{"id":4406,"date":"2013-02-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4406"},"modified":"2014-02-26T19:38:22","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T03:38:22","slug":"noozhawk-talks-leslie-dinaberg-sits-down-with-suzanne-farwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4406","title":{"rendered":"Noozhawk Talks: Leslie Dinaberg Sits Down With Suzanne Farwell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Suzanne<\/a>

Suzanne Farwell, LaraCooper \/ Noozhawk photo<\/p><\/div>\n

As Director of Communications, Suzanne Farwell<\/a> is often the voice for the Santa<\/a>\u00a0Barbara Foundation<\/a>, connecting all of us with information about the good work\u00a0the foundation is doing in the community. Farwell connects with Leslie Dinaberg
\nto reflect on her work and her life, as she prepares to retire later this\u00a0month.<\/p>\n

Leslie Dinaberg: What will you miss the most about your job at the Santa Barbara<\/strong>
\n Foundation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne Farwell: The people I work with. One of the reasons I like working there is because I
\nwork with people who are passionate about what they do and helping people.<\/p>\n

…The other thing I really like about my job is it has so many facets where I’m
\ngathering information, so I’m learning about many different things every day. …
\nI’m learning about different philanthropic groups that pop up through us. It’s the
\nwhole canvas of interesting wonderful things that are positive. …<\/p>\n

LD: That’s great. In many ways I think Santa Barbara Foundation seems like an<\/strong>
\n ideal nonprofit job in that you would never get bored because you’re dealing with<\/strong>
\n so many different types of things.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: And now there’s the added component of a new boss who is coming in (Ron<\/a>
\n Gallo<\/a> replaced Chuck Slosser<\/a> as CEO this year) with fresh ideas and that’s also
\nvery exciting.<\/p>\n

LD: So what made you decide to retire now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: Well a couple of things. The major reason is my daughter has a little boy who
\nis 14 months old and he is a sweetheart and I don’t get to see him much. And my
\nson is getting married and in every family there needs to be someone at the
\ncenter who doesn’t necessarily actually need to do anything but who is that
\ncenter and there’s much I can’t do with this job. … I hope to do some projects for
\nthe foundation that I am intensely interested in, and I’m still young enough to be
\nable to open my mind to lots of other things and who knows. I’m trying to have a
\nfertile ground and so as things pop up they take root. But I can’t open it up
\nwithout cutting back on the work. But it seems like a good time. I’m also looking
\nforward to spending more time with my husband at home.<\/p>\n

LD: I would imagine that’s its very demanding work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: It is, but that’s what good about it is I use every brain cell.<\/p>\n

LD: I know you worked on a lot of great programs while you were at the Santa<\/strong>
\n Barbara Foundation, but are there any that are particularly near and dear to your<\/strong>
\n heart?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: The first year I was there we were about to celebrate the Foundation’s 75th
\nanniversary. So there was a book, a history book for the anniversary project to
\ncoordinate and then there was a gala performing arts presentation at the Lobero.
\nThat was fantastic. Then there was a symposium about the future of
\nphilanthropy. That was all in one year. That was really something. …<\/p>\n

I think one of my favorites was a book about the blind doctor, Dr. Pearlman. … A
\nlittle old lady comes to us and she wants to leave us a million dollars part of the
\ndeal is that we publish her manuscript. Well, you can imagine a little old lady’s
\nmanuscript. What will we do with that? Well, you read it and it turned out to be a
\nreally compelling human story so we shepherded that project, we got a local
\npublisher; the whole thing was really heartwarming. And it’s always nice to have
\ntangible evidence of what you’ve done because most of mine is ephemeral.<\/p>\n

LD: I’ve seen that project and it’s very, very cool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: Yes, and the idea that we would be following through on the donor’s wishes
\nwhich is always very important. And it’s a book that opens people’s eyes to what
\nit is like to be blind as a society, as a world society we could all that to
\nunderstand what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes.<\/p>\n

… It’s fascinating. I get something out of every single project. I know the
\nfoundation’s history better than anybody.<\/p>\n

LD: Do you have any trips planned or any immediate plans as soon as you’re<\/strong>
\n done?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: Everybody asks me that. … My husband and I have traveled a lot and I just
\nplan to stay home for a while and just be there. I live in a wonderful place. I want
\nto just sit on the porch, watch the birds and just still the mind a little bit because
\nI’m always thinking about philanthropy and this and that and it’s going to take a
\nwhile for that to go away because I’m always going at 60 miles an hour.<\/p>\n

