John Fanestil is a 1979 graduate of La Jolla High School and a former Rhodes Scholar. Later in life he became a Methodist minister, then transformed himself into an author and is now taking on a new challenge.
Fanestil was recently named the executive director of the San Diego Foundation for Change (SDFC).
As the SDFC executive director, Fanestil will assist the Foundation for Change by expanding its support of social change initiatives in the United States and Mexico.
“It means I’ll be working to help grassroots organizations working for social change in San Diego and Tijuana,” Fanestil said. “It means I get to reconnect with a lifelong passion for the well-being of people living on both sides of the border.”
Fanestil graduated from La Jolla High School as his 1979 class valedictorian. He went on to graduate from Dartmouth College and Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.
“The mission of the San Diego Foundation for Change is to invest in grassroots initiatives creating social equality, economic justice and environmental health in the San Diego/Tijuana community,” Fanestil added. “I hope to expand their work, in terms of dollars granted, and to help them grow as a truly binational organization.”
The SDFC supports smaller, grassroots organizations that sometimes are overlooked by more traditional funding sources.
Two examples from the past year in relation to funding are Arte de Vivir, a Tijuana-based magazine giving voice to the gay and lesbian Latino community on both sides of the border. The other, Project YANO (Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities), works to educate young people in area high schools about the realities of war and alternatives to military enlistment.
Although Fanestil began writing when he was a staffer at his high school newspaper, he turned “pro” in February 2006 when Doubleday released his book “Mrs. Hunter’s Happy Death: Lessons on Living from People Preparing to Die.”
“I suppose it’s ironic, but, as the title suggests, I found my work with the dying among the most fulfilling parts of pastoral ministry,” he said. “Some people ” not all, of course, but some ” succeed in being instruments of profound grace and peace for others as they approach the end of their lives. These are what Christians in earlier generations called ‘happy deaths.’ I learned so much from the people I’ve written about in the book. It was a privilege to know them in their dying days and a privilege to write about them.”
Fanestil’s commitment to social activism dates back to his student days. As an undergraduate at Dartmouth, he was the founding editor-in-chief of The Harbinger, a student-run magazine of progressive political opinion.
“But my call to ordained ministry was shaped profoundly by my work in the 1980s opposing U.S. foreign policy in Central America,” Fanestil said. “In 1988, I led a delegation of U.S. clergy into the war zones of El Salvador. On that trip, I was impressed by the Salvadorans’ work to build better communities in the midst of very trying circumstances. I was also impressed by the compassion and commitment of the U.S. clergy who came along on the delegation.”
As a graduate student at Oxford, Fanestil helped organize the International Students Fast for Peace in Nicaragua, a fund-raising effort that saw students at 35 universities in seven countries raise money for relief projects in Nicaragua.
“I am a lifelong advocate of peace and justice,” Fanestil said. “I believe the United States routinely seeks military solutions to nonmilitary problems ” like our current war in Iraq. I am not involved directly in electoral politics, but I believe in the power of grass-roots movements to influence American domestic and foreign policy, helping to give shape to a better world.”
Fanestil also worked for several years in the 1980s with groups fighting Reagan administration policies toward Central America.
In 1992, he earned a Master’s of Divinity degree from the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, Calif.
From ’92 to 2005, Fanestil worked as a pastor at United Methodist churches in Southern California, including four years at a small bilingual church in the Imperial Valley town of Calexico.
There he preached weekly in both English and Spanish and served as president of the board of directors of the Calexico Neighborhood House, a community-based social services agency located in the border town.
Fanestil has also worked with nonprofit organizations large and small in a variety of capacities. From 1995 to 2001, he served on the board of trustees at his graduate school alma mater, the Claremont School of Theology.
Then, from 2000 to 2004, he served on the leadership team of the California-Pacific Conference, the denominational body responsible for more than 400 United Methodist churches in Southern California and Hawaii.
Fanestil says he’s excited to join the SDFC.
“All my life I have dreamed of being a change-maker in the San Diego and Tijuana border region,” he said. “I am appalled by the demonization of Mexican immigrants to the United States. I worked for four years in Calexico, doing hands-on pastoral and social service work on the border. My own experience is that the vast majority of people who cross the border do so for reasons that are utterly understandable ” like making a living, feeding the kids, securing needed healthcare.”
“If I had a magic wand and could change U.S. immigration policy, I would radically increase the number of legal visas given to immigrants from Mexico, allowing us to concentrate our law enforcement and border patrol efforts on the minority of people like drug smugglers and the like who are involved in criminal enterprise,” he added.
Fanestil said that challenges of social service are enormous.
“We think of ourselves as working on social change and encouraging grass-roots movements that are working to change the social fabric that gives rise to social service needs,” Fanestil said. “The challenges facing progressive organizations like ours are enormous, like access to power, access to money and access to media.”
“I grew up in La Jolla and am proud to claim it as home,” he continued. “I realize, though, that I am also a part of a larger community, a community I call San Diego-Tijuana. I believe all La Jollans share the responsibility of working to make San Diego-Tijuana a better place.”
The San Diego Foundation for Change is a publicly supported nonprofit organization located at 3758 30th St. For more information, call (619) 692-0527 or visit www.foundation4change.org.