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 where she received received a Bacherlor's (BS) in accounting and a Masters (MAcc) in tax.  After graduating from college she lived and worked in the Bay Area (San Jose) before making a permanent home in Arroyo Grande.  She grew up in Visalia, CA and  appreciate the cooler temperatures and vast hiking trails of the Central Coast.  She enjoys racquetball, volleyball and sewing.

Currently working at local firm Glenn Burdette, Camille serves as the History Center’s treasurer as well as on the Board of Directors for the Central Coast Chapter of the California Society of CPAs.

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.

Temporary photo pending Kathleen's selection

Kathleen Cairns

 Kathleen A. Cairns holds a B.A. (1976) and M.A. (1989) in history from California State University, Long Beach, and a Ph.D. in history (1996) from the University of California, Davis. She spent twelve years (1977-1989) as a journalist for the Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram. For a series on the death penalty, she traveled to San Quentin prison, peered into the gas chamber and interviewed condemned men. For a series on homelessness, she spent three months talking to people who lived under bridges, in abandoned houses, and on the streets of Long Beach and Los Angeles. In 1986, she covered California Chief Justice Rose Bird’s doomed effort to retain her office and in 1988 the unsuccessful Democratic campaign of former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

From the mid-1990s to 2019, she taught history and women’s studies at California State University, Sacramento, and at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She is the author of six books focused on women’s experiences in twentieth century California.

Front-Page Women Journalists, 1920-1950 examines the lives of three pathbreaking reporters—two in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco/Washington D.C. The Enigma Woman centers on the life and near-execution of a Montana rancher’s daughter-turned-murderer (it was complicated) who nearly became the first woman executed in California. Hard Time at Tehachapi focuses on the politics surrounding California’s first woman’s prison. Proof of Guilt details the controversy surrounding Barbara Graham, executed in 1955 despite questions surrounding her guilt. The Case of Rose Bird traces the rise and fall of California’s first female Supreme Court Chief Justice. At Home in the World reveals the crucial role played by California women in fueling the modern environmental movement. They include Kathleen Goddard Jones, who virtually single-handedly saved the Nipomo Dunes.

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.

Dr. LeolA Dublin Macmillan

Dr. Leola Dublin Macmillan is the new Resource Development Specialist for the United Way of San Luis Obispo County. She is a critical cultural scholar, essayist and social justice activist. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Washington State University. Her scholarly production includes work on adolescent identity development in marginalized girls, and the representation of women and girls in American visual culture.

Dr. Macmillan has served on the board of Just Communities Central Coast, is on the steering committee of RACE Matters SLO County and is a member of the SLO Police Department’s Police and Community Together (PACT) community group. She has more than 30 years’ experience as both an educator and an activist. She has taught in a broad range of disciplines - both inside and outside of higher education - from environmental science to adult literacy. Dr. Macmillan has also worked as a consultant, providing diversity training, grant writing, strategic planning, facilitation, and editorial services for her clients. In 2019, Rep. Salud Carbajal recognized Dr. Macmillan as Congressional Woman of the Year.

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.

Dean Sullivan

Dean Sullivan is a 50-year resident of San Luis Obispo County and a 30-year veteran of the local publishing industry. He’s currently owner/publisher of the Estero Bay News and has founded or cofounded a number of other newspapers including The Bay News, The Coast News and the SLO City News.

Also a photographer, Dean’s been collecting antique photographs of the area for decades and has amassed an impressive collection dating back to the late 1800s. His interest in local history may be genetic, as his mother, Joan Sullivan, has been writing books and producing programs about local ranches and history for decades.

Dean has volunteered for several local nonprofits including in the executive board of the Morro Bay National Estuary Program, the board of directors of the Central Coast Wedding Professionals and as president of the Los Osos Chamber of Commerce.

One of Dean’s clients was the Central Coast State Parks Association where he was a big part of restoring the photo collection of the Spooner Ranch House.

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.