2026 Obama Award Honorees
Rising Star Award
Jack Teoli
Jack Teoli has been a resident of Santa Clarita his entire life. A graduate of Castaic High School, Jack went on to join the SCV Democrats when he turned 18 in 2023, and would then become an intern for the office of Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo. After his internship, Jack would join the campaign organization, Groundwork’s, in helping the reelection of Pilar Schiavo. At College of the Canyons, Jack became the Vice President of Political Science club and the Vice President of the new political youth group out here, Voteup. Jack has also been a delegate for region 40 of the California Democratic Party since 2025. He plans to attend UCLA in the fall and pursue a bachelors degree in political science.
Volunteer of the Year
Dan Chapman
Part operations wizard, part logistics ninja, part “how did he fix that so fast?” mystery man. With a career spanning moving, logistics, sales, distribution, and leadership, Dan has mastered the fine art of keeping chaos organized and customers happy — often simultaneously.
A Marine veteran with the soul of a problem-solver and the patience of someone who’s been around. Dan thrives in fast-paced environments where most people would immediately fake a Wi-Fi outage and disappear.
Known for leading teams, streamlining operations, and somehow making spreadsheets feel less threatening, Dan combines military precision with real-world practicality and just enough sarcasm to keep things interesting. He’s won a college football bowl game, played a cop on TV, once owned a dodgeball league, and has the kind of life résumé that sounds slightly made up until you realize he has receipts for all of it.
Proud dad to an 18-year-old son and a 32-year-old son with a master’s degree in policy. Dan has applied his amazing skills to a lifetime of volunteering. In recent years, you can see Dan’s community work in his founding the Beautification of Bouquet Falls in 2019 and now an organizer and community leader with Valley Defensa.
Jeri Ann Boyd Memorial Award
Colleen Shaffer/Circle of Hope
After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, Colleen Shaffer had a dream of helping other women with breast cancer and in 2004 Circle of Hope was founded. In her own struggle against metastatic breast cancer, Colleen decided she would do everything she could to bring hope to individuals battling the devastating disease. “I founded Circle of Hope because I found so many people having trouble focusing on getting well because of the bills associated with their illness” she said. “Survivorship is expensive. We provide hope so cancer patients can focus on recovery.” Having founded the organization to aid in financial assistance for breast cancer treatment, Colleen’s dream and vision grew over the years to meet the needs of a growing Santa Clarita Valley. Today, Circle of Hope is still located in Newhall, Ca in expanded office space and provides educational, emotional and financial assistance to men and women in Santa Clarita living with all forms of cancer. In 2017, Circle of Hope opened a cancer wellness center called Hope’s Haven Cancer Wellness Center. The cancer center offers over 36 wellness therapies to all those going through cancer, cancer survivors, their caregivers, families and friends. At Circle of Hope, all services are free. Colleen Shaffer remains active in the organization today as an advisor and facilitator of Circle of Hope’s support group. At Circle of Hope, we believe in making a difference today for a brighter future tomorrow.
Chad Kampbell Memorial Award
Good Trouble Crew - Edel
Edel began her career in education as a high school teacher, teaching Spanish, French, and English as a Second Language. She was a high school counselor for nearly twenty years. Edel ran ongoing special group counseling sessions for students involved in truancy, in gangs, as teenage mothers, and students experiencing grief from the death of a loved one. For eleven years, Edel was involved with the California Teachers Association, including positions as Local Union President, minority-at-large representative at State Council, and chair of the Civil Rights in Education Committee at the state level. Prior to working at COC and while still a high school counselor, Edel was also a part-time professor teaching the required Multicultural Counseling course at the post-graduate level to students pursuing a Master’s degree in Counseling.
For the last sixteen years of her career, Edel was a tenured full-time counselor and teaching faculty at College of the Canyons (COC). For fifteen years at COC, she counseled students in the Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement program, which supports underrepresented students in those fields. In addition, Edel was elected by the faculty and served two terms as President of the Academic Senate at COC. She also served on numerous committees and co-chaired the President’s Advisory Council on Budget.
