A newly formed 17-member board of trustees for Antioch University Santa Barbara has begun its work of maintaining the university’s long-standing commitment to innovative experiential learning and socially engaged citizenship and to ensuring students graduate with a renewed sense of their purpose as scholars and citizens.
Dr. Victoria Riskin will serve as chairwoman of the board of trustees. She is a founding member of Human Rights Watch in California and serves as its co-chairwoman in Los Angeles and chairwoman of the Santa Barbara Committee of Human Rights Watch.
A screenwriter and producer of made-for-television movies, Riskin has a Ph.D. in counseling psychology.
“Our inaugural local board of trustees is made up of distinguished members of the Santa Barbara community. They will help determine new program areas that are important to students in the 21st century,” said Nancy Leffert, provost and chief executive officer of AUSB. “I am thrilled that they will help us continue to serve students in the greater Santa Barbara community. This highly influential group of local leaders has stepped up to help us shape programs for our students, the region and the community at large.”
Other officers of the board include vice chairman Roy Mankovitz, an electrical engineer, inventor and director of Montecito Wellness LLC; secretary/treasurer Carol Forhan, a graduate of AUSB and vice president of research client services in the health care and science business of Thomson Reuters; and emeritus trustee Lillian Lovelace, also a graduate of AUSB and the recipient of an honorary doctor of humane letters from Antioch University Los Angeles.
Community members forming the remainder of the board are Dee Dee Barrett, Lou Cannon, Renee Grubb, Rodney Gustafson, Barbara Yanow Johnson, Patricia Chavez Nunez, Gabe Quiroz, Jerry Roberts, Susan Rose, Susan Smith, Thomas Tighe, Luis Villegas and Diana Wilson.
“The members of this inaugural board of trustees were selected because of their diverse backgrounds and experience, their demonstrated exceptional community leadership, and their thoughtfulness about education and Antioch’s mission,” Riskin said. “They have already contributed immeasurably to the university. They are a wonderful group, and I am honored to be working so closely with each of them.”
The Antioch University Santa Barbara Board of Trustees will have local decision-making responsibility, including oversight of the development of local programs that will reflect the interests and challenges of students. Each of Antioch University’s five campuses has its own board of trustees.
AUSB is part of a national historic university system, which Horace Mann, the father of progressive education, founded in 1852 as Antioch College. Together, they form a visionary community of campuses that strikes a rare — and essential — balance between idealism and experience.
Antioch University serves more than 4,000 adult students around the world and across the country, online and at its five campuses in four states. Each campus offers degree programs that meet — and often anticipate — the pressing needs of its region and the wider world. The university is also home to the landmark Ph.D. in leadership and change; Antioch Education Abroad, an exceptional opportunity of immersive service and study programs; and WYSO, a leading public radio affiliate and an essential source of global news and opinion.
The Santa Barbara campus is particularly distinguished in the Antioch system with its unique undergraduate degree completion program in liberal studies and graduate master’s and doctoral programs in clinical psychology and education that integrate students’ academic experience and experiential learning. Additionally, students in all of AUSB’s programs can specialize in relevant and applied specialized concentrations.
— Jennifer Goddard is a publicist.