Board

The Board contributes their knowledge and expertise from their fields. They have a range of financial and fundraising experience and capabilities. Our common goal is serving indigenous peoples throughout the world.

Barbara Savage, President, Founder, and Secretary
Over the past fifteen years, Barbara Savage has served as President and Founder of the Tribal Trust Foundation dedicating her time, energy, expertise, and resources to further its mission to help preserve the living arts of indigenous people. She has personally witnessed the struggle for survival of indigenous peoples throughout the world and identified the sustainable cultural preservation projects supported by the foundation. She has produced two documentary films for the Tribal Trust Foundation and most recently organized, Mbuti: Children of the Forest, a traveling photographic exhibition that brings honor and awareness to the indigenous net hunters of the Ituri Forest in the Congo. As an educator, Barbara has been invited to share her experiences implementing the mission of the Tribal Trust Foundation with students of all ages, including the university level. She is currently an adjunct professor at Antioch University Santa Barbara. In her capacity as Buyer for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Store, she has drawn upon her experience as a craft gallery owner and owner of a company that created and sold sacred jewelry, art, and artifacts to successfully introduce and foster a market for handmade Fair Trade products that support indigenous communities throughout the world. Barbara applied her MAOM studies at Antioch University SB to the museum store. Her business plan for the store facilitated the creation of an online store and transformed the museum store into a popular destination for unique affordable gifts and a profit center for the museum.

Jill Elisofon, Vice President 
Jill Elisofon moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 1996 after several years in Washington, D.C. where she was a fundraiser for the Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and Conservation International. Elisofon continues her fundraising career as an independent consultant and started a second career as a jewelry designer. Her Georgia O’Keeffe inspired necklaces have been sold at the Norton Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum, and The Phillips Collection. Jill serves on the Cultural Affairs Committee for the City of West Palm Beach and the Allocations Committee for the United Way of Palm Beach.

In 1972, Jill accompanied her father, Eliot Elisofon on his assignment for National Geographic to photograph Zaire. They stayed with the Mbutu pygmies in the Ituri Forest, who are the same people that the Tribal Trust is trying to help today, over thirty years later.

Dawn A. Murray M.S., PH.D. Director of International Research
Dr. Dawn Alexandra Murray is a Core Faculty in the B.A. Program at Antioch University Santa Barbara. After graduating with her B.A. in Biology in 1994 from the University of California Santa Cruz, Dawn taught marine science at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for five years. She completed an M. S. in Marine Science in 1999 at the University of California Santa Cruz collaborating with researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute examining deep-sea habitats of scyphomedusae jellies using remotely operated submersibles. Dawn received her Ph.D. in Ocean Sciences in 2005 from the University of California Santa Cruz. She examined the effects of climate change and shoreline erosion on intertidal plant and animal communities. Additionally, she created the Long-term Monitoring Program and Experiential Training for Students (LiMPETS) for the National Marine Sanctuaries Program. She has numerous publications and international conference presentations on these topics and has been invited to consult as an intertidal ecologist, educator, and reviewer for many panels. Dawn now teaches courses in the Environmental Studies Major Concentration at Antioch University Santa Barbara in Environmental Advocacy and Justice, Marine Biology, Global Environmental Studies, and Sustainable Business Practices, along with unique seminars each quarter covering hot topics – for example, plastic in the ocean, rainforest advocacy, seasonal migrators, and food production. Dawn lives in Santa Barbara, California with her two sons and many pets. She enjoys traveling, walking on the beach, paddle boarding, hiking, and nature adventures with her wildlife warriors.