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Edel retired in 2015 and, in November 2016, ran for a position on the Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees. Since being elected in 2016 as the first Latina on the COC Board, Edel has championed campus safety, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and positive employee relations, but her heart and first priority remain DEIA efforts and student services that support students’ mental and physical well-being and academic success. Re-elected in 2024, Edel is currently completing her third 4-year term on the COC Board.
Chad Kampbell Memorial Award
Good Trouble Crew - Jeffrey
As a United States Air Force veteran who served from 1963 to 1967, Jeffrey spent 40 years in the aviation industry, managing commercial aircraft inventories, including buying and selling aircraft. In 1979, he moved to Santa Clarita, where he’s been an active community member since. He was part of the original graffiti removal volunteers in the Valley and dedicated several years to volunteering with the Los Angeles Special Olympics. In 1988, he co-founded PFLAG Santa Clarita and later began volunteering at the Santa Clarita Veteran Services Collaborative in 2018. His contributions were recognized in 2022, when he was selected as both the Community Member of the Year by the Santa Clarita Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and the California State Community Member of the Year by the California Chapter of the same organization. In 2024, he was honored as Veteran of the Year by Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo.
Chad Kampbell Memorial Award
Good Trouble Crew - Peggy
I was a special education teacher at Bowman Continuation School and Hart High School, and later served as a counselor at Hart High School, Valencia High School, and at COC. After retiring, I opened my own business, Pegasus2edu, as a college application specialist.
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My husband and I established PFLAG SCV in 1988, two years after our son came out, because 400 protesters descended in front of St. Stephen’s to protest a lesbian teacher who was about to address educators about creating safe spaces for their LGBTQ students in their schools.
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I officially became involved in local politics (other than those dealing with LGBTQ issues) in 2016 when I was campaign manager for Dr. Edel Alonso’s first run for the COC Board. She and I were ably guided by Patti Sulpizio, then president of our local democratic organization. Edel is now in her third term, having served as president from 2020 to 2024. In 2020, I was asked to manage Dr. Cherise Moore’s campaign for the Hart Board of Trustees. She is now in her second term and serving as president for the second time. I was blessed to help these amazing public servants win their seats. They have accomplished so much under the most difficult of circumstances.
Organizationally, I became a greeter at meetings, was a representative to CADEM alongside Jeri Boyd, participated in phone banking, canvassing, and voter registration drives, and remain a staunch member of Neighbor-to-Neighbor. I also became involved with the city government when I applied for and was appointed as a commissioner on the city’s Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Commission.
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I am an advocate for unity, especially among our local Democrats, and was thrilled to get CA-27 Indivisible, DAA Indivisible, and the SCV Dems in touch with each other so they could jointly organize our "Hands Off" protest, the first of what I hope will result in many future collaborations.
Chad Kampbell Memorial Award
Good Trouble Crew - Dave
David Lutness, an East Coast transplant, received a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Gettysburg College in 1968 and a Degree in microcomputers from Delaware Technical College in 1997. He has taken graduate courses in Physical Oceanography and has Certificates from Microsoft and Cisco in network administration. He has been a truck driver, a business manager for a healthcare provider, a network administrator and a warehouse manager. He has pumped gas at an airport and been a custom woodworker. He has hitchhiked up and down both coasts and, with his cat, camped across the country, with the record time from Cincinnati to Los Angeles of three months and 4 days.
With his wife Carole, he moved to California in 1998 and Santa Clarita in 2000, to participate in the life of his only granddaughter, Isabella. He has been a longtime member of the Sierra Club and a supporter of environmental causes and local social issues. He helped to establish the local winter homeless shelter. In 2004 he ran for the board of Castaic Lake Water Agency. He was elected 2nd Vice President of SCOPE in 2005. David now is an independent computer consultant, the Computer Doctor, doing repair and setup on computers and networks.
