The Mental Health Association in Santa Barbara County is proud to welcome Ann Lippincott, George Kaufmann and Ned Emerson to its board. Lippincott will serve as board secretary, and Emerson will serve as vice president.
Lippincott, Ph.D., who is married to Emerson, is the associate director of the Teacher Education Program in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UCSB.
She is also chairwoman of the Education Committee for the Mental Health Association.
The members of the MHA Education Committee have developed a curriculum, Mental Health Matters, that they teach students in upper grades (fourth, fifth and sixth) in the Santa Barbara and Goleta Union school districts.
They also provide mental health information for beginning teachers at both UCSB and Antioch University. As well, the Education Committee, under Lippincott’s leadership, is in the process of developing a mental health curriculum for younger children and another that they hope to offer for local high school students.
Lippincott also teaches the Family-to-Family course for the local National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Kaufmann has served on the Mental Health Association’s board and executive committee for many years, and is also a member of the Steering Committee of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Kaufmann is a certified teacher of the NAMI’s Family to Family course. He frequently speaks at a variety of mental health organizations, mental health provider groups, churches and civic organizations about a variety of mental health issues.
He and his wife, Milly, moved to Santa Barbara from Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1999 after he retired as the vice president of Worldwide Medical Services and with the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Co.
The California Institute for Mental Health awarded him its Champion for System Change Award in 2007.
Emerson brings to the organization nearly 50 years of experience in sales and management.
While attending college, Emerson and a partner began a screen-printing company, which later became Shoreline Sportswear, and operated the business for 25 years. He later moved on to serve as an independent sales representative, selling sportswear to college bookstores for more than 20 years.
Emerson graduated from UCSB with a bachelor’s degree in industrial management. In addition to the Mental Health Association, he serves on the board of United Cerebral Palsy/Work Inc. of Santa Barbara County.
A recent retiree, Emerson lives in Santa Barbara with his wife, Lippincott.
Other elected board officers include president Nancy Chase, treasurer Karel DeVeer, and at-large members Bob Young and Kelly Rau.
The Mental Health Association in Santa Barbara County is a private, nonprofit organization providing support, housing and advocacy to adults and families affected by severe mental illness. For more information, click here or call 805.884.8440.
— Kelly Kapaun is a publicist.