Michelle Lee Graham, M.Ed., is the longstanding Chief Executive Officer of Children's Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County, where she has guided the organization's growth, governance, and countywide impact across more than 30 years in early childhood education. A Central Coast native, she leads with deep local roots and a strategic vision that has redefined what a community-based nonprofit can accomplish.
Under Michelle's leadership, CRR has grown into a countywide organization with a dedicated team, an expanding portfolio of local and state contracts, and multiple program departments serving children, families, and child care providers. That growth reflects more than expanding scale. It reflects her commitment to fiscal stewardship, strong internal controls, and an organizational culture grounded in accountability, integrity, and public trust. As a leader in a field built largely by and for women, she has shown what strong, strategic female leadership brings to the child care industry, all while keeping the organization firmly connected to the communities it serves.
Michelle holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's in Education, and she brings both her professional expertise and her lived experience to her work. As a mother of five, she understands firsthand the joys and complexities of family life that so many of the families CRR serves are navigating every day.
Guided by a strength-based leadership philosophy, Michelle continues to expand what is possible for CRR and the families it serves. Her tenure is a testament to hard work, resilience, and a steadfast commitment to making a difference, and it shapes the vision and heart she brings to her role every day.
Jacquilyn Banta, M.A., serves as Chief Operating Officer of Children's Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County, where she has led agency-wide operations since 2017. Reporting to the CEO and Board of Directors, she carries primary responsibility for the operational health and long-term sustainability of an organization that serves thousands of children, families, and child care providers across the county.
Jacqui leads with transparency and a strength-based philosophy that shapes how she develops both programs and people. She has a gift for seeing what is strongest in a program or a team member and building around it, aligning the right talent with the right work so that individuals and the agency rise together. Across a growing portfolio of state and federal contracts and multiple program departments, she turns vision into structure and structure into results, expanding CRR's reach while keeping the organization grounded in integrity and public trust. Her teams know exactly where they stand and why their work matters, and they perform at a higher level for it.
Jacqui brings a clinical and human-centered foundation to executive leadership, built over more than a decade of dedicated service. Before stepping into agency leadership, she spent years supporting people with disabilities and the teams serving them, equipping those teams with evidence-based tools and a commitment to dignity and respect, always working toward a future in which every individual is a valued member of their community. That work continues to shape her conviction that strong systems exist to serve people, and that operational rigor and compassion are partners rather than competing priorities. She is known for coaching staff, developing leaders, and building the kind of trust that holds across employees, partners, funders, and community stakeholders alike.
Jacqui holds a Master of Arts in Human Services Counseling with a specialization in Executive Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, both from Liberty University, where she also completed a year of doctoral study in Strategic Leadership. She serves on the board of the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network and partners with many local community organizations.
A wife and mother of five, Jacqui leads from a deep commitment to family, community, and the belief that every child deserves the opportunity to thrive. Her vision-casting, strength-based leadership, and relentless advocacy for inclusion continue to move CRR forward, one family at a time.
Matt Quintos brings more than twenty years of financial leadership in nonprofit and public accounting to his role as Controller at Children's Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County. He oversees the organization's accounting operations, financial reporting, and compliance functions, ensuring that CRR's resources are managed with accuracy, transparency, and care.
Before joining CRR, Matt served as Chief Financial Officer at the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (CADA) in Santa Barbara, where he led financial strategy, cash flow planning, and audit oversight for the organization. Over an eighteen-year tenure at CADA, he advanced through roles of increasing responsibility, including Director of Fiscal Operations, Financial Controller, and Cost Analyst, building deep expertise in grant and contract financial management, cost allocation, and internal controls. His earlier career includes cost reporting and reimbursement analysis for the County of Santa Barbara's Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health Services division, and audit and advisory work in public accounting.
Matt holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in California. His combination of public accounting discipline and hands-on nonprofit experience makes him a steady and strategic partner as CRR continues to grow its programs and deepen its impact on families, children, and child care providers across the county.
For nearly twenty years, Rosa Padilla has been a trusted CRR leader who pairs data fluency with relational credibility. She has built durable partnerships with Spanish-speaking family child care providers, elevating program quality and safety while honoring language and culture. Rosa's portfolio spans provider support, analytics, and operational execution, where she uses data to guide decision-making and drive continuous improvement. She models integrity, kindness, and accountability, and she champions systems that help every child and provider thrive. As Deputy Director, Rosa advances cross-program coordination, compliance, and a community responsiveness that is both rigorous and deeply human-centered.
Christine Fleenor brings more than thirty years of experience as an Accredited Family Child Care Provider to her leadership at Children's Resource & Referral. Since joining the agency six years ago, she has translated deep classroom wisdom into organizational impact, advancing provider quality, child safety, and equitable access to high-quality early learning. Christine co-leads CRR's program portfolio, mentors both staff and child care providers, and strengthens compliance and quality assurance so that families across the county receive care that is consistent, safe, and developmentally rich. Her leadership reflects a steadfast commitment to community, excellence, and results, anchored in a clear focus on what matters most: the well-being and learning of children.
Karina Acosta began her career in the classroom, then joined CRR eight years ago as a Quality Coach. She has since led large-scale quality initiatives, coaching providers on evidence-based practices and facilitating national accreditation for early childhood programs. Her leadership was pivotal to CRR's national recognition in 2018 for one of the highest concentrations of accredited family child care homes per capita. Karina is CRR's only DRDP-certified trainer and also holds certifications in trauma-informed care and CLASS. As Senior Manager of Programs, she oversees program design and delivery through a lens of excellence, aligning coaching, quality assurance, and data to produce measurable outcomes for children, families, and providers.
Jesus Ruiz joined CRR three years ago and advanced quickly on the strength of his precision, integrity, and commitment to service. He began in Operations, where he safeguarded data accuracy and fiscal stewardship, and now manages programs with a human services perspective that centers person-first language and dignity. Jesus is passionate about workforce access for all people, including within early care and education settings. He leads with both heart and discipline, shaping a culture that puts people first and service close behind, while maintaining the strong compliance and performance standards that deliver tangible value to families and providers.
