As the director of communications, Suzanne Farwell is often the voice for the Santa Barbara Foundation, connecting the public with information about the foundation’s contributions to the community. Farwell recently connected with Noozhawk’s Leslie Dinaberg to reflect on her work and her life, as she prepares to retire this month.

LD: What will you miss the most about your job at the Santa Barbara Foundation?

SF: The people I work with. One of the reasons I like working there is I work with people who are passionate about what they do and helping people. … The other thing I really like about my job is it has so many facets where I’m gathering information, so I’m learning about many different things every day. … I’m learning about different philanthropic groups that pop up through us. It’s the whole canvas of interesting, wonderful things that are positive.

LD: In many ways, the Santa Barbara Foundation seems like an ideal nonprofit job in that you would never get bored because you’re dealing with so many different types of things.

SF: There’s the added component of a new boss coming in (Ron Gallo replaced Chuck Slosser as CEO this year) with fresh ideas, and that’s also very exciting.

LD: What made you decide to retire now?

SF: A couple of things. The major reason is my daughter has a little boy who is 14 months old, and he is a sweetheart and I don’t get to see him much. My son is getting married, and in every family there needs to be someone at the center who doesn’t necessarily need to do anything but who is that center, and there’s much I can’t do with this job. … I hope to do some projects for the foundation that I am intensely interested in, and I’m still young enough to be able to open my mind to lots of other things, and who knows? I’m trying to have a fertile ground, and so as things pop up they take root. But I can’t open it up without cutting back on the work. It seems like a good time. I’m also looking forward to spending more time with my husband at home.

LD: I would imagine that it’s very demanding work.

SF: It is, but that’s what’s good about it. I use every brain cell.

LD: You worked on a lot of great programs while you were at the foundation, but are there any that are particularly near and dear to your heart?

SF: The first year I was there we were about to celebrate the foundation’s 75th anniversary. There was a history book for the anniversary project to coordinate, and then there was a gala performing arts presentation at the Lobero Theatre. That was fantastic. There was a symposium about the future of philanthropy. That was all in one year. That was really something. …

I think one of my favorites was a book about the blind doctor, Dr. Pearlman. … A little old lady comes to us and wants to leave us $1 million. Part of the deal is that we publish her manuscript. Well, you can imagine a little old lady’s manuscript. What will we do with that? It turned out to be a really compelling human story, so we shepherded that project. We got a local publisher. The whole thing was really heartwarming. It’s always nice to have tangible evidence of what you’ve done because most of mine is ephemeral.

LD: I’ve seen that project and it’s very cool.

SF: Yes, and the idea that we would be following through on the donor’s wishes, which is always very important. It’s a book that opens people’s eyes to what it is like to be blind as a society. As a world society, we should all understand what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes.

LD: Do you have any trips planned or immediate plans when you’re done?

SF: Everybody asks me that. … My husband and I have traveled a lot, and I plan to stay home for a while and just be there. I live in a wonderful place. I want to sit on the porch, watch the birds and just still the mind a little bit because I’m always thinking about philanthropy and this and that. It’s going to take awhile for that to go away.

LD: What else do you like to do with your spare time?

SF: I love to read. I’ve also been a professional dancer for 30 years, and I still do it two or three times a month. I’ve been with Chef Karim since he started. So that’s in my blood. I love to move, so it would be fun to explore different forms of dance. It’s mainly a stilling of the mind to allow other things to come up. It sounds like I’m not going to do anything.

LD: You need a break, that’s what it sounds like to me.

SF: I’m opening doors and letting things in.

LD: How did you get started with belly dancing?

SF: My husband and I were living in married student housing at UCSB because we were both graduate students. I was getting my master’s in French, and he was getting a Ph.D. in counseling psych, and a woman moved in who was a belly dancer. He was dabbling in photography at the time, she needed photos, so they made a deal. He said, “I’ll take photos of you, and why don’t you give Suzanne some lessons?” I was annoyed. I wasn’t consulted. I was almost insulted.

I took a couple of lessons and said this is really weird. Then my teacher put on a show with three other dancers. That proverbial light bulb was like, “Ah, that’s what I want. Yes. I want to be that person on the stage.” Because it’s so alluring and beautiful, and that was it. I set on a path, and my poor husband never imagined that this would happen. It became overwhelming.

It changed my life because I learned to relate to people in a different way. I was very British at the time, very shy and I learned to handle myself. I did Belly Grams for years where I would go to offices, homes, wherever and do a 10-minute dance and congratulate the birthday person and whatever it was. I was in mansions in Montecito, barbecues on Milpas, offices all over. It was fantastic. I got a look at America that I never would have had. … It’s added a spark to my life.

LD: It keeps you in shape, too.

SF: It does. Like anybody else, I’ve had experiences and I’ve taken from them and learned. It’s made me who I am today, and I hope to have many more of them.

LD: How did you go from getting your master’s in French and becoming a belly dancer to working in the nonprofit world?

SF: I was a stay-at-home mom, and I took that very seriously. I spent a lot of time with my kids, educating them in every way I could. When our daughter, the younger of the two, went to high school, my husband said, “You know, this is a good time to get a job.” I was panicked because I hadn’t ever really had a job.

I had worked as a caterer for many years, and I worked at Jane Fonda’s ranch. … I applied for a job at the museum and they hired me. I thought to myself as I sat at the desk the first day, “What am I doing? This could be the shortest job in history.” Then I calmed down and I just applied the idea of what I would want to know, because I didn’t know that much about the museum. I went on from there, and it all worked out very nicely.

Vital Stats: Suzanne Farwell

Born: Jan. 30 in London to a French mother and a British father

Family: Husband, Larry; two grown children, Nick, who lives in Seattle, and Lara, who lives in Palo Alto; and a grandson, Bennett, 14 months

Professional Accomplishments: Master’s degree in French; chef/caterer at Jane Fonda’s ranch; worked in communications for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History; voiceover artist, now voices the calendar on KDB radio station; professional belly dancer; director of communications for the Santa Barbara Foundation

Best Book You’ve Read Recently: Kate Wilhelm’s Barbara Holloway series of mysteries and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game series

Little-Known Fact: “I think I’ve exposed all of the little-known facts. The dancing, I don’t bring that out that much. They are really two separate things. When they intersect, it’s interesting, but it’s not the first thing out of my mouth.”

— Noozhawk contributor Leslie Dinaberg can be reached at leslie@lesliedinaberg.com.