About Us
We are both long-ago transplants from the East Coast who found our perfect home in Santa Barbara, and have been active for many years in her vibrant civic life. Barbie is well-known for her tenure as President of Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County, and as chair of Santa Barbara for Dean. Ellen served for many years on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of Ensemble Theatre Company, and chaired Santa Barbara for Clark.
In February of 2005 the two of us ran jointly (and successfully) for slots as delegates from the 35th Assembly District to the California Democratic Party Central Committee on a platform of "BE for Change: bringing the party to the people and the people to the party." (Ellen was subsequently named to the state party's Legislative Action committee. Barbie is tapped to be our district's e-Board rep at the August 2006 CDP meeting in San Francisco.)
We set up our BE for Change PAC in order to support grassroots projects that would fulfill our slogan's promise. Principal among these has been our effort to support a permanent Democratic HQ in Santa Barbara. It was a source of deep satisfaction that the Democratic Service Club was able this spring to lease space and open up shop, funded in good measure by the proceeds from last year's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.
In November we had the pleasure of welcoming the Santa Barbara chapter of Drinking Liberally to a performance of A. J. Gurney's anti-Bush comedy The Fourth Wall at Ensemble Theatre Company. Winter and spring were given over to the planning of an ambitious program for the annual California Democratic Council convention.
Now we're at work putting together this year's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, and carrying forward our commitment to the dedicated Democratic grassroots activists in our wonderful town.
Thank you for joining with us!
Ellen and Barbie
BE for Change
Ellen Dana Nagler — President — ellen@beforchange.orgBarbie Deutsch — Secretary/Treasurer — barbie@beforchange.org
