Origin: H.E.E.A.L. Santa Barbara

For five years I was president of a small Santa Barbara nonprofit called H.E.E.A.L. that helped people move through grief and loss using exercise and the arts instead of just talking it out in a chair. I did not start it. I stepped into the leadership seat because the model made sense to me, and because I already knew how to build fundraising and governance from running Tellus. I brought in grants, ran donor relationships, and built partnerships with schools and grief providers so more people could actually reach the program. It was volunteer work, no fee, no equity, just a five year commitment because I thought the mission mattered. I do not have a clean story for why it ended in 2015, and I would rather admit that gap than invent a tidy exit. The lesson I keep from it: the volunteer years count as much as the paid ones.