OUR LEADERSHIP
The members of our Board of Directors and Advisory Board are dedicated to supporting our gifted student population and knowledgable on what it takes to do gifted education well.
The experience and guidance of these leaders have made The Knox School of Santa Barbara
the gold standard in gifted education on California's Central Coast.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CIARA MURRAY-YOUNG, PSY.D
Ciara was born in Ireland where she trained as a psychologist. She worked as a Senior Psychologist in both Community Mental Health and Child and Family support services in Ireland providing psychological assessments and treatments to children and their families before relocating to Santa Barbara in 2008. With a love of Jungian Psychology and a wish to become a licensed clinician in California she returned to graduate school to complete a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and pursued the postgraduate requirements to become a Licensed Psychologist in California. During these school years she worked for a local non-profit, New Beginnings, which provides a range of services to underserved populations. She currently volunteers as a Clinical Supervisor to trainee therapists at New Beginnings Counseling Center. Ciara opened her Private Practice in Santa Barbara in 2022. She takes an integrative and holistic approach in her work, tending to both conscious and unconscious processes involving the mind, body, emotion, and spirit. She often works with dreams using a Jungian lens. Ciara believes life offers us the opportunity to raise our individual level of consciousness so we can help raise the collective level of consciousness.
Ciara has been involved with The Knox School of Santa Barbara since 2015 after her child was assessed by Dr. Linda Silverman at The Gifted Development Center in Colorado and was recommended to attend The Knox School. Dr. Silverman is a national and international expert and leader on Giftedness, Ciara has continued to collaborate with Dr. Silverman, recently completing Dr. Silverman’s Certification Program on the Foundations of Gifted Assessment. Ciara is a keen supporter of the mission of The Knox School of Santa Barbara and what it offers to the greater community. In particular, she appreciates the importance of the child centered perspective on gifted education that The Knox School offers and its fundamental interest in a child’s individual process of learning, not just for success or competition but for fulfillment.
ALI OSHINSKY
Ali Oshinsky is an east coast transplant who moved here with her husband for a job opportunity that was expected to last 2 years. Three kids and 22 years later, her family feels deeply connected to this community and the people they have met along the way. She has spent the past 20 years raising three boys: volunteering as room parent, team mom and PTA President. Having a front row seat to her boys’ growth and development has been her most gratifying and fulfilling endeavor to date. She also runs her own graphic design business, Ali Designs, working with event planners, schools, local businesses and corporate clients to design and create custom and personalized pieces for various events and storefronts. Ali is a graduate of Cornell University, where she studied Communications and Journalism. She started her career as a news writer at WOR Radio in New York City. After several years of writing the morning drive newscast, she transitioned to television where she wrote and produced international news for Bloomberg Television. She then ventured into documentary films, working as a researcher and associate producer at Guggenheim Productions in Washington, DC. Ali is very excited to be a member of the board of The Knox School of Santa Barbara, a place that she credits with helping to shape her boys into the confident, charming and well-adjusted young men that they are today. She believes deeply in Knox's mission and its dedication to educating both the intellectual and social emotional needs of the gifted population.
RENÉE DELPHIN-RODRIGUEZ
Renee has been a practicing corporate attorney for almost 20 years. She serves of the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and Dr. Linda Silverman’s Institute for the Study of Advanced Development. Renée received her BA from Yale University and her JD from UCLA.
ADVISORY BOARD
ANGELA TANNER, PH.D.
Angela Tanner is Founder of The Knox School of Santa Barbara. Born of the efforts of advocating for her own sons, she resolved to form a school that would incorporate both the intellectual, academic needs of gifted students, as well as the equally important, and often overlooked, social and emotional needs of this unique population.
Over the course of her career she was fortunate enough to work with and be exposed to some of the top minds in the world on how the human brain learns and remembers and the optimal conditions for learning to take place. Dr. Tanner earned her BA in Psychology and Business from UCLA where she graduated with College Honors, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. Before graduate school, she worked at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, participating in methods of behavioral research studying cognition and communication in Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. She returned to UCLA to earn her doctorate in Cognitive Neuroscience where she employed functional brain mapping techniques (specifically functional MRI) to examine the functional and structural topography of cognitive processes, primarily learning and memory, in healthy and diseased brains. Her work on learning and memory spanned the Psychology Department and the Human Brain Mapping Center, where in addition to her studies, she organized and led a cross-functional team of 20 neurologists, physicians, and researchers to investigate brain function in Alzheimer's patients with fMRI and PET during drug treatment. During her tenure, she taught 10 quarters of cognitive psychology courses, receiving the Shepherd Ivory Franz Distinguished Teaching Associate Award, awarded by students, colleagues, and faculty for outstanding service to the field of teaching. Dr. Tanner was awarded the PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience in 2000.
