Vestry

Gloria Galindo

I am a native San Franciscan who has the wonderful, good fortune of living in the house where I grew up. My large Mexican family is mostly scattered throughout the bay area, and I feel blessed to have been given the life I have. Looking around for a way to give back, I earned my teaching credential and have been both teacher and administrator in San Francisco Unified for the past twenty-four years.

It was about thirteen years ago that I was first introduced to St. Mary the Virgin. My wife, Mari Coates, had joined the choir so I began joining her at the service. I grew up in the Catholic Church and spent all my schooling within the confines of that church. To say that I did not have a positive view of organized religion puts it mildly, but from my very first visit to an Episcopal Church, I knew it was different. I felt completely accepted as a lesbian and as a Mexican. As time went on, I found that I wanted to participate on a deeper level at St. Mary’s, so when I was asked to join the Altar Guild eight years ago, I immediately said yes. It has been an honor and a blessing to grow in this parish and become an integral part of it, and, if elected to the vestry, I look forward to serving.

Nancy Clothier

Nancy is a native San Franciscan. . She and husband Tom raised their 3 children in the Sunset District. They have one granddaughter.

Nancy began attending St. Mary's in 1993 with a focus on outreach and adult education. In 1999, she volunteered to provide a website for the church and has been webmaster ever since. Nancy has also participated in Pastoral Care, is a member of the Altar Guild and a member of the vestry.

John Adair

John grew up in the Minneapolis area and regularly attended St. Luke’s Episcopal Church with his family. He received a BA with distinction from Northwestern University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley. John is a real estate investor and is currently the Founder and Managing Partner of Glencrest Group. Prior to Glencrest, John was the Principal in charge of capital transactions for Prime Residential and an attorney with Orrick. He is a licensed real estate broker, active member of the California State Bar, and has passed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam.

Ava Eichler

Ava grew up in Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University. She is a graduate of Iowa Lutheran School of Nursing. She worked as an OR nurse for ten years; as an office nurse for four years. She created a Personal Assistant Business with five clients for ten years and was with one single client for fifteen years. She is now retired. Ava was raised in the Lutheran Church, but had come away from it in her 20's. She was drawn to St. Mary's by a friend and joined in 1983 when her 12-year-old daughter was baptized. She has stayed ever since - singing in the adult choir for many years, chairing the Pantry for Tidings of Comfort and Joy for two years, was a member of the Grant Team for eight years, was Chair and Co-Chair of the Grant Team for five years. She is a widow of six years, lives near her daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters in Tiburon along with her dog CoCo.

Lynne Dombrowski

Lynne was raised in Gary, Indiana. She has an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. For the last 27 years, Lynne has worked as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice in their Civil Division, Health Quality Enforcement Section.

Lynne was raised in the Episcopal Church, which was a chosen compromise between her parents who were raised Catholic (father) and Presbyterian (mother).Lynne discovered St. Mary’s shortly after moving to San Francisco in 1990 and found her spiritual home.

Lynne has served two previous terms on the St Mary's Vestry, with the Rev. Richard Fowler and with the Rev. Dr. Jason Parkin. She has served as a volunteer Youth Group leader, was a founding member of The Boomers’ house group in the 1990’s, and has organized the annual Parish Retreats, pancake suppers, Progressive Dinners, along with many other SMV community events. Lynne is an alum of the Cursillo program, and a graduate of the Education for Ministry’s (EFM) four-years’ small group study program. Recently, Lynne was a facilitator/participant for the inaugural St. Mary’s-sponsored Sacred Ground racial justice discussion series. For the last ten years, Lynne has been singing with the Parish Choir at the 11 a.m. service. You may also find her participating as the lector on Sunday mornings.

Elizabeth Falcon

Elizabeth Falcon is a CPA and the VP of Finance and Operations at The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) where she has worked for the last 8 years. She is deeply passionate about CAMFED's nonprofit mission to help educate and empower young women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to working for CAMFED, Elizabeth worked as a public accountant in Washington, D.C., auditing nonprofit organizations. She volunteers at The Commonwealth Club of California, The Junior League of San Francisco, and City Arts and Lectures. Elizabeth is a graduate of Claremont McKenna where she received a dual major in Psychology and Economics-Accounting. She grew up in Palo Alto and was confirmed at Trinity Episcopal Church in Menlo Park. Elizabeth enjoys being with her family and spending as much time as possible outdoors in the Aptos redwoods, her favorite spot. Elizabeth has been a parishioner at SMV since 2014, has served on the Finance Committee since 2018, and is extraordinarily grateful to be a part of the special SMV parish community.

Russell Fudge

Russell began active church service as a youth choir member at Christ Episcopal Church in Manlius New York. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in civil engineering in 1960 and, after working for a structural engineering firm in New York City for a year, spent two years in the Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland. He then came west to earn a graduate degree in Structural Engineering from UC Berkeley. Upon graduation in 1964 he commenced a term of over 50 years at the structural engineering firm GFDS Engineers where he became a Principal. One of his most significant achievements was as structural engineer for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC.

Russell began attending St Mary in the late 1970’s along with his son Gerard who served as an acolyte and his daughter Rachel who sang in the choir. His service at St Mary began as Sunday School teacher and moved on to lay Eucharistic minister. He served two terms on the vestry. Russell was coordinator for the lay Eucharistic visitor ministry for several years. He served on the building committee during the major renovation of the parish hall and Pixley House. Until Covid restrictions altered the program, he joined the volunteers who delivered food packages on behalf of the San Francisco Marin Food Bank.

