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Bonnie Carroll presents Randy Rowse, Mayor of Santa Barbara the 2025 Sister Cities International Annual Award. | Credit: Bonnie Carroll 
Sister Cities International 2025 Annual Award for Innovation in Business, Trade and Professional Exchange to City of Santa Barbara Sister Cities | Credit: Bonnie Carroll 
Mayor Randy Rowse with 2025 Sister Cities International Award | Credit: Bonnie Carroll
(Santa Barbara, CA August 6, 2025) — The City of Santa Barbara was awarded The Sister Cities International Innovation in Business, Trade, and Professional Exchange 2025 Award for cities with a population of 25,001 to 100,000, which was announced at the SCI Annual Awards Program showcasing the achievements of sister cities programs, offering international recognition for their contribution to the citizen diplomacy movement. Established in 1962, Sister Cities International created this program to honor the outstanding sister city initiatives.
Recipients of the 2025 Annual Awards were announced at the SCI Awards Ceremony and Diplomatic Dinner in Fort Worth Texas on July 22, held during the Summer Leadership meeting. The keynote speaker for the 2025 Awards Diplomatic Dinner was Mary Jean Eisenhower, proud granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the international founder of Sister Cities International, an organization focused on people-to-people diplomacy. Sister Cities International President and CEO Ricki R. Garrett and SCI Board Chair Carlo Capua presented awards to 2025 winners in attendees.
The Sister Cities Brand Marketing Campaign winning proposal for City of Santa Barbara was created and implemented by Bonnie Carroll with assistance from Santa Barbara SCI member volunteers and was entered for award consideration by Carroll, an SCI Sister Cities Board member and three-year member of Santa Barbara Puerto Vallarta Sister Cities Board of Directors. City of Santa Barbara won the prestigious 2025 Annual Award in recognition of their outstanding work in 2024 as best in its category of Innovation in Business, Trade, and Professional Exchange 2025 for cities with a population of 25,001 to 100,000 to advance the goals and mission of Sister Cities International, while focusing on the importance of people-to-people diplomacy.
Mayor Randy Rowse met with Bonnie Carroll to accept the 2025 Sister Cities International Business, Trade and Professional exchange winning award. The Sister Cities Award will be on display with countless other SCI gifts and awards in Mayor’s office. The kind support of area business and city partners including George Lilly SJL, Boone Graphics, Visit Santa Barbara, Grace Fisher Clubhouse, Newquist-Nolan Quittner Santa Barbara, Friends of City of Santa Barbara Library-Michael Towbes Library Plaza, and City of Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market helped make 2025 an award-winning year for Sister Cities of Santa Barbara.
“As Mayor of the City of Santa Barbara I am particularly pleased with the performance as well as the continued dedication of our Sister Cities groups. I think we have set a standard that is enviable worldwide, and we have fabulous relationships with all our sister cities. Thank you very much for this award, and it will be displayed prominently in City Hall,” said Mayor Rowse.
Kudos to Mayor Rowse, who attends SCI City Hall meetings, the board liaison Councilman Oscar Gutierrez, Holly Perea, Assistant to the Mayor, and volunteer Linda Gunther for their ongoing support of the City of Santa Barbara Sister Cities Committees including Kotor, Montenegro, Patras, Greece, Weihai, China, Toba, Japan, Miraflores, Peru and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by Sister Cities International for the 2025 Best Innovation in Business, Trade, and Professional Exchange proposal and Annual Award on behalf of all our members who work so hard to make the City of Santa Barara SCI programs successful, along with our amazing SCI partners throughout the world. They say it takes a village, or in this case a great city, to shine a light on the importance of creating winning member relationships with good planning and clear communication. We are all grateful for this recognition and look forward to participating again in 2026,” said Carroll.
The list of 2025 winners of all eight Sister Cities International categories and three special individual honors is available at http://www.sistercities.org. Sister Cities International serves as the national membership organization for 465 U.S. communities with over 1,800 partnerships in more than 138 countries on six continents. For City of Santa Barbara Sister Cities membership information please visit http://www.santabarbara.gov.
