The Brill Family Foundation
The Brill Family Foundation is currently interested in finding ways to encourage the use of emerging technologies like AI and VR in the Arts to positively impact human consciousness and engender qualities like empathy, trust, connection, and awe.
Peter Brill
Co-Founder
Peter Brill received his M.D. from U.C.L.A. and became a board certified psychiatrist after his residency at the University of Pennsylvania. He also attended the Wharton School of Business where he became a Senior Fellow. He founded and directed the Center for the Study of Adult Development affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He consulted to over 150 organizations, founded and ran two national companies, while carrying out a private practice. He is a best-selling author who has appeared numerous times on radio and television, and has also lectured internationally. Read More >
Karen Brill Co-Founder
Karen Lombardo Brill is a devoted advocate for, and steward of, the arts and the environment. She is currently on the board of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and previously served the as a docent for 20 years specializing in youth education. She was named Docent of the Year in 2018, and served as President of the Museum Docent Council from 2005-2006. After training with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, she created and co-leads its Santa Barbara chapter and served on The Community Environmental Council’s Partnership Council. She has also served on the boards of Angels Foster Care, Canticle A Capella Choir, and the Santa Barbara Choral Society, where she sings as a soprano.
Karen holds an M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from Temple University, trained as a school consultant at Villanova University, and studied family therapy with The Family Council of Philadelphia. She has worked with families and individuals as a psychotherapist.
Oriana Sanders Executive Director
Oriana obtained a BA in Community Studies from UCSC, with a focus on the intersection of social justice and cultural arts. She has a consulting business providing executive support, marketing functions and consultation to other creatives, and people who are in the business of helping people. She is also a singer, songwriter, performer and recording artist who has performed, recorded, produced, managed, planned and promoted events for the last 24 years.
The Brill Family Foundation has given a total of $538,659 to date, including recent grants in the following sectors:
$131,550 to Social Benefits
$148,830 to Arts and Culture
$84,000 to Education
$71,759 to Human Services
In addition to wide variety of smaller grants in the areas noted, the Foundation has carried on four eras of leading edge work:
Third Age Foundation was the first effort of the Brill Foundation. Its focus was centered around people 50 and over who were facing the third stage of life (1st Age: childhood, 2nd Age: career and family, 3rd Age: everything after). In the third age, time left to live becomes the backdrop of experience. As a result of this work, it was revealed that people at this stage of life want passion, purpose and joy. The Brill Foundation helped fund the staff that recruited guests for the “Third Age” radio show and well as the staff that formed and ran the foundation, its website and social media involvement. The Brill foundation also facilitated workshops for 1000 people, and a book called Finding Your J Spot: Joy in Midlife and Beyond.
Impact Investing was the second major proactive endeavor for the Brill Foundation. Impact investing promises to increase money available for the public good by finding situations that are win/win. The investments create clear public good while at the same time returning increased dollars to the donor or investor. The Brill Foundation invested in the field and then brought awareness of this potentially beneficial new area to Santa Barbara by holding a conference that brought 150 people to hear some of the leaders in the field. Subsequently, it helped fund the formation of two Santa Barbara organizations, one nonprofit and one for profit, to invest locally.
Future Benders was a series of grants the Brill Family Foundation distributed to a small number of qualified candidates who clearly demonstrated that they were at an inflection point to reach the next level of their proven professional development and impact fundamental change in their area of work. The priority was in amplifying someone’s recognized potential to bend the future of their field and have an impact in changing the system.
AI Artists Alliance – In early 2023, the Brill Foundation became enthralled by the potential of the fusion of four fields: consciousness, art, psychology, and technology, which led to the creation of a VR experience called Beautiful Journey. Through the development of that project an interest in AI was ignited. The Brill Foundation hosted an AI art exhibition in the Fall of 2025, titled “Symbiosis or Schism? The AI Human Odyssey,” that addressed the struggle between the opportunities that AI can bring and the potential risks. In addition to the exhibition, all artists selected for the show were awarded grants of various sizes, and a handful were selected for an ongoing artist accelerator group.