John Ashbaugh
President

John has taught history and global studies at Allan Hancock College since 2001. John’s varied career also includes city planning, public education, and co-founding the SLO County Land Conservancy. He ran for public office and served two terms on the San Luis Obispo City Council and served on the city’s planning commission. John holds Masters degrees in landscape architecture, city planning, and education and a doctorate in educational leadership and organizations from UCSB. As the History Center President, John hopes to bring the organization to a new level of volunteer participation, collaboration with our allied organizations in historic preservation and partnerships with the local business community.

Sandy Baer
Vice President

Sandy has served two previous terms on the History Center Board of Directors, including as Vice-President and Chair of the Dallidet committee. She also served on the City’s Cultural Heritage Committee for 10 years and the Promotional Coordinating Council for eight years. She authored feature articles for SLO Journal for 18 years, mostly about local luminaries, county history, the arts and culture.  She recently joined the San Luis Obispo County Library Foundation Board.  She enjoys cooking, baking, canning and reading.

Camille Slayter
Treasurer

Camille is a Certified Public Accountant educated at Brigham Young University.  Currently working at local firm Glenn Burdette, Camille serves as the History Center’s treasurer.

Jim Andre

Jim Andre taught finance and accounting at USC, Cal Poly, and Loyola Marymount University. He spends considerable time in Southern California, but he has been a member of our Center his entire life – in fact, his father Peter R. Andre is the man who incorporated the Historical Society of San Luis Obispo County in 1953! Jim’s grandfather J.J. Andre was an early downtown business owner, and the Andre family story is recorded in publications on file in our Research Room. Jim will be working with us to improve the financial stability of the Dallidet property and the History Center as a whole.

Sharon Gottesfeld

Sharon has extensive volunteer experience as a Museum volunteer docent and on the Exhibits Committee. She also attended the January Board retreat and thus will be able to “hit the ground running” with us. She is an attorney, and has lived in San Luis Obispo for 4 years.

Michael Miller

Julie Moore

Julie Moore grew up in Northern California. She graduated from San Diego State University with a BA in Political Science and History. While attending college she spent one year as a foreign exchange student in Uppsala, Sweden. She received her teaching credential at Cal Poly. Julie taught grades Kindergarten through tenth in the local schools for 11 years and was president of the Teachers’ Association. She also spent six years abroad teaching school in Rabat, Morocco and Lhokseumawe, Indonesia.

Benjamin Peterson

Benjamin is a 4th generation native of SLO County and a graduate of SLO High and Westmont College, where he served as President of the Student Government for two of his four years.  He is currently a Field Representative for Assemblywoman Monique Limón of Santa Barbara, and has performed the same role for Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham of San Luis Obispo.

Roberta Soules

Roberta grew up in Long Beach and moved to San Luis Obispo to study social sciences at Cal Poly, later returning to study taxation and accounting. She then pursued an education in financial planning at UCSB. Roberta provided tax and financial planning advice for forty years and is now semi-retired. Roberta first served on the History Center Board as treasurer from 2005–2011 and 2015-2019. She also serves on the Exhibits and Finance Committees. Roberta enjoys piano playing and gardening.

Lynette Tornatzky

Lynette Tornatzky is a resident of Los Osos and is the author of Los Osos/Baywood Park for Arcadia Publishing.  She is the secretary to: the Los Osos Community Advisory Council, the Los Osos/Baywood Park Chamber of Commerce, the South Bay Women’s Network, and Celebrate Los Osos. She also pulls weeds at the Sweet Springs Nature Preserve.

John Villa

John Villa has family roots that go way back: His family name, originally Villavicencia, includes a substantial contribution of Salinan ancestry, enough to qualify John as a member of the local Salinan Tribal Council. John is the owner of Villa Automotive, and is also well known for his support of local youth sports. His response to our invitation to join the Board was simple: “Put me in, Coach!” John’s Aunt Arlene Zanchuk imbued all of his family with a great love of local history and an appreciation of the need to support our organization financially: Arlene left a substantial bequest to the History Center for the Dallidet Adobe. The Villa family will be the major sponsor for our upcoming Arlene Zanchuk USO Memorial Swing Dance at Ludwick Center, now deferred to a date in the future, due to the coronavirus outbreak that prevented all large gatherings from taking place in the Spring of 2020.