Judy B. Harrington
Chair
Judy and her husband, Bill, moved from Philadelphia to San Diego in 2015 to be closer to kids and grandkids, and are thrilled to have landed in Kensington! She dug right in to her new ‘hood by volunteering at Franklin School, where she coached third graders on keyboarding, and for two years, she served on the Friends of Franklin Foundation Board as secretary. She also initiated the current Franklin Square Roots program to improve the garden squares on the perimeter of the school. She’s really into gardening!
Judy spent 35 years in managed health care marketing, communications and contracting; most recently as a senior VP for development at a non-profit, hospital-owned health plan, where she also served as president for the organization’s foundation for 12 years. She holds a BS in Journalism and an MBA in health administration from Temple University, where she also taught as an adjunct faculty member.
Judy’s other board experience includes the Philadelphia Children’s Foundation, Philadelphia Corporation for Aging and most recently as secretary-treasurer for Vista Ventures Social Impact Fund, a non-profit supporting economic, social or environmental enterprises in developing countries. She spent two years as a VISTA volunteer in Minneapolis, MN and in Austin, Texas, and was a writer in her original home town for the Houston Chronicle.
Judy’s grateful to Bev Barrett for all the works she’s done over many years to help protect our community from blazes, and excited about next steps for Kensington Fire Safe!
Amy Dyson
Co-Chair, Treasurer
Amy is a long time Kensington resident with a deep love for the community. Amy grew up in Kensington in a two story Spanish style home on the canyon. Her parents, Bill and Nancy Bamberger, still live in that home. Amy and her husband Brian returned to Kensington in 2001 to raise their daughter Zion. They bought a house just down the street from where Amy grew up, also a canyon home. What fun it was for Zion to grow up with her grandparents just a short walk away. Amy found what her parents had found, Kensington is a great place to raise a family.
Bev Barrett, Kensington Fire Safe’s former chair, inspired Amy to take a leadership role in forming the organization. Amy hopes she has continued Bev’s legacy of educating the community about fire safety and to providing resources to help neighbors clear flammable brush in their canyons and yards. And through this process of working together to protect our homes from wildfires Amy hopes to help build our sense of community. We’re all in this together and we all need to do our part.
Amy brings to the board the experience of serving on several community boards. She served as Secretary/Treasurer of Young Lions Jazz Conservatory, and also served on the board of Rady Children’s Hospital Auxiliary. She is honored to be on Kensington Fire Safe’s board along with other knowledgeable, experienced board members who are also passionate about protecting our community from wildfire.
Zoraida Payne
Zoraida is originally from Argentina and in 1997 came to the United States with Gary –her American husband– and their first child, Sebastian. Later, they had two more girls, Michelle and Mercedes. While bilingually raising their three kids, she worked as a Spanish and Latino Culture Teacher at Elementary and Middle School, as well as in private Language institutes in San Diego.
Following her longtime passion for understanding the roots and expressions of her adopted country, she went back to school, and she accomplished her Masters in American History at San Diego State University, this last Spring. Since 2015, she has been working as a docent, researcher, and writer for the Coronado Historical Association. Lately, she started to collaborate with the Metro View Community Home Journal as a public historian.
Zoraida’s love for nature was ignited in her home country at a very young age when living in the Argentinean pampas; so, it is not surprising that you’ll find her gardening or reading outside in their family home in Kensington. She believes that to maintain a historic, dynamic, and growing community, its members need to educate themselves about the challenges of the time, share that knowledge, and work together in finding solutions to solve them. Since fires are a permanent threat in the community, she wants to collaborate to meet this crucial common challenge.
Zoraida has been married to Gary for 26 years. He is a photographer and a musician –mandolin and violin; and both are avid supporters of the art and musical scene in San Diego. They have been hosting concerts at their home since 2004; and since 2017, they have been running the Kensington concert series. Zoraida is a volunteer bilingual community educator for the Alzheimer’s Association. Her hobbies are travelling, improving her French, learning to dance flamenco, cooking and baking for family and friends, gardening, and kayaking in the bay. Zoraida thinks that there is so much to learn and joyfully concentrate in life, and she strongly believes that respecting and marveling at nature is the path that leads the way.
Ryan Hunter
Ryan was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended Marian University, graduating with a Bachelors of Business and Marketing. Ryan moved with his husband JB (who is in the Pharmaceutical industry) to San Diego, more specifically Kensington, in 2016. Ryan and JB do not live directly on a canyon, but across the street from the canyon on the Hart Drive loop. They hosted a dumpster last year in the semi-annual Dumpathon and that’s when Ryan became more interested in getting involved with the Kensington Fire Safe Council and helping our cause. Ryan works in real estate and flies the “friendly skies” as a flight attendant with Southwest Airlines (and has been doing this for nearly 20 years), where he has developed an even stronger love of customer service. Ryan currently volunteers with San Diego LGBT Community Center in Hillcrest.