New Members and Chair Named for Cottage Health Board of Directors

Roberta L. Griffin, Dr. Robin Malone, and Dr. Wesley Schooler have joined the volunteer Board of Directors for Cottage Health, a not-for-profit leader in providing advanced medical care to California’s Central Coast region. In addition, Steven C. Zola, who joined the board in 2017, has been elected as Chair. 

Roberta L. Griffin is the Vice President of Asset Management at Fespar Enterprises in Santa Barbara, and was formerly the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Previously she was with Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts, LLC, as Special Advisor to the President.

She received a master’s degree in finance from the University of Colorado, Denver; and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Ms. Griffin is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She also serves on the Board of the Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts (The Granada Theater) as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee. 

Dr. Robin Malone is a board-certified emergency physician practicing at Cottage Health. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics at University of California, Santa Barbara, and her medical degree from Georgetown University. She completed her residency at George Washington University.

In 2007, Dr. Malone practiced at the Lompoc Valley Medical Center and Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital emergency departments. She joined Cottage Health full-time in 2009.

Dr. Malone is a partner at South Coast Emergency Medical Group and practices full-time at Santa Barbara and Goleta Valley Cottage Hospitals where she has been Chair of Emergency Medicine since 2017.  She is a member of the Santa Barbara County Medical Society and the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. Wesley G. Schooler is board certified in both plastic and hand surgery and is the Chief Plastic Surgeon at Santa Barbara Plastic Surgery Center. Prior to joining the surgery center in 2012, Dr. Schooler served five years as the Chief of Plastic surgery at LAC-USC Medical Center, and was Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Southern California. 

He earned his medical degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine Chapel Hill, followed by his internship and residency at University of North Carolina Hospitals Chapel Hill. Dr. Schooler completed his fellowship at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco and the Hand Center of San Antonio. 

Steven C. Zola, who has served on the Cottage Health Board since 2017, has been elected as the Chair. 

Other elected members of the board include the following: 

Vice Chairs
Susan Christol-Deacon
Thomas J. Cusack
Dorothy Largay, Ph.D.

Secretary
Richard S. Ponce, M.D.

Immediate Past Chair
Gregory F. Faulkner

Members of the Cottage Health Board of Directors serve without compensation to guide the not-for-profit Cottage hospitals in the mission to provide superior health care for and improve the health of our communities through a commitment to our core values of excellence, integrity and compassion. 

About Cottage Health  cottagehealth.org

The not-for-profit Cottage Health is the leader in providing advanced medical care to the Central Coast region.  Specialties include the Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Level 1 Trauma Center, Neuroscience Institute, Heart & Vascular Center, Center for Orthopedics, and Rehabilitation Hospital. The Cottage Health medical staff is comprised of more than 700 physicians, many with subspecialties typically found only at university medical centers. Last year, the Cottage Health hospitals in Goleta, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley provided inpatient care for 21,000 people, treated 80,000 patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,100 newborns. Cottage Health also offers Cottage Urgent Care Centers throughout the tri-counties, as well as 24-hour access to providers via Cottage Virtual Care, an online service for common conditions.