Board of Trustees

Area 1 trustee (central and northern Santa Maria)
Hilda Zacarías, President of the Board
Hilda Zacarías was elected for a four-year term in November 2012 to represent Area 1, which includes Northern Santa Maria. She is a local certified public accountant and organizational management consultant. She was recognized as one of 75 Distinguished Alumni during the 75^th anniversary of Allan Hancock College and received the Distinguished Service Award from Cal Poly State University. In 1993, she was the youngest person appointed and then elected to the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees, serving five years. Ms. Zacarías was elected in 2006 to the Santa Maria City Council and in 2010 was the Democratic nominee for the State Assembly. Ms. Zacarías completed her general education at Allan Hancock College, graduated with an accounting degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and received a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2006, which she attended as a Presidential Scholar Fellow. 

Area 2 trustee (SE Santa Maria, Orcutt, Cuyama Valley)
Dan Hilker
Dan Hilker, representative for the southeast area of Santa Maria, was elected to a four-year term in November 2016.  Hilker attended and taught at Allan Hancock College’s Law Enforcement Training Academy. He retired as a police officer for University of California, Santa Barbara. After leaving law enforcement, he traveled the world as a service engineer with Formost-Fuji; an international packaging machine manufacturer.  In 1994, he opened and operated Santa Maria Brewing Company—one of California’s first microbreweries. In 2010, he returned to Allan Hancock College as an equipment  specialist for the Law Enforcement Training Academy. He retired in 2016 to dedicate more time to his brewery expansion. Hilker is the first former full-time Hancock employee to hold a trustee position. He attended St. Joseph High School and has lived in Santa Maria since 1967. Hilker is a member of Kiwanis Club of Santa Maria. He spends his spare time fishing, restoring vintage motorcycles, and raising Siberian Huskies. 

Larry Lahr has represented the Santa Maria Valley since he was elected to his first four-year term in 1994. He has served as president of the board of trustees in 2000-01, 2006-07, and 2013-14 and as vice president in 1998-99, 2004-05 and 2011-12. He is president of Rincon Corp., a Central Coast company providing real estate and consulting services to agricultural clientele, and serves as a professional trustee for family trusts. He has served on the board of directors for Medco, a publicly owned pharmaceutical benefits manager based in New Jersey, Integrated Composites, Inc., a Marina, California company specializing in advanced composite materials, and Primus Labs based in Santa Maria, a food safety company. He has also previously served on the board for numerous non-profit groups, and currently serves on the WebMD Health Foundation board. He attended Allan Hancock College before earning a bachelor's degree at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, in agricultural business management.

Jeffery Hall was elected to represent the Lompoc Valley as the Area 4 Trustee in November 2016. Currently, he is a contract facilitator with the Santa Barbara County Department of Social Services. Previously, he spent 22 years with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and served as a substitute teacher. 
A Lompoc resident, Hall received an associate degree from Los Angeles Harbor College, a bachelor’s degree from St. Leo University, and studied for a master’s degree in psychology at Nova Southwestern University. Hall also earned a certificate in addiction studies from Allan Hancock College.  Hall served in the United States Army for 10 years and served in the Vietnam War. He is actively involved in the NAACP, Lompoc Valley Democratic Club, and Santa Barbara County Democratic Party Central Committee. Hall and his wife, Rose, are the proud parents of three children and one grandchild.

Area 5 trustee (Casmalia, Santa Ynez Valley, Vandenberg AFB)
Greg Pensa
Greg Pensa was elected in November 2010.     He represents Area 5, which includes the Santa Ynez Valley and northern Lompoc Valley. Mr. Pensa retired after working in Petroleum Marketing for 37 years. He is a 30+ year Rotarian, including past president and is a recipient of the Rotary Paul Harris Fellow. He is also the past president of The Valley Foundation, is current President of the Solvang Friendship House and is a founding member and former treasurer of the Indigenous Development Coordinators, a philanthropic group working with the needy in the Philippines. Mr. Pensa has been the radio voice of Santa Ynez Valley High School Football since 1983. His past service includes serving on the Allan Hancock College Foundation from 2001 to 2010, a trustee for the Solvang School District from 1988-1998, past president of the Buellton Business Association, and the Valley Haven Senior Day Care. He was selected as Santa Ynez Valley Man of the Year in 2013 by The Valley Foundation. Mr. Pensa earned an associate degree in business management from Allan Hancock College and a bachelor's degree in Telecommunications & film from San Diego State University.

Student Trustee

Heidi Mendiola

Heidi Mendiola begins her term as student trustee after serving as the executive director for the college's Associated Student Body Government. She is a sociology major and plans to transfer to a 4-year university to study criminology in 2020.  As student trustee, she plans to improve the college experience for students by encouraging and increasing student involvement including efforts to ensure every voice is heard. She hopes to make positive changes on both the Santa Maria and Lompoc campuses. Heidi plans to utilize the skills that she has learned through previous leadership experiences to better represent the students' needs and expectations on our campus.