Alpine resident Dona Christensen, a retired land developer and real estate investor, has joined a volunteer citizens group overseeing several infrastructure construction improvements at Grossmont Hospital. The group, called the Independent Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee (ICBOC), is charged with monitoring the Grossmont Healthcare District’s (GHD) expenditures of construction that is being paid for with proceeds from a $247 million bond measure East County voters approved in 2006. GHD, a taxpayer-supported public agency that supports health-related community programs and services in San Diego’s East County region, serves as landlord of the hospital, including ownership of the property and buildings on behalf of local taxpayers. Bond revenues are expected to fund capital infrastructure improvements at the La Mesa hospital through 2016. Christensen was appointed to the ICBOC group by the GHD board of directors.
A resident of Alpine since 1979, Christensen was involved from 1986 to 2002 in building single-family home residential developments in Alpine, Boulevard, Crest and Lakeside, along with a retail center in Lakeside and self-storage facilities in Spring Valley and Murrieta, Calif. From 1998 to 2003, she also served as chairperson of “The Branding,” an annual fundraiser hosted by the East County Family YMCA. Until 2009, she volunteered as a reading tutor to low-income children attending an elementary school in San Diego, a throwback to a previous job during the 1980s as a teachers aid and physical education instructor at Joan McQueen Middle School in Alpine. During the past year, she has assisted her daughter Kristine Alessio with a successful election campaign to the La Mesa City Council.
