Serving on a Board or Commission is a great way to use your talents and interests to serve your community and the City of Goleta has four new commissioners who are doing just that. Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Historic Preservation Commissioners Luke Roberts and Elizabeth Link.  Also, Khalid Kaldi is the new Library Advisory Commissioner and Peter Omoregie is our new Public Engagement Commissioner.

Here is a little background on each of them and what drew them to get involved on their particular Commission.

Historic Preservation Commission

Luke Roberts, who has called Goleta home for more than 30 years, is passionate about a city’s need to preserve its historical environment. He believes it’s an essential part of a city’s identity and culture.

Luke teaches in the history department at UCSB and has published numerous books and articles on Tokugawa era Japanese history.  He attended Oberlin Ohio for college, lived in Japan and received a Ph.D. in Japanese history from Princeton University in 1991. Interesting fact: while in Japan, Luke started and participated in a successful preservation movement for a nineteenth century samurai home in the city of Kochi and saw how important this was for local culture. He appreciates what home architecture can reveal about the lives of people in the past.

Elizabeth Link was also appointed to the Historic Preservation Commission and is also a long-time Goleta resident. She moved here more than thirty years ago and worked as the Clinical Manager at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Eye Center. Upon her retirement she knew she wanted to get to help improve and preserve the City’s many wonderful historic properties and community spaces.

Elizabeth has a Bachelor of Science degree from Cal State Los Angeles in Biological Anthropology and worked in Healthcare as a Registered Nurse for nearly four decades. She was a founding member of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital’s Sustainability Committee and served on the board of the Santa Barbara Red Cross.

Library Advisory Commission

Khalid Kaldi is the new addition to the Library Advisory Commission. He was drawn to serving on this commission after his experience working at the Santa Barbara Public Library.

Khalid is a Palestinian writer and has a long history of organizing work for causes he believes in. Alongside organizing, Khalid lives to write stories, read books, make ceramics, and play basketball. He holds a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley and resides on occupied Chumash territory. 

Khalid is looking forward to serving as a Library Commissioner.

Public Engagement Commission

Peter Omoregie will have his first meeting this month on August 23 at 6:00 p.m. as a member of the Public Engagement Commission. Peter has lived in Goleta for more than 30 years and is a long-time volunteer. He has been involved in volunteering with the Red Cross, homelessness outreach efforts and Goleta CERT including as a business ambassador during COVID. He also served on the Board of Directors at Girsh Park.

Peter started in Goleta as computer scientist on Navy programs while also doing targeted doctoral research studies at University of California Engineering and Institute of Environmental stress. He was senior Project engineer on several Defense programs and worked on specific international exploratory defense exercises.

Welcome to all of our new commissioners and thanks in advance for your service to Goleta.