Vestry

Gloria Galindo

Senior Warden

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. My studies in college were motivated by finding ways to give back, I earned my teaching and an administrative credential. I taught for many years in the San Francisco Unified School District. I have been a middle school and high school principal in San Francisco and the East Bay.

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 ten 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. It is a great honor to begin serving my second year as the Senior Warden. I have been rewarded tenfold through my ministry in Altar Guild, and now, as a member of the Vestry. Service is its own reward.

Lynne Dombrowski

Junior Warden

Lynne has an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. She recently retired, after 28 years of service, from working as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice in their Civil Division, Health Quality Enforcement Section.

Lynne was baptized in the Episcopal Church and spent her early years in Gary, Indiana.She discovered St. Mary’s shortly after moving to S.F. in 1990 and found her spiritual home.

Lynne served two previous terms on the SMV 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. Lynne currently sings with the Parish Choir at the 11 a.m. service, where she also participates as a lector.

Barbara Bernard

Vestry
I am a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and have been an Episcopalian my entire life. Coincidentally, Deacon Tim Smith here at St. Mary’s and I attended the same Episcopal Church in our youth. I joined St. Mary’s in 2017 following a move from New York City to take a new job. Everyone was so welcoming and my participation in the altar guild has been a highlight. My professional background is in real estate. Following graduation from the M.B.A. program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, I worked in real estate development for Spaulding & Slye, real estate investment management for JP Morgan and am currently a real estate and real assets investment specialist for an investment consulting company, Callan LLC, in San Francisco. Volunteering and service has always been important to me having served on the Board of Vacamas Program for Youth, and having volunteered in a variety of roles for Foundling Hospital, Belleview Hospital, National Rehabilitation Hospital and Urban Land Institute, among others. I am excited about the prospect of serving on the Vestry and deepening my ties to St. Mary’s.

Nicole Elliott

Vestry

Nicole grew up in New Jersey and London, England, and was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. As an adult, Nicole was drawn to the tenets and values of the Episcopal Church, where she and her husband have chosen to raise their two children. Her daughter was baptized at St. James Episcopal Church in Manhattan, and after moving to San Francisco from New York City in 2015, Nicole and her husband chose St. Mary the Virgin as their spiritual home and place of baptism for their son.

Professionally, Nicole is a certified School Psychologist (CA) and currently is finishing requirements for licensure as a psychologist in California (projected completion in early 2023). Nicole holds a BA from Wellesley College and a PhD in School Psychology from Columbia University. Currently, she is an independent contractor in Psychology for Envision Education, a Bay Area public charter school network, where she conducts psychoeducational evaluations and advocates for youth receiving special education services. Until July 2022, Nicole was Clinical Psychology Team Lead and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Psychological Services Center at Envision Education, providing psychotherapy, crisis intervention, and psychoeducational / psychodiagnostic evaluations at a public charter high school in the Excelsior neighborhood of San Francisco. Nicole completed her Internship in Clinical Psychology at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City, and both during and after graduate school was a Clinical Researcher at New York State Psychiatric Institute/ Columbia University Medical Center.

Currently, Nicole serves on the President’s Advisory Council at Teachers College, Columbia University, and on the Board of Trustees of the Bay Area Discovery Museum; she also is an active volunteer at her children’s schools. Nicole resides in San Francisco with her husband and two children, who are both active in the St. Mary’s children’s choir and Sunday School programs. Nicole and her family also have enjoyed participating in family volunteer opportunities at St. Mary’s. In her free time, Nicole cherishes quality time with her family hiking, skiing, golfing, and traveling.

Elizabeth Falcon

Finance Chair
Elizabeth Falcon is a CPA and the Director of Finance & Operations at The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) where she has worked for the last 9 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. She has been an avid volunteer 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 Vestry, Finance Committee, and Altar Guild, and is extraordinarily grateful to be a part of the special SMV community.

Russell Fudge

Vestry

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.

Jim Griffith

Vestry

Jim Griffith retired on April 1, 2022. A long-time banker with The Northern Trust Company, he developed and managed credit relationships with high net worth individuals, families and corporations, and provided investment, credit and capital market products and services.

Locally, Jim has served as the treasurer and/or board member of The Olympic Club, The Guardsmen, The Columbia Park Boys and Girls Clubs, the USC Northern California Alumni Board, St. Francis Wood Homes Association, St. Vincent de Paul School Finance Committee, the San Francisco Salvation Army Advisory Board, and The Legacy Campaign Committee, Santa Catalina School.

Jim has attended SMV since 1981. He and Kimberly Whitney were married at SMV in 1987 and their daughter, Kate, was baptized in 1995. At present, Jim chairs the Annual Appeal for St. Mary’s. He was previously Senior Warden at SMV, 2015-2016.

Georgia Burke Lu

Vestry

I grew up Catholic in Buffalo, went to college outside New York City, taught in Japan, then worked in the Commerce Department in Washington DC. I then switched gears, got my JD from Georgetown, and spent the rest of my career as an attorney 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.

My husband and I joined St. Mary’s in 2016. It felt like home from the start and we were grateful to have so easily found a spiritual home and a loving community. After David’s death, I particularly felt the embrace of St. Mary’s.

I have enjoyed participating in the life of St. Mary’s as a reader and Eucharistic Visitor, as part of the Adult Formation Committee and in the Food Bank ministry. I currently am on the steering committee for Vital & Thriving.

Amy Nachman

Vestry

I was born in Montgomery, Alabama and have been an Episcopalian all of my life. I graduated from Northwestern University in 1978 with a degree in History. I moved to San Francisco from Atlanta in 1981 and began attending services at St. Mary’s soon thereafter; strolling by and falling in love with our magical courtyard.

I retired from an exciting and stimulating career in Advertising 6 years ago. I love the natural beauty and topography of the Bay Area and the interesting, creative people. I enjoy walking my energetic dalmatian Fancy, books, music, sports and film.

I have found my involvement in various ministries at St. Mary’s quite fulfilling- Eucharistic visitor, Pastoral Care Committee, food bank volunteer and interacting with the Gubbio Project via our many blanket drives.

Matt Spitzer

Vestry

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.

Linda Woodworth

Vestry
Linda is a native Californian who moved to Northern California to attend the University of the Pacific where she graduated with a BS in Business Administration. Linda started attending St. Mary's in 1991 after meeting her husband, Phil, who is a lifelong Episcopalian. They were married here in 1993 and Linda was confirmed at Grace Cathedral after the birth of their first child. After moving to Alameda in 1997, the family continued to make St. Mary's their spiritual home including many children's activities (choir, acolytes, youth group, Sunday School) as well as being an active homilist/lector, participating in the MOMS program and enjoying many community events. Linda worked in the information technology industry with a focus on retail industry client implementation and project management for over 20 years. During COVID, Linda joined an Alameda Real Estate team currently as the Operations Manager.