The Santa Barbara Reciprocity Group Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O.) on April 17 installed its new officers for 2024-25.
They are Jan Williams, president; Claudia Scott, vice president; Ann Caneros, secretary; and Marie Dassler, treasurer.
Williams was raised in southern Illinois. She attended Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and Barnes Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri.
Her career in nursing included employment in a surgical ICU unit in Nashville, Tennessee, and later at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.
Education has always been of great importance to her, seeing it as a way to improve one’s life and she has channeled her energy into P.E.O. endeavors ever since joining in 1978.
Seven chapters of P.E.O. Sisterhood are active in Santa Barbara. The sisterhood is a nonprofit, philanthropic organization that has helped more than 122,000 women pursue educational goals by providing more than $416 million in education assistance (as of June 2023).
Members celebrate, support and motivate women in their educational pursuits through scholarships, grants, awards and low-interest loans.