- Home
- News Grid
- Local News
- Green Hawk
- Business
- Politics
- School Zone
- Nonprofits
- Missing Pets
- Multimedia
- Arts
- Movies
- Outdoors
- Sports
- News Releases
- Columnists
- Blogs
- Opinions
- Classifieds
- Advertise
- Donate
- Partners
Former RFB&D Executives Step Into New Community Roles
“The only thing constant is change” is an old adage that’s never been more true than in the nonprofit world, where staff changes and new projects are in the works at several local organizations, including the Greater Santa Barbara Ice Skating Association, KDB 93.7 FM (the for-profit classical music radio station owned by the Santa Barbara Foundation) and Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.
Former RFB&D Executive Director Tim Owens recently began working for the Santa Barbara Foundation as the executive vice president and general manager of KDB, which is one of only a handful of self-supporting classical music stations in the United States.
At first glance, this new position — which the Santa Barbara Foundation created specifically for him — may seem like a departure for Owens, who spent five years at the helm of the local RFB&D, a national nonprofit that serves students with print and learning disabilities by recording textbooks in every grade level and every subject area, and then making the educational materials available for free. But Owens has spent the majority of his career — more than 30 years — working in radio, primarily with National Public Radio.
A graduate of UCSB, Owens was director of programming at WETA-FM in Washington, D.C., NPR’s classical music station, from 1984-93, and then was NPR’s executive producer for jazz programming for several years. He also worked for Minnesota Public Radio before making a career change and moving to RFB&D, inspired in part by a desire to live in Santa Barbara.
In a sense, going back to the world of radio is like coming home, Owens says. While working at RFB&D, he did some research for Chuck Slosser, former president of Santa Barbara Foundation.
“He asked me to come in as a consultant, knowing my background in broadcasting, to say what can we do with this station because I don’t think it’s performing the way the foundation would like it to perform,” Owens said. “I did a white paper and made some recommendations. They liked it, and over a three-year period it evolved into a position … and I came in as the top qualifier to lead that effort.”
Former RFB&D development director Ada Conner also has a newly created position, as campaign director for the Greater Santa Barbara Ice Skating Association’s “Ice in Paradise” campaign to develop an ice skating rink complex in Goleta.
“This is a brand-new position. No one had had this before,” Conner said. “What we’re doing right now is, in the next year we’re going to raise approximately $3 million so we can start building in January. To date, we have $2.5 million, and we were just gifted the property (from Camino Real Marketplace).”
The GSBISA will hold a news conference at noon Friday to kick off the capital campaign and showcase the site for the ice rink, next to Girsh Park in Goleta.
Hockey Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille, the highest-scoring left wing in National Hockey League history and current president of business operations for the Los Angeles Kings, will be on hand to endorse the effort, Conner said.
“I’m so excited about it — obviously Luc Robitaille, but also to be part of this campaign. Actually, what I’m doing is I’m standing on the shoulders of people that were volunteers that worked on this for a long time. So I’m just now coming into it and pulling it all together to make it happen,” said Conner, who has a long history working on recreation projects.
Before joining RFB&D in 2008, she worked as a supervisor in adult programs for the Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation Department, was the director for the local Special Olympics and volunteered as president of the board of the Santa Barbara Education Foundation and as a Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation commissioner, where she helped develop Skater’s Point skateboard park and Chase Palm Park.
“I’ve been on so many different projects where we put in new recreational facilities that I was the perfect person to be able to not only have the development background, but to also have the ability to do a facility and use my community interest and my connections,” Conner said. “I just want to move this forward, make sure that we get this facility, as a Parks & Recreation commissioner, as a mother, as a development person and as a person who really cares about the community. We want to have programs for youth at risk, we want people to have a place to go. We’ve got signs that kids have held up that say, ‘We have nothing to do, we want to ice skate, help us, will work for fun.’ It’s so important for families and kids to have something fun to do.”
Advocating for children has been a consistent focus in Conner’s work.
“I knew many children that had been helped with the different things that Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic had to offer,” she said. “I really enjoyed working there. We did a lot of good things together, Tim and I, and it was just a very, very good opportunity to help people. So I was really happy with that.”
Cindy Jackson, regional executive director for RFB&D, had nothing but praise for both Owens’ and Conner’s contributions to the organization.
“Operations are continuing as before, we’re just really excited,” she said. “We were sad to lose both Tim and Ada, but we are moving quickly to hire new staff to continue the fine work that they have done for us.”
Jackson said Kathy Wertheim has been hired as interim director.
“She’s a person who has been a volunteer with RFB&D for over 20 years,” Jackson said. “She’s also a professional fundraiser and has worked for the unit in the past, so we didn’t skip a beat. She was able to step in right away in mid-January, and she is working with the board and the volunteers and staff on the annual Record-a-thon, which is the week of April 18. So we’re not losing any ground on this. This area is too important.”
Owens said RFB&D had its best fundraising luncheon ever in November, raising about $130,000 in one hour. He said he’s also optimistic about his prospects for raising revenue at KDB.
“I’m walking into a situation that has an established reputation already. It already exists as a business,” he said. “I hope to make it better, just like when I stepped into Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. I took a $150,000-a-year organization and made it a $500,000-a-year organization. We quintupled the number of students we served over that five-year period. The fundraising increased dramatically.”
Conner also is optimistic about her fundraising prospects for the skating rink.
“A lot of the funding is going now to education, to families, to communities, so it’s a really good time to be very involved in your community,” she said. “People who give money, they have many different interests and they enjoy giving money, so my guess is the arts will stay alive and education will stay alive. And I think we’re in really good position with youth education, family activities and the arts.
“I believe in this project, and I believe in recreation for our community and for youth and families, so to me that’s a win — going in there believing that it’s going to work. And I believe that this community will rise up, and that we’ll be able to have the ice skating rink starting in early January.”
— Noozhawk contributor Leslie Dinaberg can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Comments
Noozhawk's comments are moderated, but by posting here you accept your responsibility to follow our rules as part of Noozhawk's shared online community. Please keep your comments civil and helpful. Don't attack other readers personally, and do not use vulgar, abusive or discriminatory language. Use the "Report Abuse" link if a comment violates these standards or our Terms of Use.
More Local News »
Genealogical Society Meeting to Feature Look at 200-Year-Old Torah Restoration
Special interest groups will meet before the Feb. 18 program
Goleta Rotary Evening Club Helps Dos Pueblos Students with Mock Interviews
Members pose tough questions in preparing students for real-life job interviews
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Presenting Symposium on Conservation, Climate Change
March 9 event will honor the 2012 John C. Pritzlaff Conservation Award recipient, Dr. Daniel Botkin
Journey to the ‘80s with Page Youth Center’s Winter Bash
Proceeds from the Feb. 25 fundraiser will benefit the nonprofit's youth sports programs
Tracee Hennigar Joins Incredible Children’s Art Network as Executive Director
She will oversee programs, strategic partnerships, community outreach and fundraising
Weather: Fair 47.0º
Search Noozhawk »
