COMMITTED TO GIVE TIME, TALENT, AND PHILANTHROPY WHICH SAVES AND CHANGES LIVES NOW SUCH A TREASURED FIXTURE in Santa Barbara, it is hard to imagine civic life here without Lauren Katz, Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara’s extraordinary volunteer of the year. Born in Brooklyn, and raised in Westchester and Miami, it wasn’t until 2001 that Lauren moved to Santa Barbara with her Californian husband, Steve Katz, (z”l) . Together they have two children, a daughter, Sydney (33), a son, David (31), daughter in law, Alexis (31) and a grandson, Xavier (3). Lauren has always given very generously of her time and talent to Federation in the past sixteen years, serving in a wide variety of roles: as Chair of Jewish Family Service, Women’s Division chair, major gifts chair, Vice President of the Board and as Board President for three years, beginning in 2010. Lauren’s proudest Federation moment was when she was elected to the National Women’s Philanthropy Board. This board consists of 100 women from across the country who are very accomplished leaders in every sense of the word. Lauren believes deeply in the “life saving and life changing” work that Federation does, and deeply resonates with Federation’s mission, which she says beautifully encompasses the Jewish values she was raised with and which guide her life’s journey. It is the rare day that Lauren does not have multiple appointments. She is currently chairing EPIC!, a ten million dollar infrastructure capital campaign for Elings Park and has served on the Board of The Miracle Project in Los Angeles for the last 15 years–a nonprofit dedicated to serving children and young adults with Autism. The other organizations near and dear to Lauren include the Alzheimer’s Women’s Initiative, CBB, Hillel, and ADL. In 2008 Lauren and her husband gave a gift to Federation which made Lauren a Lion of Judah (an international symbol of a woman’s commitment to the global Jewish community through philanthropy). The gift was the biggest Lauren had given to date and she says it gave her an entirely new perspective on the importance of charitable giving. “It was a
LAUREN KATZ 14 | SHALOM SANTA BARBARA | 2021–2022
pivotal moment for me in how I thought about philanthropy.”
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