Chad Kampbell Memorial Award
Good Trouble Crew - Carole
Carole has been a dedicated advocate for social justice, environmental issues, and community organizing in the Santa Clarita Valley. She founded and chaired the SCV Clean Money Committee, led the Democratic Neighbors of the 38th assembly district as a precinct walking organization, and served as the Social Justice Chair for the Democratic Alliance in SCV. She’s contributed as a Democratic columnist for The Signal and secured a Federal license for a Public Radio station with SCOPE. She’s run for multiple offices across SCV, including the Water Board twice and also for Assembly in 2008, where she achieve a historic high for Democrats in the area at 45% of the vote. As a union representative for DMH, she’s fought against staff mistreatment during the 2006 fire aftermath. Carole has also collaborated with LA legislators to pass a law preventing jurisdictions from blocking non-profit homeless shelters and transitional housing, enabling the creation of SCV’s “Bridge to Home.” Carole continues to address local City Council on social justice and environmental issues, and has recently co-founded and volunteered for SCV Defensa.
Christy Smith Lifetime Achievement Award
Juliana Sheldon
Juliana Sheldon has lived in the Santa Clarita Valley for almost 40 years, and raised her three daughters in the community. She began her teaching career in the Sulphur Springs SD in grades K-6, and started one of the first Peace Patrol conflict resolution programs at Leona Cox Elementary School and she led the English Learner Advisory Committee at Mitchell School during her tenure there. In 1998, she co-created the first Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment program in Santa Clarita, which provides mentor guidance and support to new teachers as part of their credentialing process. This led to a teacher induction directorship in the Walnut Valley SD, and participation in authoring the 2024 CA Standards for the Teaching Profession.
In addition to her work with students, parents, and teachers, Juliana has also been active in registering voters with Field Team Six, and served on the Board of 25Up. She joined DAA in 2016 as the Volunteer Coordinator, and now is a member of the SCV Democrats leadership team, co-leading postcard writing efforts and serving on the endorsement committee. Juliana's cake baking has supported fundraising for numerous local candidates and charitable organizations, such as The SCV Food Pantry, FeedSCV, Bridge to Home, and Civic Sundays.
Community Advocacy Award
Barbara Wilson/ Mental Health Hookup
Barbara Wilson has worked in the mental health field for most of the last 50 years. She has directly helped push mental health care forward. In the 60s, she witnessed neglectful asylums and lobotomies. In the 70s, she created community-based programs with the then State Department of Mental Hygiene; the same programs she then saw decimated by Reagan’s cuts to mental health care in the 80s. After retiring from Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health in 1992, Barbara founded Mental Health Hookup, the Santa Clarita-based not-for-profit organization, where she continues her work to rebuild and reconfigure the disjointed mental health systems at scale.
In her work, Barbara, has fought for many positive shifts to mental health care. She pursued the end to locked hospitals, instead fighting for community-based care, including high-quality board-and-care homes and social and recreational programs supervised by case managers. She worked across departments, working with Parks & Recreation to create friendship circles in the park, and developed vocational tracks. For the last decade, Barbara has fought for renewed state support of those board-and-care homes, especially amongst the rise of homelessness and subsequent imprisonments of mentally ill persons. She’s advocated for policy changes and community needs as a former delegate to the 38th Assembly District.
Today, Barbara serves as Co-Chair of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Service SALT 2 Mental Health Stakeholder Community. She has published her book “The Mental Health Handbook: Understanding California's Mental Health System”, and continues to raise awareness and foster support for her mission with events like ‘Stop the Stigma.’ Barbara was recognized as Social Worker of the Year 2025 for her outstanding contributions to the field by both the National Association of Social Workers Region G and the National Association of Social Workers California.
The Obama Award
George Whitesides
George Whitesides has spent his career solving problems. Over the past 20 years, he has helped lead NASA to new heights as Chief of Staff, created hundreds of quality jobs in the Antelope Valley as CEO of Virgin Galactic, and supported front-line responders and public health through his work on the wildfire crisis, co-founding Megafire Action.
George currently represents California’s 27th district in the House of Representatives, which covers northern Los Angeles County, including Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Lancaster, and parts of the San Fernando Valley. He serves as the Vice Ranking Member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, as well as a member of the House Armed Services Committee.