Russell married Emily Swartz in 1967. When their son Gerard was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, Emily and Russell formed a parent support group that became the Hydrocephalus Association. Emily served as the executive director for over 20 years. Both Emily and Russell served on the board of directors and devoted a great deal of energy to its mission for many years. The Association has become an important funder of medical research directed toward finding a cure for the condition and serves the needs of those affected by the condition on an international basis. Gerard died in 1992.

Stephen Gamboa

Stephen Gamboa, MD, MPH. I was raised in South Carolina in the Presbyterian church. But after 12 years at an Episcopal school, Episcopal summer camp, and youth group at the Episcopal church in Charleston, becoming an Episcopalian was inevitable. I earned an AB in Art History from Davidson College (alma mater of Stephen Curry) and an MD from the University of North Carolina. I completed two residency trainings, one in Family Medicine and the other in Emergency Medicine. Early in my career, I earned an additional degree in health policy and management at Harvard University. I currently work at Kaiser Hospital, San Francisco as an emergency physician and a hospitalist, which means that I care for patients sick enough to be in the hospital or emergency room. I also teach medical students and residents as an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF. Before coming to St Mary's, my family and I were parishioners at the Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa. When we moved to San Francisco in 2016, we quickly found a spiritual home at St Mary's. We feel immensely blessed to be part of the community we've found here. As parents, we've especially appreciated how St Mary's supports our children in their spiritual journeys. I'd be honored to serve as part of your vestry and hope that I'm able to use whatever talents I've been given to serve the parish.

Georgene Keeler

I arrived in San Francisco in 1980, and within days found St. Mary’s. I have been on too many committees to remember. One of the most meaningful was the major assistance the church gave to the start of the Episcopal Sanctuary, from organizing bedding, to making sandwiches, and eventually to being a part of the original board. I served as a short-term replacement on the vestry in the early 1980s and co-chaired one of our very early fund raisers. My profession as an investment advisor earned me a place on the parish Endowment Committee. I care deeply about the future of the Church and have served on the Diocesan Commission on Ministry, and as Chair of the Board of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. I also served on several St. Mary’s discernment committees. I plan to return to being a chalice bearer and lector when we return to regular services. These are very special activities in my life. I have been blessed to find a home that truly feeds my soul.

Georgia Burke Lu

My husband, David, and I joined St. Mary’s in 2016. We had not been part of a church community for some time but we were drawn to St. Mary’s, and decided to give it a try. It felt like home from the start and we were grateful to have so easily found a spiritual home and a loving community. David died two years ago and I have particularly felt the embrace of St. Mary’s since then.

I grew up Catholic in Buffalo, went to college outside New York City, taught in Japan for two years, then worked in international trade with the Commerce Department in Washington DC. I then switched gears, went to Georgetown Law, and have spent the rest of my career as an attorney, both in Washington and, since 1991, in the Bay area. My earlier career was in private practice, but I have spent the last 15 years in health care policy advocacy with a non-profit focused on improving the lives of low-income older adults. I also served on the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Association of California.

I have enjoyed participating in the life of St. Mary’s as a reader and Eucharistic Visitor, and as part of the Adult Formation Committee. During COVID, I have particularly been grateful to be able to be part of the Food Bank ministry, which offered the opportunity to do something small, but tangible, in response to the pain of this period. I would be honored to serve on the Vestry and further deepen my ties to St. Mary’s.

Lauren MacDonald

Lauren MacDonald is the Dean of the Library and Academic Resources and Director for the Museum of Art at Saint Mary’s College of California. Lauren has worked as an academic librarian and teaching faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, Dominican University of California, and a number of California community colleges. Lauren is an Architectural Historian and has participated in historic preservation projects in the San Francisco Bay Area and the California Central Valley.

Lauren, the daughter and granddaughter of Episcopal priests, began attending Saint Mary the Virgin in 2013, and regularly attends the 11 a.m. service. She had the privilege of serving as a member of the most recent Search Committee that welcomed Rev. David Erickson to Saint Mary’s.

Lauren lives in San Francisco and holds a B.A. in Art History and History from Dominican University of California, a M.A. in Architectural History from the University of Virginia, and a M.S. in Library and Information Science from Drexel University.

Matt Spitzer

Originally from Manhattan Beach, CA, I grew up attending Lutheran and then Episcopal churches. I went to college at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where I studied Biology and Economics. During these years, I was fortunate to meet the Rev. David Erickson, who at that time joined the clergy of my home parish, St. Cross, in Hermosa Beach. I first moved to the Bay Area for my graduate studies in Immunology at Stanford University, where I met my future wife, Laura. We both earned our doctorates in Biomedical Sciences and were parishioners at Trinity Episcopal Church in Menlo Park during those years. We moved to San Francisco thereafter, where I am a faculty member at UCSF. My research lab studies the immune system, with a focus on immune responses to cancer, with the goal of developing better cancer therapies that harness the immune system. Once we realized that Rev. David was the Rector of St Mary’s, we found our way there. We were married in the church, and we have continually been impressed by the generosity and welcoming nature of the community over the last years.