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How is it possible after eating so much on Thanksgiving that you can still wake up the next morning and be hungry? Black Friday for many people means bargain shopping, but for me it means black, elasticized lululemon pants. The skinny pair of jeans on sale are not happening.
Thinking just a great cup of coffee will be my breakfast, I met Montecitan Nancy Walker Koppelman at Tre Lune Ristorante on Coast Village Road. The place was half-full with people looking a bit hung over from turkey and side dishes. Koppelman was anything but. She was her enthusiastic high-energy self as we talked about her latest projects over a shared frittata and toast.
Fourteen years ago, Koppelman and her banker husband Larry moved to Montecito from Orange County, where she had owned a sailing school and yacht charter company for nine years. After spending four years building their dream house here, they knew no one except their contractor and the painters who worked on their seaside home. They also adopted a 9-year-old girl from foster care (their daughter, Renee, who is in her last year of college in Chicago).
Koppelman and I had met briefly many years ago at a political event, but our relationship really picked up while we were each having our hair worked on regularly at Patricia Noel Studio. While men might connect on the golf course, a day of beauty is where some good networking takes place for me.
An hour breakfast was not long enough to cover the myriad of projects that are close to Koppelman’s heart, but she did identify those that are the most important. Inspiring many and being inclusive are some of her trademark qualities, and her interests include social justice, passion for arts and lectures, and the Global Neighborhood Fund.
Her latest passion is end-of-life transitioning, the way we treat the dying. Koppelman feels very strongly that huge changes are needed around the way we treat those who are in transition.
“We should have options and choices around how we are treated as our lives end, … just the way women want options for giving birth,” she said.
The two are similar social issues to her.
Koppelman currently serves as an ambassador for UCSB Arts & Lectures; is on the board of Direct Relief; co-founded the Global Neighborhood Fund, which helps fund social justice in Liberia; and serves on the advisory boards of the Aspen Brain Forum and the Aspen Institute.
The family spends three to four months a year in Aspen, Colo., where Koppelman attends the Aspen Institute and hosts friends and dignitaries. While her home address is in the 93108, she is a true global resident.
Koppelman’s passion for social equality began as college student working in the women’s health-care movement, and in the early 1970s with a feminist health-care clinic not long after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade. She traveled across Europe and in Mexico, discussing women’s rights with health care. The experience gave her the confidence to speak in front of groups of strangers.
“Those times were politically charged,” she said, adding that she was a radical advocate for those women and still supports that platform.
Since 2007, Koppelman has been a member of the Democratic National Committee’s National Finance Committee, and has served on President Barack Obama’s national finance committee since he launched his first campaign in 2007. She had met the then-Illinois senator two years before when he contacted her to host a lunch for him to meet some “folks” during a stop in Santa Barbara. She’s hosted many senators and presidential candidates in her living room and it was fascinating to hear her compare their energy, kindness, humor and egos.
Koppelman, who attended both of Obama’s inaugurations, was recently invited to a small White House reception for about 200 guests. The next day, Obama handed out America’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 93108 resident and talk show icon Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton, country singer Loretta Lynn, Chicago Cubs baseball legend Ernie Banks and retired Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, among others.
The Koppelmans have been avid travelers, visiting more than 50 countries in the past 25 years.
“Travel has shaped my world,” Koppelman explained. “It helped me to see that we are all the same. We want the same things for our families. The customs and the languages change but we in our essence are just people who want to live decent lives of kindness, be treated fairly, and feel that our lives have purpose, meaning and value.”
Koppelman has been to the slums of Calcutta, Monrovia and Nairobi, and to rural villages in Rwanda and Liberia, where unspeakable atrocities have occurred. These experiences have deeply moved her and informed her political beliefs and desire for social justice.
The nonprofit Global Neighborhood Fund, which she co-founded three years ago with Montecito residents Connie Smith and Sandra Tyler, is a giving circle with a focus on grassroots-to-grassroots efforts. Their belief is that “the world is our neighborhood. We have no boundaries or borders.”
Koppelman enjoys gathering together interesting people with new ideas, and she loves being in a room of people who are learning together.
“There is no greater gift than the gift of curiosity,” she said.
In the past 10 years, the Kopplemans have hosted events for authors, scientists, five Nobel Peace Prize winners, world leaders, and politicians, including Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. They also are honored to regularly host speakers from UCSB’s Arts & Lectures’ program.
As the waiter at Tre Lune handed us the check, Koppelman had some parting words of advice.
“Always live with an open heart, never take yourself too seriously, and I wish we could all just take care of each other,” she said. “There is much to be done on this adorable little planet!”
— Judy Foreman is a Noozhawk columnist and longtime local writer and lifestyles observer. She can be contacted at judyforeman@noozhawk.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.