Lauren Trujillo

Lauren Trujillo, Executive Director, Santa Barbara Library Foundation, Katherine Harvey Fellows Program, Growing Edge Leaders

When Lauren Trujillo landed her first job in development, she was sure it would be her last. Fresh out of UCSB and working in gift operations at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, she found fundraising “very focused on dollars, not enough on people.”

“I told myself I’d never work in development again,” she recalled.

Yet for the past seven years, that’s exactly the field she’s not only worked in—but transformed. As Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation, Lauren led a multimillion-dollar campaign to reimagine the Michael Towbes Library Plaza, guiding the project through a pandemic and turning an overlooked corner of downtown into a vibrant civic space.

“The library role felt different,” she said. “It was an opportunity to bring voice and connection to the world of libraries and cultural heritage institutions.” With a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from UCLA, the position fused her passion for knowledge with her belief in community access.

After the plaza’s completion, Lauren participated in the Katherine Harvey Fellows (KHF) program which convenes voices from across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. “That’s where the magic happens,” she said. “When we take off our labels, really get to know each other, and think strategically across sectors, we can drive change.”

Through KHF, she began to see her community through a wider lens. “I’d always wondered why a place with so much wealth still has so much need,” she said. “KHF helped me realize that real change happens when we stop thinking in silos.” The program, she added, “removed the blinders—pushing me to see that, at the end of the day, we’re all just people doing our jobs. That sounds simple, but it was a breakthrough moment for how to tackle bigger, systemic issues.”

One of the most unexpected outcomes of her KHF experience was that one of her classmates in the program, a longtime city official, is now her colleague—the library’s new director, Brandon Beaudette. “The program helped Brandon and me build trust and mutual respect,” said Lauren. That foundation would prove crucial in navigating an extremely challenging time in the library’s history. “Because of that shared experience, we were able to collaborate faster and more effectively when it mattered most.”

“I came out of KHF claiming and owning my power,” said Lauren. “But I was still hungry for more so when Growing Edge Leaders (GEL) presented it felt like an opportunity to continue practicing what I learned and push myself further.”

“In GEL, I went from claiming my leadership to seeing myself as a peer among many of the great leaders in our community,” she said. The program, she added, strengthened her confidence and appreciation for her role. “Even though my nonprofit is smaller than some, it’s just as essential. We all have a role to play.”

Through GEL, she learned to “lead adaptively”—to approach problems with curiosity instead of rushing to solutions. “It taught me to step back, take the balcony view, and remember that asking for help isn’t weakness—it’s wisdom.” She also credits the program with helping her build stronger teams and boards, and with understanding that self-care is essential to high-achieving leadership.

“The crux of what Leading From Within does,” she added, “is removes the superficiality that we all think we have to code ourselves with to protect ourselves.” 

She credits the mentors, facilitators, and community members behind the programs for cultivating that environment. “There’s no other space in Santa Barbara that invests in leadership like this,” she said. “Leading From Within recognizes that when you invest in people, that’s how you make long-term change that truly benefits our community.”