Adjunct Professor Joins Foundation

Jason Eldred, adjunct professor of history at Westmont and vice president of the family management company operating the Storage Place, has joined the Westmont Foundation Board of Directors, which helps build connections between Westmont and the greater Santa Barbara community.

“Having the opportunity to serve the Christian community locally and globally through the college’s outreach is a dream come true. I’m delighted to further the mission of the college in Santa Barbara.”

Eldred won the 2018 Outstanding Adjunct Teaching Award at Westmont for his work teaching World Civilizations and Perspectives on World History for the past five years. “My passion is for education and my students,” he says. “I was trained as an historian and am a teacher at heart.”

Eldred graduated from William and Mary, earned a master’s at the University of St. Andrews and a doctorate at the University of Virginia. “That was an important part of growing up — I didn’t appreciate Santa Barbara until I lived somewhere else for 15 years,” he says.

His research focused on early modern England and the comparative origins of the English and Spanish empires. He specialized in early modern European history, early print culture and the book trade, with interests in the Atlantic world and colonial Latin America.

His father, Westmont alumnus Dave Eldred ’63, is a trustee emeritus.

“I grew up here with summer camps and was a ball boy for the basketball team,” he says. “The college has meant so much to my family and my life. So, to share what we know is true and good about the college with other people in Santa Barbara is a great opportunity and I’m excited to do it.”

He and his wife, Holly, whom he met at the University of Virginia, have two daughters.