Edhat Reader
By Santa Barbara Foundation
The Santa Barbara Foundation (SBF) welcomes four new trustees to its board effective January 1, 2024. SBF’s incoming board members are Innovative Produce owner George Adam and attorney and house counsel at Main Street Produce and Freshway Farms Alexandra Allen, both of Santa Maria, and certified financial planner and founder of Impact Family Office Kiah Jordan of Santa Barbara, and philanthropic consultant and former President of the Orfalea Foundations Lois Mitchell from Carpinteria.
The new trustees join incoming board chair Matt Rowe, incoming vice chair Angel Iscovich, MD, treasurer Danna McGrew, incoming secretary Michael Pfau, chair emeritus Steve Hicks, as well as Phil Alvarado, Dr. Richard Beswick, Pamela Gann, Rafael Gonzalez, Pamela Macal, Robert Nakasone, Ernesto Paredes, Susan Richards, Lynn Scarlett, Alexander Simas, Tracy Stouffer, and Zohar Ziv.
“We are thrilled to welcome George, Alexandra, Kiah and Lois to our board,” explained SBF president and CEO Jackie Carrera. “Their experience in the community and expertise in agriculture, investing and finance, law and philanthropy will expand and deepen the Foundation’s ability to respond to our region’s most pressing challenges.”
“Our new trustees represent the Santa Maria Valley, Carpinteria and Goleta with half residing in North County,” Carrera added. “By including voices from across Santa Barbara County, we can better ensure that the unique strengths and challenges our diverse communities’ are represented, uplifted and addressed in all we do at SBF.”
SBF thanks outgoing trustees Rev. Randall Day, James Rogers and Ginger Salazar for their years of service to the community as members of the Foundation’s board.
Immediate past board chair Steve Hicks completed his term as chair on December 31, and will remain an officer in the role of chair emeritus of the board of trustees.
About George Adam
A fifth-generation Santa Maria Valley grower, George J. Adam earned a Bachelor of Science in agricultural business from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1983. He returned to work with his father, uncle and cousins for Adam Farms as a harvest manager. George and his spouse Debbie have since been business partners in numerous farming-related entities over the past 30 years including: La Brea Ranch, LLC; A&A Farming, Inc.; Innovative Produce; Faith Farming (labor contracting); Guadalupe Cooling; Beachside Produce (sales); and Royal Oak (H2A labor).
George has served as a board member of the Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties and is currently on the boards of Preservation, Inc. and Western Growers Association. Additionally, he serves on the AgWest Local Agency Committee and occasionally volunteers as a guest lecturer at Cal Poly SLO in the ag policy class. Mr. Adam was a founding board member of the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum and currently serves on the Marian Regional Medical Center Foundation board.
George and Debbie have been married for 39 years and are proud of their four children – Jeff, Philip, Nicole and Bridget – along with their seven grandchildren. He spends his free time hunting and hiking the beaches and back country of the Central Coast with family and friends.
About Alexandra Allen
Alexandra Allen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and a master’s degree in education from the University of Mary, Bismarck, North Dakota. After having worked for several years as a teacher, Alexandra earned a Juris Doctorate degree from UCLA School of Law, where she served as the Women’s Law Union Executive Director and was a UCLA Law Review editor. She practiced law as an investment management attorney in Los Angeles and Washington DC with the international law firm K&L Gates.
Most recently, she served as in-house counsel at Main Street Produce and Freshway Farms, farming businesses in Santa Maria founded by her husband and his father.
A native Californian, Alexandra has lived in Santa Maria for 14 years, where she has been extremely active with her community, serving on the board of directors of the Santa Maria Salvation Army, California Women for Agriculture, Orcutt Presbyterian Church Board of Deacons, Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. She has served as a Santa Barbara County human services commissioner. She is currently on the board of directors of the Western Growers Association, Solid Rock Foundation for Children, and is a member of the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Advisory Committee.
In her free time, she enjoys working in her garden, spending time with her Percheron draft horses and is an avid reader with a particular interest in American history
About Kiah Jordan
Kiah Jordan launched Impact Family Office in order to focus on the alignment of capital resources with an impact strategy. Kiah works alongside his clients to support their values and goals with the sources and uses of their wealth. He implements long-term perspectives on the impact of, not only his clients’ balance sheet, but also their succession plans, wealth transfer plans, and philanthropic engagement.
Prior to starting Impact Family Office, Kiah worked for Santa Barbara Capital, a real estate investment firm, and it was during this time that Kiah completed his Certified Financial Planner™ designation and found a passion for applying a holistic planning perspective to personal finances and business operations. Additionally, Kiah is a national certified guardian by the Center for Guardianship Certification and a licensed professional fiduciary by the California Professional Fiduciaries Bureau.
Kiah graduated from Westmont College with degrees in economics and business, and also Spanish. He completed his master’s degree in social entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
An advocate for socially conscious ventures and entrepreneurship, Kiah has dedicated much of his time to start-ups and organizations benefiting the Central Coast community. He is an alumnus of the Katherine Harvey Fellows program and on the board of Leading from Within. He is a founding board member of the Sustainable Change Alliance, serves as the chairperson of the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, and sits on the finance committees for the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation and the Community Environmental Council. Additionally, he was featured in the 2015 Pacific Coast Business Times “40 Under 40,” and has served as an adjunct professor in Westmont College’s program for social entrepreneurship.
Outside of the office, Kiah enjoys outdoor adventures with his wife and four children and plays soccer in a local recreation league.
About Lois Mitchell
Lois Mitchell was a philanthropic consultant from 2016 to 2021, during which time she guided 18 foundation clients to manage their ongoing governance, build grant processes, cultivate partner opportunities, and balance board dynamics.
As president of the Orfalea Foundations (Kinko’s family) from 2000 to 2015, Ms. Mitchell led a 22-member team through innovative collaborations, creative campaigns, and an intentional fiscal and organizational spend-down. She oversaw strategic community-wide initiatives focused on systemic change in disaster readiness, school food, preschool quality, college access and youth development throughout Santa Barbara County.
Lois has facilitated sector forums, board sessions, focused retreats and coordinated many events featuring significant public figures. In honor of a $10 million endowment to start UCSB’s Center of Global & International Studies, Lois produced “Leadership for the Global Future” with 2,000 attendees and former President Bill Clinton. She has served on nonprofit coalitions, funder roundtables, hiring committees, conference panels, trustee boards, and advisory councils including as speaker & co-chair of the National Center Family Philanthropy Strategic Lifespan Peer Network (2018-2020).
Prior to 2000 Lois worked for 18 years in international licensing, product line development, publishing and marketing. Having volunteered with more than 65 charities, Lois is now enthusiastically retired.
She and her husband Mark have “launched” two daughters, have resided in Santa Barbara for more than 40 years, and live part-time in Palm Springs.
About Santa Barbara Foundation
The Santa Barbara Foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of life throughout Santa Barbara County for all who live, work, play and visit here. Working in partnership with individuals, community organizations, nonprofits, business, education and government, the Foundation strives to address our local communities’ most challenging needs. Recognizing that its work depends on the strength of the social sector, the Foundation is committed to the health and vitality of local nonprofits. Nearly every Santa Barbara County nonprofit organization and essential community project has been supported by the Foundation during its 95-year history. The Foundation connects philanthropists, subject matter experts, and our community members facing challenges – all who dream of stronger communities in Santa Barbara County. To learn more, please visit SBFoundation.org.
