Meet our amazing team here at THE SANDBOX! We have an fantastic group of folks who really are the glue that holds the place together. Besides our Santa Barbara location, we have two other spaces, one in Goleta on Santa Felicia Drive and one in Paso Robles on Park Street. Check out all of our great founders, managers and hosts below.
Meet THE SANDBOX Team
Kyle Ashby
Founder, Community Builder
Kyle grew up in Goleta and after some time in Hawaii, San Diego and Los Angeles he started working in tech in the Santa Barbara area. After a number of dot com roles as a designer and project manager he realized that building new business ideas and bringing people together was his passion.
Anna Clarke
Community Manager - Santa Barbara
Anna is a passionate part-time community manager at SANDBOX Santa Barbara, balancing this role with her true calling in photography, where she has over six years of diverse industry experience. Originally from Ukraine, she spent the last five years in Hawaii and recently moved to Santa Barbara to expand her business. Her love for photography has taken her to 39 countries, working with prestigious commercial brands, non-profits, and local businesses. In her free time, she enjoys surfing, volunteering for causes close to her heart, and competing in Hawaiian outrigger canoeing, a sport she’s been passionate about for the last three years. Anna’s global experiences and personalized approach bring authenticity and a meaningful connection to every project she undertakes, always aiming to inspire and engage with her community.
Matt Donner
Community Manager - Santa Barbara
Matt is a Santa Barbara native, professional composer, photographer, and filmmaker. He collaborates with people, brands, and other creatives to capture moments and tell stories. He works closely with At Ease International and Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, two local nonprofits with great causes—providing film, music, and photography with the intent of spreading awareness of their missions.
If he isn’t at THE SANDBOX or working on a project, there is a good chance he’s hunting for old books at a used bookstore.
He has a degree in philosophy from Cal Poly and Masters in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music.
Ryan Cey
Community Manager - Goleta
Originally hailing from the land of living skies – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (say that five times fast!) – Ryan has been living in Goleta since 2015. In his past life, Ryan was the General Manager for the local Ultimate Frisbee league in Saskatoon.
Ryan enjoys disc golfing, hiking, ultimate frisbee, reading, writing, the philosophy of things, and basically anything else that keeps him active, physically or mentally.
Joshua Steinfeldt
Community Host - Goleta
Passionate about how ancient wisdom and modern science can help us live well, Joshua is a professional coach, meditation teacher, and podcast host. He’s spent over 6,000 hours in coaching conversations with people from all different walks of life, taught meditation at UCLA and UCSB, and from 2018-2023 worked as Coach Community Manager for digital coaching and mental health startup, BetterUp, helping grow the community from 1200-3K+ coaches in over 70 countries. Named “One of the 6 Best Mental Health Podcasts to Listen To” by Talkspace, his podcast The Courageous Life, features inspiring conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers, researchers, and doers exploring deep questions about what matters most in life, work, and love. For more visit practicingcourage.com
Mike Loulias
Community Host - Goleta
Mike is happy to be a part of the SANDBOX team! He always looks forward to meeting new people here from all walks of life! Mike has been a “closet entrepreneur” for most of his adult life while he pigeonholed himself into a 30+ year career in the mortgage banking world- Mike was finally able to retire from that chaos a few years back which has allowed him the freedom to pursue other interests related to helping others!
Mike is a proud father and friend to his two kids who too are building successful careers in their chosen fields and is happily married to a beautiful woman who too has two kids who are outstanding adults as well!
Iris Chen
Community Host - Goleta
Iris works as a product marketing manager, which she describes as a double agent between product and customers. At least twice a week, you’ll find Iris volunteering at ASAP Cats in Goleta. Iris is fluent in English and Mandarin, and can read cats’ body language with confidence. Her decade-long volunteering experience span trapping, caring, fostering, and assisting the adoption of hundreds of cats and kittens. If you are interested in getting involved in the community or adopting cats, she is always ready to help.
Iris is a proud mom of two cats, Clementine and Sesame, who are happy, healthy, and have expensive taste.
Jared McKiernan
Community Host - Paso Robles
Jared is an award-winning writer, content strategist, and digital marketing professional with over a decade of diverse industry experience spanning the tech, travel, nonprofit, and finance sectors – that includes B2B, B2C, and B2B2C.
Juan Pablo (JP) Vega
Community Host - Paso Robles
Juan Pablo (JP) Vega is a Digital Marketing Strategist and Platform Jockey based in Paso Robles, California. With a passion for continuous improvement and a knack for technology, JP excels in creating engaging content and driving growth through social media and digital marketing. Fluent in both Spanish and English, JP has a diverse skill set that includes web content writing, web design, video ad creation, and graphic design communication. His experience spans various roles, from managing office spaces at THE SANDBOX to coordinating marketing efforts at Cal Poly Orfalea College of Business and corporate video ad creation. JP is known for his dependability, diligence, and excellent communication skills, always welcoming new challenges and opportunities for personal growth.
Other SANDBOX Locations
Visit THE SANDBOX in Goleta
at 69 Santa Felicia Drive in Goleta, California.
Visit THE SANDBOX in Paso Robles
at 1345 Park Street in Paso Robles, California.
