Jaline Gilliam is a licensed clinical social worker who brings a wealth of expertise and knowledge as well as a strong commitment to advancing racial equity and the inclusion of persons with lived experience to her role as Associate Director of CSH-LA. She brings over ten years of experience directly providing therapy, managing 24-hour crisis services, homeless outreach services, permanent supportive housing services, and delivering mental health services to individuals suffering from severe and persistent mental illness, chronic homeless, substance use, and comorbidities. Prior to joining CSH, Jaline worked as the Clinical Director of Mental Health and Rehabilitative Services at Pathways to Housing DC. As part of her role, she provided clinical supervision through the lens of Trauma-Informed, Resilience Oriented supervision, ensured the delivery of a high-fidelity evidence-based Assertive Community Treatment Program (ACT), and operated a Permanent Supportive Housing team under the Housing First Fidelity standards.

Douglas Mackbee has over 18 years of experience working in supportive services in both site-based and scattered site supportive housing program models. Currently, as a Senior Program Manager with CSH, Mr. Mackbee works to provide technical assistance, training delivery, project management, and systems coordination across the Central Region of the US. Prior to his current role, Mr. Mackbee worked for non-profit organizations and government partners in the Twin-Cities metro area of Minnesota. He has experience in program design, implementation, and contract management as well as planning, developing, and implementing training on Verbal De-Escalation and Trauma Informed Care. He also has experience with recruiting, training, and coaching diverse supportive services teams consisting of case managers, social workers, mental health practitioners and volunteers, serving several hundred residents living in multiple supportive housing programs. Mr. Mackbee brings extensive experience and knowledge to his position in supportive service planning and delivery, supportive housing management, working with landlords, moving to a Medicaid billing system and in creating a curriculum to shift organizations providing supportive housing to a trauma informed approach to services, all grounded in his lived experience.

Andrew Spiers is a dedicated and solutions-focused social worker with over 15 years of experience in non-profits serving individuals experiencing homelessness and managing multiple disabilities, including serious mental illness and substance use disorders. Currently a Senior Program Manager on the Federal Technical Assistance (TA) team at CSH, Andrew provides leadership, in coordination with technical assistance providers and HUD SNAPS staff, to develop TA strategies, projects, and initiatives, ensuring adherence to CSH’s core values of equity and inclusion. He manages day-to-day operations with TA leaders across Firms and HUD SNAPS staff through fostering collaboration, accountability, and communication between teams. Prior to joining CSH, Andrew served as the Director of Training & Technical Assistance at Pathways to Housing PA, a supportive housing provider in Philadelphia. There, he launched Housing First University, through which he provided training, technical assistance, and consulting on the topics of Housing First, harm reduction, integrated care, and service delivery best practices to communities, providers, funders, and systems thinkers nationwide. He also worked extensively with members of the LGBTQIA+ community, providing substance use recovery supports and harm reduction services at RHD’s Morris Home. Andrew earned a master’s degree in Social Work and Social Research from Bryn Mawr College and is a Licensed Social Worker in the state of Pennsylvania.

My name is Jon Christian. I am 54 years old and I live in Lancaster, CA, and I am a Lived Experience Consultant and a SpeakUp! (not a typo) Advocate. I began this line of work in an effort to give back. You see, I was unhoused and unsheltered for 25 years. Many of them were spent in the city of Pasadena, CA. To be honest with everyone, I had a great deal of assistance moving from my camp to my apartment. If it weren’t for people who were willing to help me regardless of my penchant for violence, I would most likely not be here in the ATL, and I very seriously doubt that I would be an Advocate or a Consultant. And so, it is because of this assistance that people were willing to bestow upon me without judgement, without barriers, and without a second thought, that I Advocate for the ones that are still outside, to be able to transition to Living indoors with their dignity intact, with safety and equity as well as the 5 core Housing First principles. My aim is to eventually co-design Permanent Supportive Housings so as to create a more inclusive, less invasive, more equitable, more sustainable, and more affordable housing for our friends and neighbors as they struggle against the current in this, the housing industry in the United States of America.

Tiffany Duvernay-Smith is a revolutionary, trailblazing Systems Reform Champion focused on elevating People with Lived Experience to Leadership, Domestic Violence Survivorship, Oversight and Accountability of the Homelessness Response System, Mental Health Stigma Reduction, Alternatives to Incarceration, and Equity. Her gifts are networking, collaborating, and strategizing with her peers, thought partners, and new colleagues with hopes of affecting necessary changes in marginalized communities by including the voices of people with lived experience in policies, programs, and the like. Tiffany, an innovative solutionist, has been quoted as saying, “Equity is esteeming experience as expertise.” In addition to her advocacy, consulting, gospel rap finesse, and day job working as the Coordinator for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s Lived Experience Advisory Board, Tiffany is a published journalist and powerful force in the community kindling change in hearts, minds, and policies, who is inspired by love, the LORD, her husband, nature and traveling.

Amiyoko Shabazz is known for advocating for health, wellness, and joy; her passion is to help lived experience experts and others build their circles of support. She works to increase the sharing, caring, and training among lived experience experts to allow them to discover their own health, wellness, and joy, using these elements as her signature brand to bring communities and people healing and to promote wellbeing. Ms. Shabazz was a teen parent of three children, with experiences of homelessness and the harm that those experiences caused. Through them, she and her family have endured and overcome. Now a proud mother of three adult children and twin five-year old grandchildren, she shares her knowledge and experience with those who are working on their own journey to help them draw on their faith and determination to rise, heal, and thrive. With 27 years of experience, Ms. Shabazz is an anointed community champion, advocate, speaker, committee and board member, trainer, policy maker, and Community Bill of Rights planetary ambassador. Her future goals, to name a few, are to advance and develop her health, wellness and joy consultant business, complete and publish her book about her homeless and lived experiences as a supportive housing advocate, and finally start a global high vibrational kindness movement.

Kate Bitney brings 23 years of experience in the arenas of supportive services and community health. As a Senior Program Manager with CSH, Kate works to provide consulting services, technical assistance, training delivery, project management, and systems coordination across the Western Region of the US. Prior to her current role, Kate worked for both nonprofits and government partners where she provided expertise in program design and implementation, evaluation, technical assistance, grant writing, and contract monitoring and compliance. Kate brings extensive experience in direct service delivery, having spent over a decade working with chronically homeless populations through street outreach, case management, community centers, and shelters. Kate holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership from St. Catherine’s University, with an accompanying certificate in Dispute Resolution from Hamline University School of Law.