Our Team

Jacqueline Kurta, LMFT, PsyD

President

jkurta@nullsbnbcc.org

Jacqueline Kurta is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in work with adolescents, college-age young adults and families, particularly focused on challenges involving alcohol, drug and other addictive behaviors. She is the Director of the UC Santa Barbara Alcohol and Drug Program and maintains a private practice in Santa Barbara. She provides clinical supervision services for Casa Serena, a Santa Barbara residential treatment program for women, and also serves as adjunct faculty for Antioch University’s Santa Barbara campus.

Kurta has B.A in English from Tufts University in Boston; an MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University in Santa Barbara; and a Psy.D in Marriage and Family Therapy from Ryokan College in Los Angeles. She was awarded Outstanding Chapter Leader for the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) in 2009 while serving as Co-President of CAMFT Santa Barbara Chapter. She has also been a guest lecturer for Pacifica Graduate Institute, offering presentations on crisis management and response for the clinical and counseling programs.

Dan Engel

Vice President

Dan Engel has been a B2B and B2C software entrepreneur since 1997. He was formerly CEO & Co-Founder at FastSpring, a leading e-payment platform and 4-time winner of The Silver Stevie Award for “Customer Service Department Of The Year”. Prior to FastSpring, Engel led online customer acquisition/advertising for Google during its IPO phase. He has appeared in various publications, including Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes & The Wall Street Journal. He graduated Tulane University in 1998 with a degree in Finance.

Engel has been an active angel investor, advisor, and/or board member at Apeel Sciences (food waste), SafeGraph (geospatial data), Blue Triangle Technologies (performance optimization), Rincon Venture Partners, TechStars, TrackStreet, Mobile1st, Directional Cue, Allergease (natural medicine) and others. Locally, Engel also works with Home For Good to help place homeless people from Santa Barbara into permanent housing. He spends much of his free time with his beautiful wife and two children.

Ziad Elkurjie

Treasurer

Ziad Elkurjie has been a technology executive and entrepreneur in Santa Barbara and Silicon Valley for 20 years. He attended the University of Toronto for his training in Computer Science and Economics.

Elkurjie has been involved in numerous startup companies from inception through mergers and acquisition phases.  He brings a pragmatic and structured approach to business development and market opportunities.

Elkurjie has lived in Santa Barbara for 14 years with his wife and 3 kids.  He is a Math Enrichment coach at Mountain View Elementary School and serves on the Advanced and Gifted Learning Committee with the Goleta District Board of Education.

Suzanne Grimmesey, MFT

Board Member

Suzanne Grimmesey is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has worked locally in the Behavioral Health field for 32 years and with the County of Santa Barbara, Department of Behavioral Wellness for 25 years.  She is a member of the department’s Executive Team and holds over 20 years of Executive Leadership experience.  After many years serving in clinical operations, she currently serves as the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the department the Chief of Strategy and Community Engagement.  She also serves on the Public Information Team for the County of Santa Barbara, provides critical incident debriefings for first responders, schools and others within the community.

Suzanne supports the County Emergency Operations Center during disaster activations and serves as the Behavioral Health lead for the community.  She has been actively involved in multiple community disaster/tragedy responses including the Isla Vista Mass Murder, Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow, Borderline Shooting, Family mass murders, the Conception Dive Boat fire, multiple wildfire events, mass casualty events and most recently with the COVID-19 response.  Suzanne is the lead for the Community Wellness Team, a collaboration of multiple local agencies, formed in response to the Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow to provide behavioral health response, and remains active to aid in community high stress events.  Suzanne has served on the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) Disaster Behavioral Health workgroup and is a speaker, locally and for statewide organizations on disaster behavioral health and the psychological impact of community disaster.

She has been honored with receiving the County of Santa Barbara Employee of the Month, December of 2022,  2022 Women of Achievement award from the local American Woman Communicators chapter, received the 2020 Ackerman Award of Appreciation from Healing Opportunities, the 2019 Community Partnership Hero for Hospice of Santa Barbara and the 2018 Woman of the Year by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson and Assemblymember Monique Limón for the role she played in the Behavioral Health response for the Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow.

