Eleanor R. Montaño, Chair

Frank S. Bacio, Vice Chair

Donald S. Andrews

Barbara Bigby

Susan Burton

Cheryl Grills, Ph.D.

Anne S. Hill

Click Commissioner Biographies to learn more about our Commissioners.

Commission Members & Biographies

Eleanor R. Montaño

Chairperson

Representing the

Fourth Supervisorial District

Eleanor R. Montaño was appointed to the Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections in 1993 by Supervisor Deane Dana, and subsequently reappointed by Supervisor Don Knabe.

After serving ten years as Vice-Chair, Ms. Montaño was elected Chair of the Commission in 2004 following the passing of founder and long-time chair Sybil Brand. She continues in her active role as Chair today. Her extensive background in public and human relations and her experience in dealing with the problems of youth and gang violence, and violence against women, make her an invaluable asset to the Commission.

Ms. Montaño has served on the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations since 1984, including a term as President. She has been a tireless volunteer throughout her life for various welfare organizations and law enforcement agencies. Ms. Montaño serves on more than 29 community boards, commissions, advisory councils and committees. She has been a member of the California Youth Authority Advisory Council since 1975, and serves on the Los Angeles Police Department Board of Rights, the Los Angels Police Commission’s Hispanic Advisory council, and has served on the City of Los Angeles Harbor Area Planning Commission.

As Commissioner, Ms. Montaño has worked tirelessly to ensure the safety and well-being of children placed in custodial residential settings, group homes, and detention camps. She also devotes her energy to gangs and the repercussions of gang violence. Ms. Montaño serves with Women against Gun Violence, the ADHOC Committee on Gang and Juvenile Justice, and serves as President of Mothers and Men against Gangs. She has been a member of the Harbor area LAPD Crisis Response Team since 1992, helping to console victims of violent crimes, provide interpretive services, and direct them to community support services. In addition, Ms. Montaño has served as a Crime Prevention Specialist for the LAPD since 1984.

Ms. Montaño has been honored with over 300 awards for her community service. Some of her recent awards include: the YWCA Silver Achievement Award for Community Service, the Cesar Chavez Community Service Award, the Nordstrom Community Service Award, the Community Citizen of the Year Award, and the Tom Coulter Memorial Award (Boys and Girls Club of Wilmington). She has also been honored with the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission Outstanding Volunteer Service Award, the United States Department of Justice Public Service Award, and in 2005 she received the Police Department Service Medal, the highest honor a civilian can receive by the Los Angeles Police Commission. In 2007 Commissioner Montaño received the Bishop Blake Impact Award, voted by the “Military-Fire Department-Law Enforcement Committee” of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ.

Ms. Montaño is an accomplished cake decorator, and also enjoys dancing, and making and collecting porcelain dolls.

Frank S. Bacio

Vice Chairperson

Representing the

First Supervisorial District

Frank S. Bacio was appointed to the Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections by Supervisor Gloria Molina in 1998.

Mr. Bacio provided correctional education for the Los Angeles County jails for twenty-three years. He currently serves as an adult school counselor and advisor for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He also worked in customer service for the Southern California Gas Company for twenty years.

Mr. Bacio is an avid sports enthusiast and enjoys playing golf, attending sporting events with his family and friends, and “getting away to the desert and relaxing”.

Mr. Bacio is a native of Los Angeles and attended local schools. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education from California State University, Los Angeles. Mr. Bacio and his wife are the proud parents of four grown children.

Donald S. Andrews

Commission Member

Representing the

Fourth Supervisorial District

Commissioner Donald S. Andrews was appointed to the Commission by Supervisor Don Knabe on May 29, 2012.

Mr. Andrews was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended Los Angeles High School and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Education with Specialization in Marketing and Real Estate. While attending UCLA, Commissioner Andrews was a member of the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity.

After graduation from UCLA, Commissioner Andrews joined the California Air National Guard. Upon completion of training, he entered into Agribusiness in 1959 as a Managing Partner/Owner of a fully integrated agricultural growing, packaging, processing and Marketing Company.

