The Graduate Dean’s Cabinet of the University of California, Santa Barbara advances philanthropic support for graduate education and the Graduate Division, and inspires members to serve as ambassadors for graduate education, its students and its programs.
Stephanie Couch has dedicated her career to K-12 and higher education policy issues. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Lemelson-MIT Program within the School of Engineering at MIT, and is an active participant in a national invention education research group working to advance the field. Her research as an ethnographer in education focuses on the expansion of invention education and STEM learning opportunities. She studies ways invention education impacts students (especially those from underrepresented backgrounds), schools, and local communities.
Locally, she is spearheading a consortium in Cambridge, MA that will operate a new 50,000 square foot community center for STEM and the arts opening in 2022. Prior to joining the Lemelson-MIT Program, Couch was the Interim Associate Vice President of Research and Professional Development at California State University, East Bay, served as Bayer Executive Director of the Institute for STEM Education, and was the Director for Gateways East Bay STEM Network. These opportunities came about as a result of her work in teaching and learning with technologies while employed by the Corporation for Education Networking Initiatives in California (CENIC. Read more about Stephanie in our Graduate Alumni Spotlight.
Bo graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1999. He then pursued further studies at UC Santa Barbara, conducting research on design automation in Professor Margaret Marek-Sadowska's VLSI lab. In 2004, he obtained his PhD degree, focusing on large-scale placement algorithms for his thesis. During the initial years of his career, Bo joined two startups that were pioneering in semiconductor chip design and automation. In 2008, driven by his passion for making an outsized impact, he made the decision to join Facebook as a software engineer. Since then, he has held various positions in product and engineering leadership within some of Silicon Valley's most successful internet companies. In 2020, Bo embarked on a new venture by founding his own company called Circolo, a vertically integrated platform for businesses to create magical digital experience and delight their customers. Read more about Bo in our Graduate Alumni Spotlight.
Fiona has been a longtime champion of science outreach and mentorship and launched and directed UCSB's Center for Science & Engineering Partnerships (CSEP). In 2002 Fiona received the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (sponsored by the National Science Foundation).
Fiona, who earned her Ed.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Toronto, stays active in the higher education community and is Co-President of the Seattle branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Fiona and Michael recently helped launch the CSEP Mentor Leadership program, with a generous gift to provide an endowed fellowship for the mentor leader.
Peter received his Ph.D. in Materials from UCSB and is an Associate Principal Engineer in the Advanced Technology Group at BD Biosciences, where he is responsible for inventing and commercializing new instrumentation and bioinformatic tools for understanding the immune system at the single-cell level. Prior to joining BD in 2018, he developed technologies for in-vivo biosensing and drug delivery as a postdoc at Stanford University in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Radiology. Peter holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and math from Cedarville University in southwest Ohio. Peter was the inaugural champion of the UCSB Grad Slam in 2013 and has continued to stay involved with UCSB and the Graduate Division. You can view Peter's winning Grad Slam talk here.
Steve received his undergraduate degree in political science from UC Santa Barbara and is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management. Mr. Mendell served in the US Army from 1964-1968 in Vietnam and Belgium, attaining the rank of captain. He was a senior executive with Becton, Dickinson and Company and was chairman and CEO of Xoma Corporation, Prizm Pharmaceuticals, and Selective Genetics. He was most recently CEO of the LMA Corporation, a leader in devices for medical anesthesia. Mr. Mendell is a past chair of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation and served on the board of the UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association. He was elected a trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation in 1983. Mr. and Mrs. Mendell established the Mendell Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Cultural Literacy and are members of the UC Santa Barbara Gold Circle Society. Mr. Mendell is the recipient of the Graver University Service Award from the UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association, which he received in 2015.
