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BOARD & STAFF

Sara Miller McCune

Founder

Sara Miller McCune is the founder of SAGE Publishing and executive chairman of the company’s board of directors. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit and an unwavering dedication to academia, the then-24-year-old Sara founded SAGE in 1965 to start a company that would allow scholars to disseminate quality research in their own voices and break new ground in emerging fields of study. Today, Sara also serves as a director of SAGE Publications Ltd. (London, founded in 1971) and Corwin, a SAGE company and leading publisher for educational administrators and teachers. SAGE set up subsidiaries in India in 1981, in Singapore in 2006, in Melbourne in 2016, and has additional major offices in Beijing and Shanghai, Cairo, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. Sara remains actively involved in the company’s expansion and development.

MORE ABOUT SARA

Our Board

Sandra Ball-Rokeach

Professor Emerita
University of Southern California

Nien-Tsu Nancy Chen

Associate Professor of Communication
California State University Channel Islands, 
Thousand Oaks, CA

Charles Hale

BOARD CHAIR

Dean of Social Sciences
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

Monique Limon

Secretary

State Senate President Pro Tempore
Santa Barbara, CA

Vicki Magasinn

Attorney
Magasinn and Feldman, Los Angeles, CA

Maricela Morales

Executive Director
The Home Team

Oxnard, CA

David Pellow

Professor
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

Brando Pozzi

Business Owner and Philanthropist
Camarillo, CA

Jocelyn Sze McCune

Assistant Clinical Professor
University of California, Berkeley

Wendy Sims-Moten

Executive Director
First 5 Santa Barbara County,
Goleta, CA

Marcos Vargas

Consultant
Ventura, CA

Diane Wondolowski

BOARD Vice CHAIR

Chief Financial Officer
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Carpinteria, CA

Hilda Zacarias

Treasurer

Executive Director
Community Partners In  Caring
Santa Maria, CA

Grants Review Committee

Abraham Melendrez, Santa Maria
Kate English, Santa Paula
Mia Lopez, Santa Barbara
Tomás Hernandez, Jr., Oxnard
Warren Ritter, Santa Barbara

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Felicia Luong-Boyd and Travis Wilson for their service on other Foundation committees, alongside our board members.

Staff

CLAUDIA ARMANN

Executive Director

EMAIL CLAUDIA

(805) 223-8373

As Executive Director of the McCune Foundation since 2008, Claudia Armann shepherded the organization through significant growth and helped launch several capacity building initiatives. She began her work in philanthropy at the Santa Barbara Foundation where she served as a program officer for eight years. Alongside ally organizations, Claudia helped launch the 805 UndocuFund, which provides financial support to undocumented residents affected by disasters and the pandemic. She also co-founded Homes for All, an affordable housing advocacy group in Ventura. Claudia is currently serving on the Advisory Board of the Ventura Land Trust and she has a long track record of involvement with environmental organizations. Before her career in philanthropy, Claudia earned a degree in journalism, interned with The Associated Press, and worked in the magazine industry. She’s an avid reader, writer, bird watcher, gardener, and student of the Italian language. 

FRANK RODRIGUEZ

Program Officer

EMAIL FRANK

(805) 628-3136

Frank Rodriguez was born and raised in Santa Barbara as the son of Mexican immigrants from Degollado, Jalisco. After earning his undergraduate degree at UCLA, Frank worked as a labor, community and electoral organizer throughout Southern California. Taking some time to reflect on his organizing, Frank went on to receive his Masters in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, focusing on how mapping is an empowering tool for organizing. Returning home, Frank began working as a Community Organizer with CAUSE, later becoming a Policy Advocate with a focus on Immigrant and Housing Justice. Frank is a Hip-Hop head, who is more likely to be found listening to R&B, Banda, or NPR. You can catch Frank taking public transportation between Goleta and Ventura. In his free time, Frank can be found either watching sports (UCLA, Dodgers, Lakers, or Mexican Futbol), researching at a library, or biking around town blasting music. To recharge, Frank ends and starts every year with family in Degollado.