Over the years, Commissioner Andrews has been appointed and served on several Commissions/Committees including the following: Vice Chair Marketing Committee, California Iceberg Lettuce Commission; Board Alternate, California Iceberg Lettuce Advisory; Board member, California Melon Research; Member, Western Growers Association; Member, Agricultural Personnel Management Association; Co-Chair, California Department of Food and Agriculture Standardization Committee; President, Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association; Regional Employer Representative-Negotiator Master Collective Bargaining Agreements with Teamster, AFL-CIO, and United Farm Works Unions.

Commissioner Andrews was appointed and served two terms under two Governors (one term each) as the President of the 15^th District Agricultural Association.

Commissioner Andrews also has a background in commercial banking since 1991 and has served as a Director of San Joaquin Bank, where he served on audit, compensation, loan, asset/liability management and investment committees.

Commissioner Andrews enjoys spending time with his family. His non-business interests are sports and aviation.

Barbara Bigby

Commission Member

Representing the

Fifth Supervisorial District

Commissioner Barbara Bigby was appointed to the Commission by Supervisor Michael Antonovich on June 17, 2008.

Ms. Bigby is a native of Minden, Louisiana. As an infant, her family moved to California where she attended school in the Pasadena Unified School District. Ms. Bigby attended Pasadena City College, majoring in Early Childhood Development.

Ms. Bigby is married to Richard H. Bigby Jr. and has three wonderful children, Alicia, Tiffany, and Richard H. Bigby III. Ms. Bigby has four grandchildren.

Ms. Bigby was the owner and Director of the Bright Eyed Day Care Center for over thirty years. Ms. Bigby also worked diligently for twenty years, as a youth counselor for her church, so it is no surprise that she is a strong advocate for children.

Serving in many other leadership roles throughout the community, Ms. Bigby has always tried to make a “positive difference” in her personal and professional life, and in the lives of those she touches.

Ms. Bigby is an active member of the Altadena Branch NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), where she successfully chaired their annual fund raiser for the past four years, putting the Branch on a sound financial footing. She has served as 1^st Vice President of the Altadena Branch, and was elected President on November 28^th for the 2007-2008 Term. Her Passion for youth inspired the selection of her Education Platform that focuses on “Education Advocacy and Excellence.” The crisis in education throughout the County has promoted only positive and supportive responses from the community. Ms. Bigby feels “Education” is the civil rights issue of the 21^st Century, but she is hopeful that working together will “Make the Difference in Our Community.”

Ms. Bigby has also served on the following fund raising committees:

• Pasadena/Altadena Y.W.C.A.

• The DeVeal Family Services Foundation in Pasadena

She also served on the following advisory committees:

• African American Advisory Committee at Pasadena City College, founded by California State Senator, Jack Scott

• Altadena Community Center Advisory Board (ACCAB)

• Appointed as Commissioner to Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections by Supervisor Michael Antonovich

Ms. Bigby combines her passion, dedication, honesty, integrity, and knowledge when approaching diverse community issues.

Susan Burton

Commissioner

Representing the

Second Supervisorial District

Commissioner Susan Burton was appointed to the Commission by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas on May 29, 2012.

Ms. Burton is the founder of A New Way of Life Reentry Project, a grassroots, nonprofit organization founded in 1998, to help women and girls break the cycle of entrapment in the criminal justice system and lead healthy and satisfying lives.

Commissioner Burton was formerly incarcerated; trapped in the criminal justice system for nearly two decades before finding freedom and sobriety in 1997. She has since made it her life’s mission to help other women adversely affected by the problems of incarceration and addiction by providing them with safety, support, and a second chance. For her efforts, she was named a CNN Top Ten Hero for 2010. Commissioner Burton was also awarded the prestigious Citizen Activist Award from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

In July 2012 Commissioner Burton was appointed by 2^nd District Supervisor, Mark Ridley Thomas, to be a member of the Los Angeles County Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections, in recognition of her insight and leadership.

