George Thurlow

George Thurlow is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Alumni Affairs at UC Santa Barbara and the Executive Director of the UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association. He served from 1998-2005 as a member of the board of directors of the UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association and served as its president in 2003-04.

Prior to being named to his position at UC Santa Barbara, Mr. Thurlow was publisher of the Santa Barbara Independent. His career in journalism spanned 30 years and included roles as a publisher, editor and writer. From 1991-1994 he was Professional in Residence in the Department of Journalism at CSU Chico. His writing and reporting have appeared in Time magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Examiner, Associated Press and numerous other publications.

Mr. Thurlow is chair-emeriti of the Santa Barbara Foundation Board of Trustees and is a past chair of the boards of the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization, the Santa Barbara Visitor and Conference Bureau and Film Commission, and The Fund for Santa Barbara. He served for many years on the board of directors of the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., most recently as its treasurer and the chair of the CNPA Foundation. He currently is the chair of the board of directors of the Colorado Springs Newspaper Group. He has served on the board of directors of CALM, the Courthouse Legacy Project, Environmental Defense Center, UCSB Foundation, Eleos Foundation, Pacific Broadcasting Co. (KDB) and the Institute for Alternative Journalism.  He is a past president of the California Society of Newspaper Editors and served for many years on its board of directors. In 2006 he was elected to the UC Board of Regents as the Alumni Regent but resigned to take his current job at UC Santa Barbara.

He and his wife Denise Eschardies have three children: Kendra, George IV and Lincoln.