The Santa Barbara Symphony is pleased to welcome two new members to its Board of Directors: Anne Sage, and Rachel Kaganoff Stern. These appointments continue the Symphony’s commitment to expand its community impact and deliver on its mission to bring joy, engagement, and connection through symphonic music.
“We are honored to welcome these community leaders to the Santa Barbara Symphony’s Board of Directors.” shared Santa Barbara Symphony President & CEO Kathryn R Martin. “They bring tremendous passion and commitment to the performing arts, and as The Symphony continues its forward momentum providing the community with world-class performances and music education programs, these leaders will be important in shaping that vision.”
Anne Sage is originally from New England, Sage keeps busy as an entrepreneur, mother, wife, traveler, trained chef, sommelier, and philanthropist. With a Master of Science in Hospitality Administration and Grande Diplome de Cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu Paris, she has worked in hotels, restaurants, and as a chef owning Fat Cat Catering in Boston and Newport, RI for almost 10 years, and recently sold her second business, Sage Cellars, Inc., a wine & spirits distribution company.
Most recently, she attended the prestigious HEG/DUGGAT graduate program at the University of Reims, France where she received the highest level degree in gastronomy. She and her business partner/husband are also dedicated to the integrity of California winemaking in the wake of agricultural impacts from climate change and related issues.
Rachel Kaganoff Stern is the CEO of the Junior State of America, a national nonprofit that provides civics programs to high school students. She currently serves on the Board of the Santa Barbara City College Foundation. She just concluded six years of service on the Board of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University (where she earned her Master’s Degree in Public Policy). She spent five years as a Director and Member of the Executive Committee for the Alliance for College-Ready Schools, a Charter Management Organization that operates free, public middle and high schools that serve 13,000 low-income students in LA.
She is the former Co-Chair of the Women’s Political Committee, a Los Angeles-based political action committee that raises money for progressive women candidates for office, and spent seven years serving as a member of the Board of Planned Parenthood’s Advocacy Project. She spent eleven years serving on the Steering Committee of the Women in Leadership Initiative at Princeton University. Kaganoff Stern spent 15 years as an Associate Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, where she worked across a number of research areas including health care, civil justice, and national security policy. Prior to working at RAND worked as a researcher at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Washington, D.C. She graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University and has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Duke University.
