Board Of Directors
The Kensington Community Services District is governed by nine unpaid board members elected into office by the community to serve staggered four-year terms. Board meetings are held once monthly, on the second Thursday of the month. Each December, the Board elects one of its members to serve as Board President and one to serve as Board Vice President for the next calendar year. The President of the Board assigns each member to serve as Chairperson for the various committees serving the Board.
David Spath, Board President
Term of Office: 12/2024 - 12/2028
David Spath has spent four decades working on public and environmental health issues at the national, state, and local levels. For 33 years, he worked at the State Department of Public Health, the last 10 of which were in a Career Executive Assignment (CEA) position overseeing the Division of Drinking Water and Environmental Management. As a CEA, he also served as a Skelly Hearing Officer responsible for hearing appeals to employee disciplinary actions. He presently works as a retired annuitant with the State Water Resources Control Board, involved in special projects related to drinking water.
At the national level, David served as the chair of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council, a diverse body that provides the Agency with advice on matters affecting the quality of drinking water nationwide. In addition, he has served on National Research Council committee’s dealing with the safety of the nation’s drinking water supplies. He also has a broader public health interest and, for many years, was a board member of the Northern California Public Health Association while serving as the President in 2010 and 2011.
David has lived in Kensington for 40 years and believes in the importance of public service and volunteerism for the betterment of the community. He chaired the KPPCSD’s Ad Hoc Committee on Governance and Operations Structure and served as a member of the KFPD’s Emergency Preparedness Committee. David also served on the board of the Kensington Property Owners Association, including two years as president. He now looks forward to working with his fellow board members on the provision of services important to the community.
David holds a Master’s Degree and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Tufts University.
David enjoys hiking in the East Bay Regional Park and cycling when the weather is warm and the roads are dry.
Alexandra Aquino-Fike, Vice-President
Term of Office: 12/2022 - 12/2026
Alexandra Aquino-Fike is a leader in philanthropy, resource development and program management. She assists private and community philanthropic organizations in social equity program development and investments. Most recently, she served as the Vice President of Development at the East Bay Community Foundation, where she oversaw the stewardship of individual and institutional donors. Alexandra led the development of a donor engagement program that organized donors to invest in equity development for marginalized communities.
Previously, Alexandra served as the Vice President of Development at Hispanics in Philanthropy, a national and transnational network of funders dedicated to investing in Latinx communities, and as an associate attorney with the international law firm, Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Alexandra was raised in Kensington by parents and neighbors committed to this community. She witnessed their successful effort to create Kensington Park and her father’s service on the KPPCSD in the 1990s. Their dedication to these and other policy issues as well as her commitment to local community development influenced her decision to serve Kensington in this new capacity.
Alexandra holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College. She is a member of the State Bar of New York. She serves on the board of directors of the SHARE El Salvador Foundation and is the chairwoman of the board of directors of the Mauricio Aquino Chacón Foundation, nonprofit organizations based in the East Bay.
Sarah Gough, Director
Term of Office: 12/2022 - 12/2026
Sarah has worked as a non-profit consultant and advisor and is a non-practicing California attorney with a J.D. and Public Interest Concentration from UC Hastings College of the Law. Sarah and her husband have owned their home in Kensington since 2008, but spent the majority of the last several years living in Hong Kong. Sarah views her time in Asia as a gift and absolutely transformative for her family of 5 humans (the 3 dogs came later!). While there, Sarah spent her time advocating for marginalized communities including foreign domestic workers, the ultra poor, and survivors of human trafficking. In addition to her work with various NGOs, Sarah eventually co-founded two others and continues to mentor women locally and abroad.
Sarah previously served as Vice-President of the Kensington Improvement Club, where she led the initiative to create the small park, now named Elsie Neilson Park. She is a passionate believer in Kensington's potential and looks forward to doing all that she can to see it realized. In her free time, Sarah loves spending time with her family, hiking in our hills, and enjoying delicious food prepared by anyone but her.
Sylvia Hacaj, Director
Term of Office: 12/2024 - 12/2028
Ms. Hacaj has lived in Kensington since 2008. She has served on the Boards of the Kensington Property Owners Association and Kensington Education Foundation.
