Bob Burnham
President/Chairman

Bob was born in Oxnard, California, and has been totally blind since birth from Congenital Glaucoma. Bob was raised by a large, wonderful family and was fortunate enough to be mainstreamed from nursery-school, through elementary, junior high and Oxnard High School, and a proud graduate of the Class of 1970. Bob attended Westmont College from 1971 through 1975, receiving two bachelor’s degrees in English Literature and Sociology. He began his gainful employment at the Independent Living Resource Center as Disabilities Advocate from October 1978 through May 1979. Then, through prayers and good luck, he began 32 happy years at Santa Barbara MTD, June 1979 to May 2011. His jobs at MTD ranged from Customer Service, PR, Marketing, and primarily as Dispatcher for 25 years.

Bob has served in music ministry in various churches from May of 1969 to the present. He has been honored to serve on various committees and boards, including the Santa Barbara Transportation/Circulation Committee, the Citizens’ Housing Task Force, and most recently on the Santa Barbara Access Advisory Committee. Bob is happily married to Patty Neumeyer, since July 1983, celebrating 40 years this summer.

Bob believes Blind Fitness is creating a real, first-time outlet for people who are blind and visually-impaired to engage in healthy and fun activities, most or all of which have not been offered to them before. Many blind people have been or are sheltered and over-protected from living normal, full lives. Blind Fitness reaches out to those people, as well as to those who are processing the painful transition from being fully-sighted to partial sight or total blindness. Blind Fitness also provides the opportunity for sighted volunteers to come alongside those of us who are blind, and work with this population possibly for the first time. Bob is honored to be a part of the Blind Fitness community.

Julene Hunter
Treasurer

After retiring from a successful software career and founding two tech companies, Julene refocused her skills to serve nonprofits. She led a non-profit collaborative social service agency in the San Francisco Bay Area as Executive Director, and followed as CEO of an international medical NGO affiliated with Rotary International. She has served on large and small non-profit boards, consulted to several organizations as an interim Executive Director and as a consultant facilitating board retreats, financial best-practices for executives, grant writing seminars and staff management. Her business GoodInk helps small businesses and nonprofits manage the digital age using best practices for finance, outreach, marketing and raising capital.

She is an accomplished artist and graphic designer and keeps a studio in Lake Tahoe where she spends time when not in Santa Barbara.

As an active Delta Gamma alumnae whose philanthropy founded and supports five blind schools and organizations that provide access and advocacy for the visually impaired, she has been informed and dedicated to this community since college at the University of California, Berkeley. She believes sight abilities should not prevent anyone from enjoying outdoor activities and nature. Julene is delighted to help Blind Fitness achieve the goals of providing access to outdoor recreational activities with orientation and mobility training and educating volunteers. All of this will build a better community.

Tania Isaac
Board Member

Originally from Los Angeles, Tania and her husband migrated to Santa Barbara eight years ago after she decided to ditch the entertainment industry and embrace her love of healing, connection and community building. Tania is a 200 E-RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) and specializes in Accessible and Therapeutic Yoga and various healing modalities. She is passionate about building connection and community. Tania was an early ambassador for Accessible Yoga and served on the Logistic Team for the first and second annual Accessible Yoga Conference. She then co-founded a social justice group that hosted community discussions on various topics such as racism, economism, LGTBQ+, Ableism and more. Tania believes that one of the key elements to shedding stereotypes and spreading awareness is through conversation. She currently is part of a team of yoga teachers associated with Cottage Rehab and Momentum Inc (Formerly United Cerebral Palsy) and holds healing workshops within Santa Barbara.

Tania wholeheartedly believes in Blind Fitness’s mission to provide fitness opportunities and to connect with and support people who are blind or have low vision, because everyone deserves to be in community.

Fitness, to Tania, can be a blend of strengthening and stretching the body and one’s mind. Change begins with changing one’s mindset.

Tania is looking forward to the various programs Blind Fitness is cultivating because the “what’s” and “why’s” are coming from the community it serves. And almost any time to make new friends is a great time in her book!

Brianna Pettit
Founder

Born and raised in Santa Barbara, California Brianna is thrilled to give back to her hometown community through Blind Fitness. Brianna’s wide range of outdoor interests and experience combined with her Orientation and Mobility (O&M) degree help bring a unique and bold approach to offering sports and fitness opportunities to people who are blind or have low vision.

Brianna’s passion for the outdoors and sports led her to participate on both the collegiate triathlon and cycling teams during her studies at the University of CA at Berkeley. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Psychology, she returned to Santa Barbara to help manage her family’s local business and became a volunteer at the local Braille Institute. It was during her time as a volunteer that she decided to pursue a profession in O&M, and went on to earn a Masters degree in Special Education from Cal State LA with a specialization in O&M. Brianna loves O&M because it can be used as a tool to help people with vision loss access the outdoors and be active, while helping them gain the confidence and skills needed to travel independently.

Brianna began her career as an O&M specialist at the Earle Baum Center for the Blind in Santa Rosa, CA and then later at the Braille Institute in Santa Barbara. During her time at the Braille Institute, Brianna launched a running program by partnering with a local gym and training their volunteers to be sighted guides. She also taught an accessible yoga class for her student’s at the Braille Institute, where she was able to incorporate her yoga teacher training background while infusing her skills as an O&M specialist. In 2020, Brianna helped pioneer the Braille Institute’s first ever virtual Move-A-Thon to promote physical fitness among the blind and low vision community during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Brianna is known as a pioneer in her field, offering a bold and adventurous approach to Orientation and Mobility training. She likes to think of it as “Orientation and Mobility training with a twist.”