MARCH 22 - 28, 2013 VOL. 14, NO. 3

Silver Sponsors:

Gold Sponsors:

TOP WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Sheila Cluff,Keynote Speaker, Owner of the Oaks at Ojai

2B Top Women in Business Pacific Coast Business Times March 22-28, 2013

March 22-28, 2013 Top Women in Business Pacific Coast Business Times 3B

Top Women in Business is now in its seventh year as one of the signature special reports in our editorial calendar.

This year’s winners represent the most competitive group we’ve encountered since launching this special section, and we’re excited about how the process chal-lenged us to elevate our game.

Our selections for 2013 came from more than 100 nominations, far more than our section can ac-commodate. Once again, social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn helped us draw a new audience into the nomination process, a wel-come development.

We’re also extremely pleased to welcome one of our own winners, Sheila Cluff, owner of The Oaks at Ojai, to be the keynote speaker at this year’s awards reception, which will be held on Thursday, April 11 at the Bacara Resort & Spa from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

As we have done for the past five years, this year’s honorees are divided into industry categories. They include: Health Care, Consumer Services & Real Estate, Nonprofits, Agribusiness, Banking & Insurance Services, Professional Services and Science & Industry.

Within each category we have identified one Editor’s Choice winner, who will receive special recognition at the Top Women in Business reception.

In making our selections, we continue to recognize a core group of senior-level executives or business owners. Many of these are familiar faces who were included last year.

We also want to recognize a second group of women executives or business owners who have had unique suc-cesses during the past year that make them a natural fit for our 2013 edition.

Additionally, we look to executives who play a key role within women’s organizations or large nonprofit organizations. And, as always, we look for geographic diversity across the Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County region, diverse industry clusters and oth-er ways to make our selections as inclusive as possible.

The section was produced by Special Reports Editor Dara Barney and the cover was produced by Advertising

Designer Elizabeth Willhite.Top Women in Business would not be pos-

sible without the support of our sponsors. Our gold sponsors are Business First Bank, Tolman & Wiker Insurance Services (formerly known as TWIW), Cox Communications and FOOD Share sponsored by Farmers. Our silver sponsors are Wells Fargo Bank, California Lutheran Univer-sity and Bacara.

Again, mark your calendars for the evening of Thursday, April 11, when we will hold a recep-tion and awards program for this year’s class of

Top Women in Business at the fabulous Bacara Resort & Spa.

For tickets and other information, please contact Jen-nifer Hemmy at jhemmy@pacbiztimes.com, or you can visit our website at www.pacbiztimes.com/events.

Our next special report is Green Coast, a look at sus-tainable businesses in the Tri-Counties on April 5, fol-lowed by our annual 101 One Hundred & Business Hall of Fame special report on April 19.

This year’s Hall of Fame reception in May will con-tinue to break glass ceilings by honoring Sage Publica-tions owner Sara Miller McCune.

• Contact Editor Henry Dubroff at hdubroff@pacbiztimes.com.

An inside look at Top Women awards

henrydubroff

Editor

Health Care

Editor’s Choice: Laurie Eberst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4B

Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27B

Consumer Services & Real Estate

Editor’s Choice: Michelle Apodaca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7B

Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9B

Nonprofits

Editor’s Choice: Cindy Burton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10B

Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10B

Agribusiness

Editor’s Choice: Ellen Brokaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12B

Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10B

Keynote Speaker

Sheila Cluff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14B

Banking & Insurance Services

Editor’s Choice: Geri LaChance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16B

Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,19B

Professional Services

Editor’s Choice: Nancy Schreiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20B

Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21,27B

Science & Industry

Editor’s Choice: Ida Kane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22B

Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23,27B

Table of Contents

Empower Your Success. Choose Antioch.

Transforming Our Community

Antioch University is a fully-accredited, private, non-profit institution.

Master of Business Administration • Social Business• Non-Profit Management• Strategic LeadershipAUSB’s socially responsible MBA program will educate leaders who make a positive contribution in the corporate or non-profit world.

For more information, visit:

antiochsb.edu/mbaBegins Sept. 6, 2013. Apply by May 10.

Our new 10-month Women & Leadership Certificate Program empowers tomorrow’s leaders with the values-based leadership knowledge and skills that lead to success. Our new socially responsible MBA program provides a strong foundation to lead and manage social enterprises and non-profit organizations.