In a career spanning twenty-five years, Ms. Hacaj has been leading advocacy efforts and developing strategic priorities for nonprofits, foundations and progressive businesses. She has also served on a variety of national and local boards.
Her career began in Washington, DC as a legislative analyst for the U.S. Congress where she helped establish the AmeriCorps national service program. She was later appointed Deputy Director of Government Relations for the Corporation for National and Community Service.
In subsequent senior management roles at a public affairs firm and international nonprofit Save the Children, she improved advocacy efforts of organizations dedicated to the environment, public health, consumer protection and education; secured funding for children’s literacy and health programs; and worked to establish the National Commission on Children and Disasters.
She continued to work for Save the Children after moving to the San Francisco Bay area and then joined the World Affairs Council of Northern CA as a Vice President, spending 4 years co-curating and producing its annual Global Philanthropy Forum.
In 2014, Ms. Hacaj established a consultancy and coaching practice assisting organizations and individuals to identify and leverage core strengths, sharpen leadership and other professional skills, and achieve enterprise or personal goals.
Ms. Hacaj has a BA from The American University and certificates from Indiana University and San Francisco State University.
Dean (Rick) Artis, Director
Term: 12/2024-12/2028
Email Address: rartis@kensingtonfire.org
Rick Artis first moved to Kensington in the mid-60’s and is a proud alumnus of local public schools (Kensington Hilltop, Portola, John F. Kennedy High, UC Berkeley). After receiving his PhD in Organic Chemistry at Yale University, he returned to the Bay Area and began a career in the pharmaceutical industry. He and his family moved back to Kensington in 1996. He is a co-inventor of two marketed drugs for treatment of cancer and currently is Chief Scientific Officer of a publicly traded biotechnology company, where he works on new medicines for autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. He served as a member of the Kensington Ad-Hoc Committee on Governance and Operations Structure, where he produced a detailed analysis of the financial history of both Kensington special districts and chaired the subcommittee that produced the first study of Consolidation for the community. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Kensington Property Owner’s Association. He was appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Kensington Fire Protection District board in March of 2024.
Daniel Levine, Director
Term: 12/2022-12/2026
Email Address: dlevine@kensingtonfire.org
Daniel Levine is a research scientist in computational chemistry at Schrodinger, where he creates algorithms for simulating chemical reactions and predicting the structures of proteins, and a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. He was born and raised in New Jersey and obtained degrees in chemistry and mathematics from MIT. He moved to the Bay in 2012 to attend graduate school at UC, Berkeley, where he earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry.
Danielle Madugo, Director
Term: 12/2024-12/2028
Email Address: dmadugo@kensingtonfire.org
Rodney Paul, Director
Term: February 2025 -12/2026
Email Address: rpaul@kensingtonfire.org
Rodney Paul has lived with his wife Sarah near the Colusa Circle since 1998. He has worked with nearby residents to give input on development projects on the Circle. Since 2016, Rodney has worked with the Kensington Pathkeepers to achieve public ownership of the Kensington paths, which have lacked a formal maintenance plan since their creation in 1910. Rodney has been active in the K6 CERT group and participates in their regular radio drills. He has also led efforts to use Map Your Neighborhood to compile information on properties on his street that could be used in disaster recovery efforts.
After a 30 year career as a software engineer, Rodney reinvented himself in 2015 as a guide, leading walking tours of the Haight-Ashbury, Oracle Park, the Salesforce Transit Center as well as the Kensington Paths and sites in North Berkeley. He enjoys public speaking, and has presented on Summer of Love music topics at numerous libraries around CA. He also has been a guide for SFMOMA and since 2020 has hosted a bi-monthly program called Art Viewing Adventures that focuses on local artists and nearby museum exhibitions.
An avid bicyclist, Rodney rode across the United States in 1993. He tries to do most of his local transportation these days by bike, public transit and on foot.
Jim Watt, Director
Term: 12/2022-12/2026
Email Address: jwatt@kensingtonfire.org
Jim Watt is a long time Kensington resident. He has served as scoutmaster for local troop 100 and was on the KPPCSD finance committee for 8 years. Jim also led 50-mile backpack trips in the Sierras for 25 years. He has a master's degree in business and is involved in a local investment club. Jim is fortunate to have his son and family living just one block way.