Our Elected Leaders
President
Debbie Wingard (3rd year)
Debbie was born in San Diego, raised near San Francisco, and attended college in Berkeley, where she met Pierre Vaughn, whom she married in 1976. While raised a liberal Catholic, she finds Unitarian Universalism a much better fit. She has been a member of Summit since 2004, currently serves on the Finance and Aesthetics Committees, has served as Board President once before and Treasurer twice, and chaired the Capital Campaign to raise funds for Summit’s current building. Debbie and Pierre have two sons, Kyle who is a musical theatre thespian and Brendan who is an event planner and auctioneer. She is a Professor Emeritis at the UCSD School of Medicine where she taught and conducted biomedical research for 34 years. Debbie loves travel, photography, cooking, ballroom dancing and attending the theatre.
Vice President
Laurel Bernstein (1st year)
Laurel has been a UU since her teens, and both she and her husband Sandy have been members of Summit since 1995. She has served previously as Board Vice President, and twice as President. She chairs Summit’s Music Committee, sings in the choir, and is a member of the Social Justice in Action committee. Now retired, Laurel had a long career in biotech, from academic research to VP of Intellectual Property at a company in the Bay area. Currently her time outside of Summit is spent singing and performing with the San Diego Women’s Chorus, walking, birdwatching, gardening and playing the mandolin. She and Sandy have two sons: Daniel lives and works in LA with his wife Alissa Davis Bernstein, and Ben is a bench jeweler living in San Diego.
Secretary
Dan Hand (2nd year)
Dan Hand is a native of Milwaukee, WI, earning a B.S. and M.S. in biology from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. He then continued his graduate studies at Iowa State University in Ames, IA, where he met Janni Pedersen at a student-led Atheist and Agnostic Society meeting. Within two years, they were married by a Unitarian Universalist minister, and have been cohabitating with cats and dogs ever since. Looking for a sense of community after moving to La Mesa, CA, twelve years ago, they began attending Summit Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in Santee shortly after settling in California. They still reside in La Mesa with their two little dogs (Sophie and Frodo), and cat (Glen), and enjoy gardening, hiking, homebrewing, and traveling together. Over the years at Summit, Dan has been involved in ushering (in-person and via Zoom), the Media Committee, and the Interfaith Shelter, and is looking forward to serving with the SUUF Board.
Treasurer
Brenda Fonzi McGuinness (4th year)
I have been a member of SUUF for about 15 years. My son started RE when he was in first grade, he is now a Senior at UCSB. He continued through Coming of Age, including all OWL classes. He thrived in RE and the amazing program Mary provided. As his BSA Eagle Scout project he built a permanent garden bed for the future RE community. Over the years I have served on the RE Committee, taught in RE, the Nominating Committee and currently on the Finance Committee along with my third year as Treasurer on the Board. I’m excited and look forward to this coming year!
Director
Vickie Cottle (1st Year)
Summit UU represents, for Vickie, a new opportunity for community, one devoted to honesty, diversity, acceptance, non-judgement and, to be a little corny, loving each other.
Vickie’s last chapter ended abruptly after being launched off of her beloved horse, Pearl. A broken rib, a bout of bad covid, lots of time flat on her back and lots of time to think about the next chapter.
Some background. 25 years ago, after a 35 year career as an Emmy award winning, professional musician, she got a horse, a life changing event. That led to becoming trained in and creating a business doing Equine Assisted Learning (can’t call it therapy, but it is therapeutic).
That led to a 3 year training to learn about healing trauma. Vickie has been an SEP (Somatic Experiencing Practitioner) for almost 20 years and currently sees clients who are looking to get back that sense of their most authentic self. She looks forward to contributing to the life of Summit UU.
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