Suzanne has lived in the Santa Barbara community since childhood. She is married and is the proud mother of three amazing children, now all young adults, and is a dog mom of three incredible Great Danes.

Julie Hall LeVay

Board Member

Julie LeVay is a founding partner of Whaley LeVay, a national consulting firm offering a full range of institutional advancement and philanthropy services to not-for-profit institutions seeking stability and growth. She brings to clients several decades of experience in philanthropy, institutional advancement and strategic planning. Before starting Whaley LeVay, she lead numerous fundraising efforts for capital campaigns and program support in public and private universities, performing arts organizations and independent schools.

Julie is a graduate of Marlborough School in Los Angeles and the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition to NBCC, she serves on the board of Carpinteria Children’s Project. She lives with her husband and rescue dog in Carpinteria.

Scott Sanford

Board Member

Scott Sanford is a Commercial Banker for JP Morgan Chase focused on businesses in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. He has worked in banking for over 12 years in various capacities. Prior to joining JP Morgan Chase, Scott was a Commercial Banker with City National Bank from 2019 to 2023 and an Underwriter with Wells Fargo Capital Finance from 2011 to 2019. 

Scott received his B.A. in Economics and Accounting from Claremont McKenna College in 2010 where he played water polo and swam during all four years. Scott lives in Ventura with his wife Melissa and their 14-year-old Australian Cattle Dog named Sky. In his free time, he enjoys surfing, spearfishing, playing music and practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 

Diane Pannkuk, M.B.A.

Board Member (Former Board President)

Diane Pannkuk is a recognized community leader in Montecito, and has had an extensive vocation in volunteerism. She served as our Board President for 10 years. Diane has been on our board for more than thirteen years and was previously our Board President for 10 years. She received her B.A in Communication at UCLA and an M.B.A. from George Washington University. During her professional career, Pannkuk served as a contract negotiator the United States Department of Defense and as President of the Silver Creek Corporation. In 2010, Pannkuk was honored by the Montecito Association with the award of “Montecito Association Citizen of the Year.” She lives in Montecito with her family.

Ronnie Shahbazian

Board Member

Ronnie Shahbazian has been a long time Veterans advocate. With his experience working with an established community organization, Ronnie is a great fit, and excited to be a new member of the New Beginnings BOD.
Ronnie serves as Chaplain and Historian for AmVets Post 3 Santa Barbara.
Ronnie serves on the Board of Directors for the Spiritualist Church of the Comforter in Santa Barbara.
Born and raised in the Fresno area, Ronnie attended Del Rey Elementary school, Sanger High School and Reedley College. In 1967, Ronnie was drafted into the US Army and was trained as a Combat Medical Corpman and served with the 145th Combat Avaition Battalion Headquarters Company in Bein Hoa, South Vietnam.
After his military service, Ronnie attended Fresno College while working in the family businesses, which included farming and an Automotive repair Business.
Ronnie moved to Santa Barbara in 1983 working in various businesses. In 2001, he began work with MTD as a commercial bus driver until 2017 when he retired.
Ronnie is passionate about being an advocate for Veterans issues, supporting his Church, and taking great care of himself.

Stasia Huiner, MBA

Board Member

Stasia Huiner has held various executive roles in the healthcare and healthcare technology industries for more than 20 years. She graduated magna cum laude from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University and later completed her MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Stasia’s professional career has taken her from Chicago to Santa Barbara and from consulting to leading teams in both small and large companies as an executive. Her efforts at those companies have included building and selling a strategic venture investment portfolio, being Chief of Staff for a Fortune 200 CEO, leading Client Success functions in a healthcare technology company and eventually becoming Chief Operating Officer. Stasia also enjoys being active in her local community and in organizations that have a deep impact at the individual level.

Stasia and her husband have lived in Santa Barbara for over 20 years and have teenaged triplet boys. Stasia is a former Board member of the Peabody Charter School Foundation and is currently serving as Treasurer of the Santa Barbara league of btc (boys team charity).