Debbie Wingard, President
Debbie Wingard was born in San Diego, raised near San Francisco, and attended college in Berkeley, where she met her husband of 30 years, Pierre Vaughn.  While raised a liberal Catholic, she finds Unitarian Universalism a much better fit.  She has been a member of Summit since 2004, serves on the Finance Committee, and Chaired the Combined Annual/Capital Campaign to raise funds for Summit’s new building. Debbie and Pierre have two sons, Kyle who is a musical theatre thespian and Brendan who is exploring his options while serving as a personal assistant to the rich, famous and sometimes infamous.  Debbie loves photography, going ballroom dancing, and attending the theatre, but chose a career in biomedical research.  She is a professor at the UCSD School of Medicine.

Joe Braunworth, Vice President
Joe Braunwarth grew up in Minnesota and attended the University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis where he met his future wife Mary.  After living
briefly in Europe they moved to Southern California where Joe earned his
doctorate in Political Science at the University of California, Irvine.
He now teaches at Grossmont College in San Diego.  Joe was raised a
Catholic, albeit a skeptical one. After moving to San Diego, he and Mary
found a spiritual home with the Long Beach Religious Society of Friends
(Quaker) meeting and moved over to the Long Beach Unitarian-Universalist fellowship after the birth of their son Zachary.  Since moving to San Diego in 1999, the Braunwarths have been active members of the Summit Unitarian-Universalist fellowship.  Their daughter Maya joined both
their family and the Summit UU fellowship in 2002.  Mary is an avid
runner and Joe enjoys accompanying her when he can keep up.  Joe also
enjoys surfing and mountaineering whenever possible.

John McQuaide, Treasurer
John McQuaide was born and raised in New Jersey, but moved to San Diego at age 16. His father was a disenchanted Catholic, his mother a Presbyterian, and John became a seeker, trying out various spiritual activities, including yoga, before discovering Uuism. John is now a valued bass in the Summit Singers as well as our Treasurer. John graduated from Utah University with a degree of BS in marketing and accounting, and later earned a JD degree from USD, practicing as a trial lawyer for some ten years. He went on to public service work, acting as president and attorney for Neighborhood House and doing outside work as a non-profit consultant. Now retired, John has time for bicycling, woodworking, photography, music, and time with family.

Ellen Gifford, Secretary
A UU for over half a century, Ellen Gifford was born in Cleveland and graduated from Cleveland State University with a BBA in accounting. She has two children, James and Deborah, seven grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. Ellen is currently employed as a homeowner's association treasurer/ manager and previously specialized as a public accountant and tax consultant.  Ellen is a veteran of WWII as a member of the Women's Reserve Marine Corps.  For over 50 years she was active in the  League of Women Voters, and she currently serves as treasurer of the San Diego County chapter.  She's also active in "Great Decisions" and the YMCA Silver Sneakers program. 

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Directors at Large:

Gary Baldwin
Gary Baldwin has been a member of Summit since its early years. He was president when Summit brought in its first minister, Reverend Ned Wight. He has served as chair of both the Membership and RE committees and was part of the team that put together our first long-term plan. Gary is currently serving his 3rd stint on the board and is chair of the Social Action Committee.

Laurel Bernstein
Laurel Bernstein has been a UU since her teens and a member of Summit since 1995. She is currently in her third board term, chairs the Children’s Religious Education committee, is a member of Summit’s Social Action Committee, and served as co-chair of the Facilities Committee overseeing Summit’s move to our home in Santee. Laurel was born in New Jersey and moved to northern Virginia at age 13. She has a B.A. from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from Brown University in Providence, R.I.  After marrying Sandy Bernstein and moving to San Diego in 1983 and completing a stint as a postdoctoral research fellow at The Scripps Research Institute, Laurel became a patent agent and is currently the Executive Director of Intellectual Property for Lpath, Inc., a local biotechnology company. In addition, she very much enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and sons (Daniel, 15 and Ben, 12), singing in the Summit Singers and playing mandolin and fiddle with the Close Enough Band.

Neal Biggart
Neal grew up in a Baptist climate in New Mexico, but was uncomfortable with the rigid doctrine.  She directed adult and children’s choirs in Presbyterian and Methodist churches to put herself through college, but emphatically "tuned out the religious stuff.”  It was not until her granddaughter wanted to go to church that Neal came to Summit three years ago to provide an "acceptable" religious experience for her granddaughter, but found herself so comfortable that she stayed.  She became an active member in children’s RE, Choir, and Stewardship.  Neal has a BA in Fine Arts from California State University, and a PhD in Genetics from UC Berkeley and SDSU.  She did her Post Doctoral studies at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she developed a molecular method to determine the DNA damage caused by heavy metals.  She calls herself an "environmental toxicologist".  After tiring of research, Neal taught IB/AP Biology and Environmental Science at Bonita Vista High School.  Recently, Neal and her husband Tom have become serious ceramists with a large home workshop.  Neal also sings, is learning to play the banjo, and is currently teaching Environmental Science at Torah High School.

Rex Graham
Rex Graham was born in and grew up in Iowa City, IA, where he graduated from a Catholic parochial elementary school and high school. He graduated from the University of Iowa with B.S. and M.S. degrees in microbiology, and taught microbiology courses and performed basic research at Iowa. But most of his career has been in journalism. His first newspaper jobs were with papers in Iowa City and Farmington, NM and Albuquerque, NM. He was also a medical writer and assistant city editor for the Nashville Banner and spent a year on a science journalism fellowship at MIT in Cambridge, MA, before working as a senior editor at Astronomy magazine in Waukesha, WI. From snowy and cold Wisconsin he migrated to San Diego, and feels at home in the Southwest. Rex was one of 10 children in a Roman Catholic family, and while Christianity and Catholicism fascinated him, he was unable to embrace either and left the church as soon as the choice was his to make. A fellow Sierra Club member in New Mexico suggested Unitarian Universalism to him in 1982 and he has been an active UU ever since. After moving to San Diego in 2001, he found First Church too big, but Summit meets his spiritual needs in the ways that were important to him. He has two sons: Eric, 36, in Denver and Jordan, 7, and a grand-daughter, Maya Renee Graham. Rex is a writer, editor, and media relations specialist with UCSD Communications, working primarily at the Jacobs School of Engineering. In his spare time, he is a volunteer docent at the Chula Vista Nature Center and enjoys contra dancing and many of the activities that Jordan and Eric like most.

Toni Rogers
I've been a member of Summit for about four years and have been a UU for ten years. Currently, I'm a member of the Board of Directors, Chair of the Committee on Ministry, and a member of the Sunday Services Committee. Before my early retirement a few years ago, I was a health care manager of an umbrella department of multiple divisions. I have a Master's Degree in Social Welfare from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. I live in San Diego with my husband LaMar, who is also an active member of Summit. Between us, we have three adult children and two grandchildren. Hiking, cooking, bridge, reading, travel, sudoku, crossword puzzles, and breaking bread with family and friends are what keeps me humming.