By Lookout Staff

January 26, 2015 -- The Santa Monica History Museum reached back to the city’s roots in choosing a new chair for its board, Ricardo Bandini Johnson.

Bandini Johnson’s great-aunt, Arcadia Bandini de Baker – whose name is borne by Arcadia Terrace near the Santa Monica Pier -- was the wife of Santa Monica co-founder Colonel Robert S. Baker. The family has lived in California since 1810.

Johnson is the President of the Bandini Foundation, a non-profit organization that has run the Heroes Golf Course and Japanese Gardens at the West Los Angeles Greater VA Healthcare Center, most of whose employees are veterans, for the past three-and-a-half years. Bandini Johnson’s ancestors donated the VA property for disabled veterans.

Johnson has long ties to the museum and is the curator of its John P. Jones and Bandini Collections, which contain more than 5,000 photographs and records he helped catalogue, museum officials said.

The board also added three new members, officials said.

Jeffrey H. Haskett, a partner in Cohen & Bender Accountancy Corporation, is an active community member who volunteers in youth sports programs and assists local charities. He is an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and California Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Dr. Michelle Christie, founder and executive director of No Limits For Deaf Children, has been featured on OPRAH, The Learning Channel, NBC, CNN, PBS and numerous local news station throughout the nation for her non-profit work.

Annette Doss, the head cataloger at UCLA Film and Television Archive, is an arts and information professional with extensive experience in museum, archives and libraries. Doss has worked for the Santa Monica Museum of Art and the Getty Research Institute, and has served as a consultant at the Broad Art Foundation. She is an active member of the Society of California Archivists.

The new board members join the current board composed of 13 other members that include business and civic leaders.