A graduate of both the UC Santa Barbara Economics master’s program and the MBA program at Harvard Business School, Liz Montaño’s expertise in consulting, venture capital, and entrepreneurship has spanned 15 years. Her latest role is at the helm of strategic planning, corporate development, and operations of the National Hockey League’s Arizona Coyotes as Chief Operating Officer. This includes overseeing the planning and operations of another Arizona team, the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League. Liz's initial foray into professional sports was as an intern for the Washington Wizards and Mystics, through the University of California's Washington Center (UCDC). Read more about Liz in our Graduate Alumni Spotlight.
Nien-Tsu Shen is an award-winning executive leader in the semiconductor industry with 29 years of experience who recently retired from her position as the Vice President of Quality at Skyworks Solutions, Inc., a top semiconductor company focused on radio frequency (RF) and complete cellular solutions for mobile communications. Nien-Tsu received her M.A. in mathematics from UCSB in 1976 before going on to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from Purdue University in 1982. Prior to her time at UCSB, she received her B.S. in Mathematics from Taiwan National University. Growing up in an academic environment with two parents who were professors, and before her career in the private sector in Silicon Valley, Nien-Tsu taught in the math departments at UC Davis and later Rider University in New Jersey. Read more about Nien-Tsu in our Graduate Alumni Spotlight.
Anne Smith Towbes has been a leader in the Santa Barbara philanthropic community for more than 30 years. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she spent the first 20 years of her professional life teaching English and drama in grades 4-12. Ms. Towbes has served as president of the Cate School Parents Council and Lobero Theatre Foundation board as well as serving as a trustee on the Santa Barbara City College Foundation, the Hutton Foundation, and the Towbes Foundation. She has been a UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures ambassador and council member for several years and a community member of the Taubman Foundation. She was elected a trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation in 2018 and received the UCSB Honorary Alumni Award in 2020.
Dr. Milan Singh Minsky leads product at Leela AI, a startup commercializing breakthrough computer vision and learning technology developed at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) where she received a Master's degree in parallel computer architecture and an undergraduate degree before joining the ECE department at UCSB.
At UCSB she earned a PhD (1999) for her work on optical characterization of Gallium Nitride quantum wells, in the relatively early days of Gallium Nitride research (working with Evelyn Hu, Steve DenBaars, and John Bowers.
Milan contributed to R&D work on blue LEDs at Agilent Labs, after graduating from UCSB, and joined an early stage MIT spinout to develop high power photonic lattice based LEDs on returning to Massachusetts in 2003. This work, together with a Sloan Fellow MBA , led to her co- founding RayVio, a venture backed startup, licensing technology from Boston University, to bring high efficiency UV-C LEDs for air, water, and surface disinfection, to market. LARQ, spun out of RayVio, was acquired by Britta in 2024.
Milan has extensive experience in R&D and leading cross functional teams to develop innovative technologies at venture backed startups.
Linda worked in child advocacy, through the1980’s and early 1990’s and then became immersed in advocacy for enriching young people’s lives and educations especially through arts education and in working on building healthy communities. She typically has worked on creating and building programs, project management, board leadership and volunteer coordination. Linda graduated from Harvard, trained as a CORO Fellow In Public Affairs in St. Louis and finally went on to receive a Masters in Law & Social Policy and a Masters in Policy and Program Planning from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work. These trainings prepared her well to evaluate what is, to determine what is missing and greatly needed, and to never be afraid to ask, “Why not?” when seeking to bring positive changes and hope to people’s lives. Linda has helped establish and run nonprofit organizations in social services , education, and the performing arts. She was honored to serve on the Santa Ynez Valley Foundation for 9 years (4 as president) and for more than a decade on the board of the Solvang School Education Foundation (6 years as president) during which time music and arts education was restored into the curriculum for all students in grades K through 8. In 2017 Linda was named Woman of the Year for her 20 years of volunteer work enriching lives in the Santa Ynez Valley. In recent years she has been the Coordinator the SYV Concert Series and has served terms on the Board and on the Management Team of the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara and Chaired its Educational Events Committee (EEC) from 2018 through Spring 2023. Linda continues as the Chair of Grants in Action education programs where she partners with recent grantees to create programs delving into the critical community issues they address on and showcasing their supporting underserved women, children and families.