JOVITA VALDEZ

Executive Assistant

EMAIL JOVITA

(805) 667-8054

Jovita was born and raised in the La Colonia area of Oxnard and is one of eleven children. She has more than 25 years experience in the nonprofit sector in areas of fundraising, program management, grants management, event planning, and volunteer management. While at the Ventura County Community Foundation, she served as Program Director for Destino: The Hispanic Legacy Fund where she co-authored the first Ventura County Latino Health Needs Assessment Report.

Jovita attended UC Santa Barbara where she majored in Sociology and helped found El Congreso de La Raza Libre, a Chicana/o/x student activist group. If there was a demonstration on campus to save Chicana/o Studies, she was there with her voice and picket sign. Jovita was also involved in the Farmworker Movement – marching, picketing and boycotting. She’s served on the boards of the UCSB Associated Students, El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, and the UCSB Alumni Board of Directors. She also co-chaired the Ventura County Women’s Political Action Council, which trained, endorsed and funded progressive women seeking elected office. Her motto is “Share It Forward.”

 

She enjoys fiber arts, yoga, Aqua Zumba and Aqua HIIT, audiobooks and beach camping. Jovita also enjoys watching anything on PBS and classic, old Hollywood film noir movies.

 

IZUMI KIESEL

Bookkeeper

Izumi Kiesel was born and raised in Japan and came to the U.S. to attend college in 1997. She has served as the Foundation’s bookkeeper since 2021, and plays a crucial role in the annual financial audit. Izumi has worked in the field of accounting for twenty-five years with a variety of businesses and a six-year term at the Museum of Ventura County. A business graduate from CSU-Channel Islands, Izumi is also a business partner in her husband’s landscape architecture firm in Ventura where she handles finance, administration and strategic planning of the business.

Izumi is passionate about international travel and the outdoors. She loves spending time hiking, back-packing, skiing, and swimming. She has also perfected her skill at baking delicious French macarons.

Sara Miller McCune is the founder of SAGE Publishing and executive chairman of the company’s board of directors. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit and an unwavering dedication to academia, the then-24-year-old Sara founded SAGE in 1965 to start a company that would allow scholars to disseminate quality research in their own voices and break new ground in emerging fields of study. Today, Sara also serves as a director of SAGE Publications Ltd. (London, founded in 1971) and Corwin, a SAGE company and leading publisher for educational administrators and teachers. SAGE set up subsidiaries in India in 1981, in Singapore in 2006, in Melbourne in 2016, and has additional major offices in Beijing and Shanghai, Cairo, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. Sara remains actively involved in the company’s expansion and development.

Reflecting her longstanding interest in philanthropy, especially in promoting social, educational, economic, and environmental justice, Sara is founder and president of the McCune Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Ventura County, California, where SAGE’s home office is located. The foundation supports productive change through building social capital in two counties on California’s Central Coast.

In 2007, Sara founded the Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy, which launched the award-winning magazine Pacific Standard. In 2017, the magazine and the Center’s mission were transferred to The Social Justice Foundation, a nonprofit organization supported by SAGE Publishing, and June 2020 the magazine was moved into archives at Grist(grist.org).

In 2012, McCune received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Queens College, for her visionary work as publisher, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. In 2014, she was awarded an honorary fellowship from Cardiff University and an honorary doctorate from Bath University, and in 2016, McCune received honorary degrees from CSU Channel Islands and Sussex University. In 2017, Ms. McCune was honored by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (UK) for her contribution to scholarly publishing and in 2018, she was awarded the prestigious London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her 50+ years working within the publishing industry. She is also an Honorary Fellow of both CASBS at Stanford, and Pembroke College at Oxford.

An active supporter of the behavioral and social sciences, McCune was a long-serving member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, currently serves on the board of directors for the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University, and chairs the Visiting Committee at the Social Science Research Council based in New York, where she also serves on its Board of Directors. In 2018 she was offered membership to the highly prestigious American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States.