LD: What else do you do like to do with your spare time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: Well I love to read. I’ve also been a professional dancer for 30 years and I
\nstill do it two or three times a month. I’ve been with Chef Karim since he
\nstarted.<\/p>\n

LD: I didn’t know that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: So that’s in my blood. And I love to move, so it would be fun to explore
\ndifferent forms of dance. I don’t know it’s mainly a stilling of the mind to allow
\nother things to come up. It sounds like I’m not going to do anything.<\/p>\n

LD: You need a break, that’s what it sounds like to me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: So I’m opening doors and letting things in.<\/p>\n

LD: How did you get started with belly dancing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: My husband and I were living at Married Student Housing at UCSB because
\nwe were both graduate students. I was getting my masters in French and he was
\ngetting a PhD in counseling psych and a woman moved in who was a belly
\ndancer, new to town. He was dabbling in photography at the time, she needed
\nphotos, so they made a deal. He said I’ll take photos of you and why don’t you
\ngive Suzanne some lessons. I was very annoyed. I was not consulted. I was
\nalmost insulted.<\/p>\n

So I went and I took a couple of lessons and said this is really weird. But then my
\nteacher put on a show with three other dancers and I went and I was hit in the
\nhead by a bat. That proverbial light bulb was like, ah, that’s what I want. Yes. I
\nwant to be that person on the stage. Because it’s so alluring and beautiful and
\nthat was it I set on a path and my poor husband never imagined that this would
\nhappen. And it became overwhelming. It changed my life because I learned to
\nrelate to people in a different way. I was very British at the time, very shy and I
\nlearned to handle myself. I did Belly Grams for years where I would go to offices,
\nhomes, wherever and do a ten minute dance and congratulate the birthday
\nperson and whatever it was and so I was in mansions in Montecito, barbecues on
\nMilpas, offices all over, it was fantastic, so I got a look at America that I never
\nwould have had, and it was for me about Americans. A great education… It’s
\nadded a spark to my life.<\/p>\n

LD: Keeps you in shape too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: It does. And like anybody else I’ve had experiences and I’ve taken from them
\nand learned and it’s made me who I am today, and I hope to have many more of
\nthem…<\/p>\n

LD: How did you go from getting your masters in French and becoming a belly<\/strong>
\n dancer to working in the nonprofit world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SF: I was a stay at home mom and I took that very seriously. I spent a lot of time
\nwith my kids educating them in every way that I could. When our daughter, the
\nyounger of the two, went to high school, my husband said, “well you know, this is
\na good time to get a job.” I was panicked because I had not ever really, really had
\na job.<\/p>\n

I’d worked as a caterer for many years and I worked at Jane Fonda’s ranch. … I
\napplied for a job at the museum and they hired me and then I thought to myself
\nas I sat at the desk the first day, what am I doing. This could be the shortest job
\nin history. Then I calmed down and I just applied the idea that what would I want
\nto know being Jill Six Pack on the street, because I didn’t know that much about
\nthe museum and I went on from there and it all worked out very nicely.<\/p>\n

Vital Stats: Suzanne Farwell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born: January 30, in London, England to a French mother and a British
\nfather<\/p>\n

Family: Husband Larry Farwell; two grown children, Nick, who lives in Seattle,
\nand Lara, who lives in Palo Alto; and a grandson, Bennett, 14 months.<\/p>\n

Professional Accomplishments: Masters Degree in French; Chef\/Caterer at Jane
\nFonda’s Ranch; Worked in communications for Santa Barbara Museum of
\nNatural History; Voiceover Artist, now voices the calendar on KDB radio station;
\nProfessional Belly Dancer; Director of Communications for the Santa Barbara
\nFoundation.<\/p>\n

Best Book You’ve Read Recently: Kate Wilhelm’s “Barbara Holloway” series of
\nmysteries and Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” series.<\/p>\n

Little-Known Fact: “I think I’ve exposed all of the little known facts. The dancing, I
\ndon’t bring that out that much. They are really two separate things. When they
\nintersect it’s interesting, but it’s not the first thing out of my mouth.”<\/p>\n

Originally published in Noozhawk<\/a>\u00a0on June 7, 2009. To read it there click here<\/a>.<\/h6>\n

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