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.

Pete Kelley

Pete’s 1970 Cal Poly senior project created a guide to primary sources for local history. He’s an erstwhile restaurateur, author, current History Center board member, and chair of our Exhibits Committee.

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.

John Schutz

John came to San Luis Obispo 20 years ago following a career in product development in the automotive industry in Detroit and Los Angeles. A native of Nebraska, he attended the U of NE and the Chrysler Institute of Engineering.  Building on his interests in history and woodworking, he joined the Exhibit Committee of SLOCHS during the ’99-’00 shutdown, and remains active in the development and fabrication of exhibits. He served on the Board for five years with 18 months as President in ’03-’04, and helped with three major relocations of our collections.  He has also served on the Board of ECOSLO, on the County Grand Jury, and currently on the SLOCOG Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee.  He also volunteers with the History Center's Collections and Exhibits committees.

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.