Christina oversees all fundraising initiatives and operations for Athletics as well as assisting with leadership and major gifts.
Christina earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut in Sport Management. Previously, she worked in the Athletic Departments at the University of Connecticut and at Harvard University. Christina has served our campus the past eight years in Intercollegiate Athletics focusing on donor relations, external affairs and marketing.
In the Santa Barbara community Baglas serves on committees with the Special Olympics, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Santa Barbara Foodbank and the Organic Soup Kitchen. She has been lucky enough to work for the World University Games and has represented the United States Delegation for three World Games in Serbia, China, Russia and South Korea.
Now in his 5th year with the Gaucho Fund, Matt English serves as Senior Associate Athletics Director for Development. His primary focus is on major gifts for all sports within UCSB Athletics, including capital projects, endowments, annual giving and planned gifts. During his tenure with the department the Gaucho Fund has raised the three highest totals for a single fiscal year, including a record $10.2 million in 2018-19.
Prior to becoming a Gaucho, English was Director of Athletics at Concordia University, a NCAA Division II school in Portland, Oregon, with 15 sports and more than 300 student-athletes. He successfully led Concordia's application and acceptance to move from the NAIA to NCAA Division II. During his tenure the Cavaliers won seven straight Cascade Conference All-Sports titles and finished in the Top 20 of the Directors' Cup every year, including four Top 10 finishes. Concordia squads also won two national titles and made 57 national championship appearances. While at CU, he also helped lead a $7.5 million campaign to build Hilken Community Stadium, a multipurpose facility that served as home to the baseball and soccer teams. English was twice named Cascade Conference Athletic Director of the Year.
Before his time at Concordia, English worked for the University of Oregon's Duck Athletic Fund. He started as a graduate intern for the DAF, then became regional director of development and associate director of development for the fund before taking over as the interim executive director in June 2007. During English's tenure with the DAF, fundraising grew by more than 40 percent to $10.5 million.
A native Oregonian, English earned his B.A. in Business Finance from Seattle Pacific University and M.B.A. from the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center for Sports Business. Matt and his wife, Selena, are proud to call Santa Barbara home and have a daughter, Emary, and a son, Elijah.
In his role, Waid focuses on increasing philanthropic support to UC Santa Barbara by maximizing the interest, involvement and commitment of alumni, parents and friends as well as select corporations and foundations in the assigned regions for Intercollegiate Athletics.
Prior to joining the Gaucho Fund team, Waid served as the Associate Director of Development at UCSB's Graduate School of Education, overseeing the Annual Giving Program, worked closely with the Dean and Faculty members on major fundraising priorities, and led the fundraising efforts for the UCSB Koegel Autism Center.
A Ghanaian native and a former student athlete (Men's Soccer), Waid is a 2012 graduate of UC Santa Barbara, where he majored in Communications with a minor in Sports Management. He received his Master's in Business and Sports Administration from Northwestern University in 2017.
Waid lives in Santa Barbara with his wife, Carolyn and daughter, Emefa.
Laura Lum oversees the daily operation of the Athletics Development Office. Laura joined the Development team after 11 years in the Intercollegiate Athletics business office as operations coordinator.
Laura provides direct support to Christina Baglas, Matt English, Kevin Bromley, Mia Weber and Harrison Hughes both in the office and at Gaucho Fund Events. She is responsible for processing all donations and is our liaison to other departments across campus.
Laura is a long time Santa Barbara resident with many community ties. Prior to working at UCSB she worked for 11 years at Santa Barbara Research Center, leaving her job as Project Control Administrator to care for her children. Laura has been the Youth Director at Zodo's (Orchid Bowl) for the past 22 years. She has two daughters, Maile (Joshua) and Nicole (Zachary), a son Jeremy (Jennifer) and 6 grandchildren, Audrey, Elliot, Olivia, Jackson, Zachary and Mia.
Mia coordinates all UCSB Athletics annual fund giving campaigns, as well as all fundraisers and events. Mia earned her undergraduate degree in Philosophy from UC Santa Barbara. As an undergraduate student at UCSB she was an intern for the Intercollegiate Men's Soccer team and an intern for Nelligan Sports Marketing/Learfield Communications. After graduating, she became the Marketing Coordinator for Learfield Communications at UCSB.
Mia also is a member of the Events Center Governance Board at UCSB.
