Lisa Best draws from her own lived experience and has turned life’s challenges into purpose as an advocate supporting underrepresented communities. Vocal on rights and inclusion in education, promotes prison and mental health reform and juvenile justice rights. Active landmark desegregation in housing & education with NAACP in Yonkers NY. As a veteran in policy change, health equity disparities, Lisa serves on local and national Advisory Boards. As aPathways Housing First veteran, Lisa has been passionate and a trusted advocate consumers representing them and raising their voices. A direct quote from Lisa is featured in a 2010 Pathways To Housing First Model video: “What Pathways gave me was a second chance to look at myself as someone who still has value…whose life work is not yet over” Her story is still being written.

Sam Tsemberis, Ph.D., is a clinical-community psychologist who originated the “Housing First” model, an evidence based program for effectively ending homelessness for individuals diagnosed with mental illness and addiction. Housing First programs are successfully implemented across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Dr. Tsemberis has decades of experience in program operations, training, consultation, and research. He currently serves as CEO of the Pathways Housing First Institute, is on the faculty at UCLA Department of Psychiatry and serves as Executive Director of the UCLA-VA Center of Excellence for Training and Research on Veterans Homelessness and Recovery. He has published widely on the topics of homelessness, mental illness, and addiction and received recognition for Independent Contribution to Practice from the American Psychological Association and awarded the Meritorious Service Cross from the Government of Canada. The Pathways Housing First Institute and DESC founded and continue to convene the Housing First Partners Conference.