Top women 2026: Arianna Castellanos
Central Coast native learned to think globally
By L. Wayne Hicks
Special to the Business Times
Arianna Castellanos saw from a young age the importance of good vision. Her father had a glass contact lens shatter in his eye, putting him out of work for months while he recovered his sight. Her mother was born with a cataract in her left eye, necessitating a contact lens she couldn’t do without.
“Some mornings it would fall down the drain,” Castellanos said. “We’d have to stop all operations. We had to help find that contact lens.”
Castellanos today helps considerably more people than just her mother. As the vice president of programs for SEE International, Castellanos oversees a 13-person staff responsible for ensuring the necessary supplies get to where volunteer doctors have gathered to perform surgeries. The nonprofit organization, based in Santa Barbara, aims to help people facing preventable blindness and does so in 40 countries. The most common surgery is cataract removal.
Castellanos has seen firsthand the remarkable effects that come from this relatively common surgery. She traveled to Guatemala a couple of years ago, watching for more than a week as doctors removed cataracts and performed other eye surgeries.
“It truly was a 10-minute surgery,” she said of the cataract removal. “By the next day, when the patch was removed, people could see and they couldn’t see before. It sounds so magical in so many ways, something out of a Disney movie.”
The surgeons sometimes operate on hundreds of patients during a weeklong visit, which is coordinated with a local hospital.
Castellanos, who grew up in Santa Barbara, joined SEE International in 2021 after more than six years handling provider relations at CenCal Health.
“I envisioned myself being there for a long time,” she said. “I just really liked the idea of helping people. That’s always been something that fulfills me.” But the job was feeling a bit stagnant and when a friend recruited her to SEE International, Castellanos couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “I’m one of those people that if you pose a change in front of me, I’m going to take a shot at it.”
Rachel Tennant, vice president of medical member relations at SEE International, said Castellanos is driven by the “deeply rooted care she has for her family, her community, and humanity as a whole.” Tennant joined the organization in 2018. “Having worked with her for years, she is a supportive colleague driving for collective success, a friend who sparks inspiration, and heavily involves herself with community organizations.”
Since its start in Santa Barbara in 1974, doctors with SEE International have performed more than 750,000 surgeries and treated more than five million patients in 54 countries, according to its website. The organization relies on a network of hundreds of volunteer ophthalmologists. In addition to providing treatment, the doctors train colleagues around the world to perform cataract surgery.
SEE International also provides vision screening through its SEE Vision Care program in Santa Barbara County. They offer comprehensive exams and other help for people who otherwise would not be able to afford the service.
Castellanos recalled one screening where she met a third-grade girl who had been falling behind in school and tripping on the playground. The screening showed she needed an extremely strong prescription for glasses to see anything.
“We worked with a local partner here, within 24 hours got her glasses and the success of her growth from having those was astronomical,” said Castellanos, who herself began wearing glasses in the fifth grade.
Castellanos, mother of two teenagers, is the middle of three sisters. They regularly gather at her parents’ house on Sundays. Her mother’s vision has been improved by two corneal transplants — the first didn’t work, so it had to be repeated.
“My mom still continues to have ongoing vision deterioration,” Castellanos said. “She just turned 70 but she’s been so fortunate to be able to see the birth of all seven of her grandchildren, and she’s seen her three daughters progress in life.”
Castellanos, who studied sociology in college, receives emails from people seeking help. But there’s nothing the organization can do when the request is from someone who was born blind, “and they’re asking us for some miracle. It’s a hard place to be in when you can’t offer them their vision back. They don’t have a preventable illness.”
Vision, she said, is not something most people worry about, “but it truly is so important because it’s one of our strongest senses. We really do lose a good portion of our independence when we don’t have our vision. It’s really rewarding. It really aligns with my values of what I’m here to do in life. I go to work every day, always remembering my mom.”
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