother who volunteers wherever her three children are involved. She was active on the PTA during their school years, and later, when her son was hospitalized with a mental health condition and transferred to Casa Juana Maria, one of the Mental Health Association’s resident homes, Jan Luc found her way there.
“My first encounter was visiting the Fellowship Club on Chapala Street,” she recalled. Her son made tremendous progress at the club and Jan Luc wanted to check out the facility. Her initial job was wrapping 100 Christmas presents for club members, and from that point forward she knew she had found the place that she wanted to stay.
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Board of Directors, 2005-2010, 2016-2022
Medical Director, Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at Cottage Health System
Professional consultant to MWC and NAMI
As a Yale undergrad studying American history and literature, Dr. Paul Erickson gathered that the best way to combine his interests in humanities and science would be to pursue a medical degree. At the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, he discovered a love for psychiatry, because it allowed for more time with patients and a real understanding of their life stories. And it was during his residency at Harvard University’s Cambridge Health Alliance that he discovered a passion for community healthcare and public health approaches to psychiatry. After graduating from that program, Dr. Erickson remained at Cambridge Hospital as clinical director of outpatient psychiatry and later clinical chief of the department.
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Clinical Supervisor, Program Director, Consultant
Patriarch of the Fellowship Club
Intern supervisor
It was Bob Tauber’s job as director of UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute’s Public-Academic Liaison (PAL) Project that first connected him to the Mental Wellness Center. He had been hired by UCLA to test independent living skills modules for adults with serious mental illness in Santa Barbara County, and the Mental Health Association (as it was previously named) was a partner agency in supporting this work. Additionally, in his work for UCLA, Bob co-authored training programs related to helping clients learn the skills to have successful and satisfying work experiences as well as learning the skills to develop friendship and intimacy in relationships. With the support of Annmarie Cameron and Patricia Collins, he agreed to run pilot programs at the Mental Health Association in order to gain valuable feedback from the participants about these programs.
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Board member, 2007-2011, 2016-2021
Treasurer, 2008-2011, 2019-2020, and Co-treasurer 2021
Karel has two women in his life to thank for inspiring his journey to the Mental Wellness Center. The first is his wife of 45 years, Jane Macedo de Veer, who served on the Mental Wellness Center board and recommended the rewarding service to Karel.
The second was his mother, who Karel said instilled in him at a young age, the importance of giving back.
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Board member, 2007-present
Board Chair, 2011-2013
Education Committee Leader
Teaches NAMI Family-to-Family courses and Mental Health First Aid/Youth First Aid
Twenty years ago, Ann Lippincott had the rug pulled out from under her. At the age of 24, her daughter had presented with a psychiatric illness, and at a shocking loss of what to do, Ann turned to the Mental Wellness Center.
As an academic with 30-plus years of education experience, Ann sought knowledge. She enrolled in the Family-to-Family classes offered via the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), an affiliate of the Mental Wellness Center. The 12-week course offers an evidence-based educational program for family, significant others, and friends of people with mental illness.
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Board Chair, 2018-2020
Board Member, 2010-2011, 2014, 2017-2022
Ned grew up in Hermosa Beach, California and moved to Santa Barbara more than sixty years ago to play football at UCSB. While in college, he and a fraternity brother started a small silk-screening business that would evolve into his career. For 25 years he ran Shoreline Sportswear before transitioning to a sales role at JanSport and later as a successful independent sales professional. His business acumen benefitted the Mental Wellness Center, where he has served on the board for many years, yet Ned claims that his most significant contribution to the organization was as a volunteer driver.
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Board of Directors, 2014, 2016-2018, 2020-2022
Board Chair, 2016-2018
Board Co-treasurer, 2021-2022
Andy’s professional career spans more than 30 years in accounting, bookkeeping and staffing services. She was raised in Goleta and moved to San Francisco for college, later earning her CPA license while working for Price Waterhouse in the city. She founded a staffing firm in San Francisco, sold it in 1999, she semi-retired, traveled the world, lived in Mexico, and eventually moved back to her hometown. She has taught accounting at SBCC and now works with several companies in Santa Barbara helping them with their accounting and financial needs.
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