Meet THE SANDBOX Team

Meet our amazing team here at THE SANDBOX! We have an fantastic group of folks who really are the glue that holds the place together. Besides our Goleta location, we have two other spaces, one in Santa Barbara on Olive Street and one in Paso Robles on Park Street. Check out all of our great founders, managers and hosts below.

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Kyle Ashby

Founder, Community Builder

Kyle grew up in Goleta and after some time in Hawaii, San Diego and Los Angeles he started working in tech in the Santa Barbara area. After a number of dot com roles as a designer and project manager he realized that building new business ideas and bringing people together was his passion.

Dave Rachford

Dave Rachford

Community Host - Goleta

Dave served in the US Navy before attending UCSB.  He worked in public accounting and earned his CPA license, building and selling a private practice and spinning off a payroll company which he sold to PAYCHEX.  Dave is passionate about connecting people and helping small business owners grow and scale.

Dave enjoys camping with his family, hiking and fly-fishing, and dreams of paddle boarding his home built board across the Channel to Santa Cruz Island.

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Matt Donner

Community Manager - Santa Barbara

Matt is a Santa Barbara native, professional composer, photographer, and filmmaker. He collaborates with people, brands, and other creatives to capture moments and tell stories. He works closely with At Ease International and Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, two local nonprofits with great causes—providing film, music, and photography with the intent of spreading awareness of their missions. 

If he isn’t at THE SANDBOX or working on a project, there is a good chance he’s hunting for old books at a used bookstore. 

He has a degree in philosophy from Cal Poly and Masters in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music.

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Anna Clarke

Community Manager - Santa Barbara

Anna is a passionate part-time community manager at SANDBOX Santa Barbara, balancing this role with her true calling in photography, where she has over six years of diverse industry experience. Originally from Ukraine, she spent the last five years in Hawaii and recently moved to Santa Barbara to expand her business. Her love for photography has taken her to 39 countries, working with prestigious commercial brands, non-profits, and local businesses. In her free time, she enjoys surfing, volunteering for causes close to her heart, and competing in Hawaiian outrigger canoeing, a sport she’s been passionate about for the last three years. Anna’s global experiences and personalized approach bring authenticity and a meaningful connection to every project she undertakes, always aiming to inspire and engage with her community.

Jill Whaley

Jill Whaley

Community Manager - Paso Robles

A Central Coast native and entrepreneur, Jill wears many hats, from community manager at THE SANDBOX Paso Robles to executive director of a local nonprofit to part-time content creator for Melanie McWilliams Design. She loves consulting with nonprofits and businesses on programming ideas, business structure, website tweaks, and more. When she’s not working, you’ll likely find Jill kayaking, hiking, curled up with a good book, brainstorming business ventures, or soaking up quality time with her family.

Alejandro Paramo

Alejandro Paramo

Community Host - Santa Barbara

A native of California’s Central Valley, Alejandro made his way to the coast to attend UCSB and never looked back. After some time working at a supply chain sustainability software start-up in Santa Cruz, he returned to Santa Barbara and leads a product team for a supply chain risk management software product in the B2B SaaS space.

When not working on product strategy, you’ll likely find him endurance training in the Santa Barbara mountains, skiing in the Sierra, or exploring new travel destinations.

Kate Turner

Kate Turner

Community Host - Paso Robles

Kate is an executive coach who specializes in helping mid-career corporate professionals create more meaning, impact, and momentum in their work and lives. With 15 years of experience spanning sales, management, and success coaching, she blends strategic clarity with a deeply human approach by guiding clients to get clear on what they want, build the confidence to pursue it, and take action aligned with their values and purpose. Drawing on her background as a competitive poker player, Kate helps clients navigate uncertainty, read situations with precision, and make decisions that feel both courageous and grounded. She has coached professionals from companies including Facebook, Airbnb, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Abbott Labs, and extends her commitment to service through volunteer work with Empower Work and Dress for Success.

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Jared McKiernan

Community Host - Paso Robles

Jared is an award-winning writer, content strategist, and digital marketing professional with over a decade of diverse industry experience spanning the tech, travel, nonprofit, and finance sectors – that includes B2B, B2C, and B2B2C.

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