Cheryl Tawede Grills, Ph.D.

Commission Member

Representing the

Second Supervisorial District

Commissioner Cheryl Grills, Ph.D. was appointed to the Commission by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas on November 29, 2011.

Dr. Grills is a clinical psychologist by training with a current emphasis in Community Psychology. She is Professor of Psychology at Loyola Marymount University and Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts.

Dr. Grills is the national President of The Association of Black Psychologists and founder and director of Imoyase Community Support Services, a non-profit program evaluation and consulting organization serving community-based organizations and foundations around the country. Among the honors and awards she has received is her election in 2004 to the title of "Distinguished Psychologist" by the Association of Black Psychologists (the association's highest honor).

Dr. Grills is a graduate of Yale University and UCLA. Her research interests, publications and current projects include African-centered models of treatment engagement with African Americans; substance abuse prevention and treatment, community psychology; community mental health, prevention, and the provision of action research and program evaluation services to community based organizations engaged in social action, community change and prevention on a host of issues including the those related to public policy and environmental change strategies to address childhood obesity in communities of color, education reform, health care, slum housing, homelessness, the prison industrial complex, reentry reduction of recidivism from incarceration for African American women, culturally based approaches to mentoring, and issues related to disproportionality in child welfare and juvenile justice.

Dr. Grills consults nationally on a number of issues particularly regarding matters of cultural and social competence, multiculturalism and Africentric interventions. She has also studied under traditional medical practitioners in Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal and is a registered member of the Ghana National Association of Traditional Healers.

Anne Hill

Commission Member

Representing the

Fifth Supervisorial District

Commissioner Anne Hill was appointed to the Commission by Supervisor Michael Antonovich on June 2, 2009.

Ms. Hill has served on many boards such as the YMCA, and the Braille Institute. After caring for her children, she was employed as Chief of Staff for Assemblyman Bill Lancaster followed by Chief Operating Officer for Rose Hills Memorial Park.

Retired, Ms. Hill has been married for 48 years, has two children and a granddaughter who is in law school.

Founder

SYBIL BRAND

FOUNDER

Sybil Brand, philanthropist and civic leader, was the recipient of over 2,000 awards, commendations, and resolutions in recognition of her generosity and lifetime commitment on behalf of the people of Los Angeles County.

In 1948, Sybil Brand accepted an appointment to the Public Welfare Commission. Later, when no one on the Commission wanted to serve on the Jail Committee, Sybil Brand volunteered.

While serving in this capacity, Sybil Brand saw the necessity to improve the overcrowded conditions of incarcerated juveniles, men, and in particular women. Sybil visited the women inmates who were housed on the 13^th floor of the men’s jail in the old Hall of Justice and was appalled that more than 1,800 women were crammed into facilities designed for 1,200. It was then that Sybil began to look for space in new buildings or to convert usable space in existing buildings as potential sites for housing women inmates. When a suitable facility could not be found, Sybil campaigned and was instrumental in the passage of a bond measure which provided funds not only for a women’s facility, but also for a new men’s jail and several honor camps. In 1963, the Sybil Brand Institute for Women was opened and renamed in her honor at the dedication ceremony for the facility.

The title of the Commission was officially changed when Sybil was honored by the Board of Supervisors on her 90^th birthday and 50^th year working for the people of the County. Sybil served as Chairman of the Commission until her recent death on February 17^th, 2004. She was believed to be 104.

Charitable programs very dear to Mrs. Brand’s heart include “Babies With AIDS”, the “Teddy Bear Program” for children who have to face the ordeal of going to dependency court hearings, and the Jeffrey Foundation.

In 1994, the Sybil Brand Institute for Women was severely damaged during the Northridge Earthquake. Since that time, women inmates are being housed in Twin Tower Two of the new Twin Towers Facility in Downtown Los Angeles until the plan to reopen the Sybil Brand Institute for Women is realized.