By Morgan Green
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
SEPTEMBER 22, 2003
(Reproduced with permission from Santa Barbara News-Press)
The two Santa Barbara natives will be honored by the council during an awards banquet at the Four Seasons Biltmore Resort in Montecito. The annual event is to publicly recognize Hispanics for their professional accomplishments and volunteer contributions to the community, according to a council news release.
Ms. Lopez started her television career at KEYT-TV as an intern, working her way up to news co-anchor and later becoming noon news anchor at KCAL in Los Angeles.
She returned to KEYT in 1996, where she is evening anchor. Ms. Lopez has received a Los Angeles-area Emmy Award and a Golden Mike Award for news broadcasting. She is a member of the Peabody Charter School Foundation board, the Lobero Theatre advisory board and the Unity Shoppe, and has been on the directing boards of local nonprofits fighting AIDS and lung and heart disease. Ms. Lopez and her husband, Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa, have three children.
Mr. Banales helped establish the Eastside Neighborhood Clinic and the community Health Task Force, now Zona Seca. After establishing a successful Allstate insurance agency in Santa Barbara, Mr. Banales returned to Zona Seca in 1993. He was instrumental in more than tripling the Zona Seca budget to $2.6 million. The organization has served more than 40,000 people in its 34-year history.
Mr. Banales is chairman of the California Hispanic Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, was president of the Santa Barbara Regional Chamber of Commerce and has served on the Hutton Foundation board of directors.
He and his wife, Pauline Banales, have six children.