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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.

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Our Board

Sandra Ball-Rokeach

Vice President

Professor Emerita
University of Southern California

Vicki Magasinn

Secretary

Attorney
Magasinn and Feldman, Los Angeles, CA

Charles Hale

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

Monique Limon

State Senator
Santa Barbara, CA

Jocelyn Sze McCune

Assistant Clinical Professor
University of California, Berkeley

Victor Rios

Professor and Associate Dean of Social Sciences
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

Hon. Susan Rose, ret.

Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors
Santa Barbara, CA

Marcos Vargas

Executive Director
Fund for Santa Barbara
Ventura, CA

Diane Wondolowski

Chief Financial Officer

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Carpinteria, CA

Hilda Zacarias

Treasurer

Hilda Zacarias, CPA
Santa Maria, CA

Grants Review Committee

Nancy Chen, Moorpark
Yesenia DeCasaus, Santa Maria
Kate English, Santa Paula
Wendy Sims-Moten, Santa Barbara
Brando Pozzi, Camarillo 

Staff

CLAUDIA ARMANN

Executive Director

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Claudia Armann has been the Executive Director of the McCune Foundation since 2008. She leads the Foundation’s grantmaking and capacity building initiatives. Claudia began her work in philanthropy at the Santa Barbara Foundation where she served as a program officer for eight years. During that time, she helped coordinate education and cultural grantmaking, as well as student aid programs.

Claudia is past president of the Foundation Roundtable of Santa Barbara County and currently serves on the Board of the 805 UndocuFund, which provides financial support to undocumented residents affected by disasters and the pandemic. She’s also a member of the Behavioral Health Advisory Board for the County of Ventura and is a co-founder of Homes for All, an affordable housing advocacy group. In the past, Claudia served on the board of two environmental organizations. Before her career in philanthropy, Claudia earned a degree in journalism, interned with The Associated Press, and worked in the magazine industry.

ARACELI CENTENO, MPH

Program Officer

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Araceli was born in Ventura, CA, to farm working parents and grew up in Oxnard’s Colonia neighborhood. She attended San Francisco State University where she double majored in International Relations and Raza Studies. It was during this time that she discovered her passion for social justice and organizing. After receiving a B.A., she worked as a community organizer conducting direct actions, tackling issues such as environmental justice, workers’ rights, and gentrification. Araceli has trained and mentored aspiring organizers in topics such as campaign building, grassroots fundraising, direct actions, community building, and other organizing tactics.

In 2016, Araceli graduated with a Master in Public Health from the Keck School of Medicine at USC with a concentration in Child and Family Health. Since then, she has worked in NIH funded research of chronic diseases in agricultural workers and early literacy initiatives. More recently, her role as a mental health engager allowed her to work with youth and families to connect and advocate for mental health services. Araceli is a firm believer that people have the power to build healthy self-autonomous communities through community organizing. 

Araceli enjoys roller skating, arts and crafts, and peaceful family walks along the beach with her dog and human family. She also values her alone time by watching documentaries (mocumentaries included) and starting crocheting projects (albeit, not always completing them).

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.