CARE’s Board

Andy Parker

President

Mr. Parker, a San Diego native, was a professional athlete for 7 years, drafted by the Raider and played a while for the San Diego Chargers.  He graduated from the University of Utah and has been married for 30 years with three grown kids.  Andy has been in real estate since the mid 80’s and has owned and operated many businesses.  He enjoys being a real estate broker, a health enthusiast and an entrepreneur.

Andy joined the CARE staff back in the mid 90’s after he retired from professional sports, where he helped CARE with obtaining new clients, creating new programming such as the Resident Education Program and the Affordable Homeownership Program.  In addition, Andy founded CARE Realty Group, which is designed to be a development company, a support to CARE Housing Services and a state-of-the-art real estate brokerage firm.  This real estate firm has many new tech features and a philosophy like no other and geared to help people and our agents that work with us.  To learn more go to CARERealtyGroup.org.

Robert S. Griswold, CREⓇ; CPMⓇ; CCIMⓇ

Real Estate

Robert Griswold runs Griswold Real Estate Management with offices in San Diego, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, teaches for the Institute for Real Estate Management, hosted a San Diego real estate radio call-in show for 15 years, and regularly appears on NBC-TV as their Real Estate Expert.

Mr. Griswold is the author of the best selling book in the world on property management – Property Management for Dummies which has sold over 75,000 copies and has been adapted to many countries from Great Britain to China. He is the coauthor with Eric Tyson of Real Estate Investing for Dummies which is also the top seller in its category since it was published in late 2004. He has also been on the air for over 14 years as the host of a live, weekly radio talk show, Real Estate Today! He is the Real Estate Expert for NBC San Diego, and is a featured columnist for the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Orlando Sentinel, Houston Post and many other prominent newspapers around the country. Robert has earned a BS, MBA and MSBA from the University of Southern California. He is a frequent contributor to real estate and business publications and is a member of the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) prestigious Academy of Authors. He was awarded the distinguished Counselor of Real Estate (CRE) designation presented by invitation only to the top 1,000 real estate consultants in the United States. (Average age of CREs is over 60 – Robert is just under that age). He has been twice awarded the #1 radio or television real estate journalist in the country by the National Association of Real Estate Editors in their 48th and 49th Annual National Journalism competition. The first award was for Real Estate Today!

Jodi Spear

Jodi Spear is a Payroll Manager for StoneRiver Corporate, LLC, a national leader in the design, development and implementation of Insurance and Financial Software.

Jodi possesses over 25 years of human resources, payroll administration and benefit management experience.  Jodi’s expertise includes leadership skills, general management, interpersonal communication and critical thinking.  She is also fluent in multi-state taxation and leave management.

She holds a B.A. degree in Communicative Disorders from the University of Redlands.  She is an active member in the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and holds her professional PHR certification. Jodi is a current member of the American Payroll Association, APA, with a local affiliation to the Orange County Chapter.

Jodi lives in Southern California with her husband of 33 years.  She has a son and daughter that both have recently graduated from local universities.  She spends her down time jogging the local beaches, reading and working in the garden.

Kim Force

Kim Force graduated from San Diego State University with a B.S. in Liberal Studies.  She received her teaching credential from California State University Northridge and taught kindergarten, 2nd grade and 5th grade in the L.A. Unified School District.  She also taught enrichment programs for the home school program in the Benicia Unified School District.

Kim started transitioning out of teaching into real estate, where starting in 2005 became a real estate agent in Northern California, with the specialties of detached and attached single family homes, short sales and foreclosures. In 2012, Kim went full time into real estate and is currently working in the San Clemente, CA area specializing in luxury properties.

Avril Forster

Mrs. Forster Resides in San  Diego, CA and is currently employed by a large owner and operator of market rate apartments as a Property Manager and presently manages a 256 unit property.  Previously Avril owned and operated a cafe in La Jolla CA.  She graduated from Calder College, Liverpool England, with a Teaching Credential. Taught High School in England for College level entry students.  She is also an assistant Teacher for Special Needs Students in San Diego, CA.

Ric Hufford

Ric Hufford is a retired General and Electrical Contractor.  He owned and operated his own company for over 55 years as well as starting up and managing a fabrication shop for a nationally well known electrical contracting company. 

Ric designed, built and sold industrial properties.  He worked with various entities to meet strict building requirements within in the counties.  These dealings provided him valuable experience developing relationships with the city and county Building, Safety and Community Development departments.  Ric also designed and built custom homes throughout Southern California.  His expertise includes construction management, architectural design, leadership skills and cost management.

Ric lives in a small beach community in Southern California with his wife of 62 years. He has 3 grown children that have presented him and his wife with many amazing grandchildren and great grandchildren.  He enjoys spending time in his workshop designing and building furniture.

Garald W. Parker

Chairman

As Chairman of the Board of Directors for CARE Housing Services, Garald focuses on a variety of issues concerning the overall management of The CARE Group of Companies.

Garald graduated from the University of Southern California in 1954 with a degree in Business Administration. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and flew for the Strategic Air Command. After being honorably discharged in 1957, Gerald entered the fire and casualty insurance business and eventually became a general contractor and developer of single-family homes and commercial properties throughout the South Bay and Torrance area of Southern California.  He sold his general contracting business and transitioned to buying and selling apartments and commercial buildings for the Apartment Owners Association. Garald partnered with his brother (name), to found Parker Housing Services in 1988—the organization we know today as CARE Housing Services. He resides in northern San Diego County.