Women & Leadership Certificate Program • Principles & Practice of Values-Based Leadership• Leadership in Business, Public/Political, & Non-Profit Venues• Low-Residency/Virtual Program For more information, visit:

antiochsb.edu/walcpBeginning late Fall 2013.

4B Top Women in Business Pacific Coast Business Times March 22-28, 2013

HealtH care

Laurie Eberst, senior vice president of operations for Dignity Health’s Southern Califor-nia West service area, began her career as a critical care nurse.

Ale

x d

rysd

Ale

ph

oto

From nursing station to St. John’s CEO suiteBy tom Bronzini Special to the Business Times

Laurie Eberst started her career as a critical care nurse, and she says that helped her immensely as she moved on to high lev-els of health care management.

She is senior vice president of opera-tions for Dignity Health’s Southern Cali-fornia West service area, which includes St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Ca-marillo and Northridge Medical Center.

She is responsible for the overall leader-ship and management of those hospitals, as well as the St. John’s Healthcare Founda-tion and the Dignity Health Medical Group. She is also president and CEO of the two Ventura County hospitals.

The entities at Dignity Health, formerly known as Catholic Healthcare West, repre-sent a combined operating budget of $650 million and about 3,800 employees.

Eberst says she loved being a critical care nurse. She progressed to nursing man-agement and earned an MBA from the Uni-versity of Redlands.

“I went back to get my master’s because I knew that if I was going to stay in that administrative track I needed to be able to talk the same lingo as the CFO and be able to sit at the table and have an intelligent conversation about the finances around the nursing department,” she told the Business Times.

She came to Ventura County in 2010 after her first CEO position: leading the design, construction and opening of Mercy Gilbert Hospital in Gilbert, Ariz., and see-ing it within three years named the nation’s No. 1 healing hospital for a culture of radi-cal loving care.

She has overseen improvements that have elevated the reputation of St. John’s hospitals.

St. John’s Medical Center was named a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excel-lence for 2013 by Healthgrades, placing it in the top 5 percent among more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide. It has been certified as a Primary Stroke Center, with staff training and facilities that improve out-comes in stroke care.

Last year, St. John’s Regional opened a one-stop Breast Center, where women di-agnosed with breast cancer can meet with oncologists, radiation oncologists and sur-geons and get a full treatment plan instead of having to get separate appointments that could take weeks.

The hospital has brought in nationally known cancer researcher Dr. Nabil Dib to join in a broad clinical trial of injecting adult stem cells into heart muscle to regen-erate tissue after heart attacks.

A comprehensive one-stop Women’s Center for general health care is planned for St. John’s Pleasant Valley.

Developing a culture of compassion-ate care remains a high priority for Eberst. “On patient satisfaction scores within the whole company, we’re being ranked in the top quarter now where it was at the bottom when I started,” she said.

Her experience as a nurse continues to be an asset.

“I’ve been at the bedside. I understand what patient care requires and I can bet-ter communicate with our physicians,” she said. “So that’s been extremely helpful and I think the physicians also appreciate it be-cause they have somebody that’s leading the organization that understands medicine and understands their needs.”

See the other top Women in Health care on page 27B

Feel good about your bank

1033 Anacapa Street | Santa Barbara, CA 93101Phone (805) 965-5942 | AmericanRivieraBank.com

Congratulations, Michelle! We are lucky to have you

on our team!

Michelle MartinichChief Financial Officer

We Know People.We’ve Got Connections.

Santa Barbara805 683-1600

Oxnard 805 973-0950

www.spherion.com

©20

12 S

pher

ion

Staf

fing

LLC

Everyone knows locals have the inside scoop on their area. So, it’s only fitting, when you need talent with a unique skill set and background to rely on a staffing local!

We’re Spherion®, a national staffing leader with a distinct local focus. Individually owned and operated, you’llbe supported by a service-driven team of recruiting experts who know your business and go the extra mile to deliver the best flexible and direct-hire talent. Founded on 65+ years of workforce success, we employ the most innovative sourcing tools to identify and recruit talent—from social media, mobile job centers and text job alerts, to targeted blogs and local networking. Immersed in the community, we are constantly interacting with the talented individuals who live here. So, locating that hard-to-find administrative, light industrial, contact center, non-clinical healthcare or professional candidate is no challenge for us!

Gain a local hiring advantage—entrust your workforce needs to Spherion!