In 1996, Bobbie Christensen found a home in San Diego - and she’s been helping others do so ever since. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Bobbie Christensen is passionately committed to justice — especially for those who cannot afford decent housing or health insurance, for the victims of domestic violence, and for the environment.

“No matter what their ages or situations, I relate to people in need,” she says. “That is why my career has been with organizations that do positive things for society.”

In 1996, the native Pennsylvanian and former high school English teacher experienced too many two-hour-plus drives through the snow to her job as public affairs director for a Massachusetts hospital and moved to La Jolla. She became, in 1997, director of communication and strategy for the San Diego Housing Commission, the workhorse created by the city in 1979 to administer programs helping some 75,000 low-income San Diegans annually. During nearly 10 years with the Housing Commission, Christensen earned a TWIN award (1999) in addition to more than a dozen local, regional and national honors for the content and quality of her communications on behalf of those in need and the programs available to them.

Now communication strategies consultant to the Campaign for Affordable Housing, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, Christensen educates the media, the general public and civic officials across the nation about the benefits of affordable housing, which includes dispelling stereotypes about people in need of such assistance. She is working with 15 cities in the state of Washington on how to communicate affordable housing needs and programs. This summer she will teach a seminar on crisis communications at a government-sponsored conference in Washington, D.C.

Christensen, 58, serves on the board of the Balboa Park House of Hospitality. She also loves to oil paint and spend time with her husband, Larry, enjoying all of the snow-free wonders of San Diego’s natural environment.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t enjoy San Diego’s beauty – north, south, east or west,” she says.

— Robin Maydeck