MARTIN TANNER, PH.D.
Martin O. Tanner is a co-founder and co-manager of Blue Sea Investments, a Santa Barbara-based investment fund. Prior to founding Blue Sea, Dr. Tanner led the Corporate Development Group for Micron Technology, Inc., a Fortune 500 semiconductor manufacturer. At Micron, Dr. Tanner was responsible for business modeling, mergers & acquisitions, venture investments, performance improvement projects, market research, and competitive intelligence. Formerly, Dr. Tanner was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he led strategy and operational improvement projects in the United States, Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Tanner attended UCLA, receiving B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering. He holds two US. Patents and has authored over 30 papers on semiconductor materials and device physics.
JAY CARLANDER, PH.D.
Jay Carlander attended junior high, high school, college, and graduate school in Santa Barbara. He earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. at UCSB in U.S. History and has taught at UCSB, Santa Barbara City College, and Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland where he also served as the interim director of the University's honors program. Jay also has local nonprofit experience having served as the Development Director for Jodi House Brain Injury Support Center in Santa Barbara. Jay brings to the Knox School Advisory Board much experience in creating environments that promote excellence, high-achievement, and affective well-being for students of diverse backgrounds and abilities.
ERIN DABBS, J.D.
Erin Dabbs is a graduate of UCLA with a BA is psychology and of Harvard Law School where she obtained her J.D. in 2003. After a brief stint at the law firm Arnold & Porter LLP, Ms. Dabbs has dedicated her legal career to public service, as senior staff attorney at the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law, and currently as a staff attorney at the Los Angeles Superior Court Self-Help Resource Center. Ms. Dabbs has also taught at Los Angeles Community College and volunteers with College Match, a non-profit that helps promising low-income students apply to prestigious colleges.
ELLEN HONECK, PH.D.
Dr. Honeck has spent her career in support of the gifted learner and is currently a Gifted Education Consultant. She earned her doctoral degree in the area of curriculum and instruction with a concentration in gifted education from the University of Denver, specifically focusing on the social-emotional aspects of curriculum and instruction. She has served as the Associate Director of the Institute for the Development of Gifted Education and an Administrator at the Ricks Center for Gifted Children, both located at the University of Denver. Dr. Honeck has presented at numerous gifted conferences at the state level, as well as nationally and internationally. Her presentations and publication topics include integrated curricula, identification of gifted students, instructional strategies for gifted learners, psychological aspects of gifted learners, and creative and critical thinking strategies. She is an active leader in many state and national gifted education organizations, and is currently the Chair of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Early Childhood Network. She is currently Dean of Gifted and Talented Academy at Laurel Springs School.
BARBARA KLEIN, PH.D.
Barbara Klein has worked with gifted children, their parents, and public and private schools in the greater Los Angeles area since 1986. Her private practice is dedicated to assisting the special educational needs of gifted and highly gifted children. Dr. Klein has written eight books in the field of developmental psychology and education, including Raising Gifted Kids: Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Exceptional Child Thrive. Dr. Klein's most outstanding contribution to the field of education was her work developing the initial parent education component for Head Start, a program developed to enhance the school readiness of economically disadvantaged preschoolers. Dr. Klein earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley, her Masters and Doctorate in Early Childhood Education from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, and her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California Graduate Institute in Los Angeles.
VICKI OLIVADATI
Victoria Olivadoti has specialized in gifted education for forty years. She understands the needs of twice exceptional students and has developed programs to meet the unique needs of gifted students. Victoria is a valued consultant to parent groups, teachers and school districts. She speaks nationally and is recognized as an expert in her field. Currently, she is teaching third grade at The Pegasus School for the gifted and talented students in Huntington Beach, while maintaining her private practice as an author, columnist, and educational consultant. Ms. Olivadati has been recognized most recently by the "Who's Who of Teachers," "Who's Who of Women in Business," and "Who's Who of Influential Educators."
ROBERT SATTERTHWAITE, J.D.
Robert E. Satterthwaite is a Managing Member of Blue Sea Research Advisors, LLC. Prior to joining Blue Sea Research Advisors LLC, Mr. Satterthwaite was a litigation partner in the law firm of Russ August & Kabat, where he specialized in intellectual property and commercial litigation. Prior to joining Russ August & Kabat, Mr. Satterthwaite was associated with the law firm of Munger Tolles & Olson, LLP, where he specialized in commercial litigation and internal investigations of Fortune 500 Companies. Prior to joining Munger Tolles & Olson, Mr. Satterthwaite served as a law clerk to two federal judges. Mr. Satterthwaite received his B.S. in Biology, and attended the USC School of Law, where he graduated first in his class, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and served as a member of the USC Law Review.
