Steering Committee

Bob Hohler is the Executive Director of the Melville Charitable Trust, a foundation dedicated to finding and supporting solutions to end homelessness. For almost two decades, he has helped develop pioneering funding initiatives and mission-related investments in supportive and affordable housing and community development.

In 2009, the Council on Foundations presented him with the Distinguished Grantmaker Award, their highest honor. The award recognizes his leadership in garnering national attention to homelessness and innovative approaches to end it.

He chairs the Executive Committee of Funders Together, philanthropy’s response to homelessness and one of the fastest growing affinity groups in the country. He also chairs the Board of the Partnership for Strong Communities, the CT-based education and advocacy program of the Trust and serves on the board of the Connecticut Council on Philanthropy.

For many years he served as board chair and president of the Civil Rights Project, Inc. (CRPI): the nonprofit affiliate of Blackside, Inc., producers of the much honored television series “Eyes On the Prize” and many other distinguished documentaries. He now serves on the National Film and Media Archive advisory board and on the Libraries National Council at Washington University in St. Louis.

email Bob Hohler

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Since joining the Foundation in September 1986, Nancy Barrand, M.P.A., has been involved in the development and management of programs focusing on public and private coverage, health policy research, long term care, housing, and rural issues. Prior to coming to RWJF, she worked as legislative staff in the U.S. Senate and in the California State Assembly. Barrand received an M.P.A. from Harvard University and completed her undergraduate work at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

email Nancy Barrand

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Sonya Campion brings a successful career in fundraising to the field of philanthropy, with 25 years development experience working with over 125 organizations and successfully completing over 25 major capital campaigns through her work as principal of The Collins Group, a regional fundraising consulting firm. She is a strong believer in the power of philanthropy and is an international fundraising speaker and trainer having recently taught at the International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands as well as co-chairing with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation the launch of the Northwest affiliate of Funders Together, a national network of foundations supporting strategic and effective grantmaking to end homelessness.

In 2009, Sonya was awarded the Northwest Development Officers Association Professional Achievement Award for her fundraising professional leadership. Along with her husband, she is co-founder and trustee of the Campion Foundation, which focuses on permanently preserving wilderness, ending homelessness through advocacy and systemic change and strengthening the capacity of the non-profit sector. Ms. Campion serves on the Board of Trustees for Planned Parenthood of The Great Northwest, Seattle-King-Snohomish County YWCA, Whitman College Board of Overseers, and the WA State Association of Fundraising Professionals. In addition, she is serving as co-chair for the Methow Land Conservancy’s Capital Campaign. She holds a BA in Psychology with a minor in Political Science from Whitman College, and can often be found in wild places, from the Methow Valley to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

email Sonya Campion

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Deborah De Santis joined CSH in 2003, as Director of CSH’s New Jersey program. Under her leadership, CSH helps communities throughout the country create permanent affordable housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.Prior to joining CSH, Ms. De Santis oversaw the business operations of a real estate development company, International Senior Development, LLC. From 1998 to 2002, she was with the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, first as COO and then as Executive Director. Ms. De Santis also served as Deputy Chief of Staff to New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman from 1996 to 1998, and as Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs in New Jersey. Ms. De Santis received a BS in Business Administration from Babson College. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Partnership to End Long-Term Homelessness.

email Deborah De Santis

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Jim Frey has been President & CEO of the Frey Foundation of Minnesota since 2003. He received his BA from Saint John’s University and his JD from William Mitchell College of Law. He served in a variety of human resource positions with several corporations from 1978 to 1990 and then practiced with the Minneapolis law firm of Leonard, Street & Deinart. Jim serves as Vice-Chair of Heading Home Minnesota. He also serves on The Saint John University, Saint Paul Foundation and Minnesota Council on Foundations boards. He and his wife Mary reside in Edina, Minnesota. They have twin children, Sarah and Peter, who both graduated from college in 2008 and are happily employed in Washington, D.C. and Austin Texas, respectively.

email Jim Frey

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Deborah Fung is the Acting Executive Director for The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Foundation, a family foundation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Fireman Foundation dedicates a major share of its funding resources to ending family homelessness in the Commonwealth and beyond. The Foundation also supports a range of other causes.

email Deborah Fung

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Since 1997, Terri Donlin Huesman has served as Director of Programs for the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations. In this role, Ms. Donlin Huesman leads the Foundations community health and quality of life strategic grantmaking initiatives in central and southeastern Ohio. Strategic grantmaking initiatives include Oral Health, Obesity and Homelessness. In addition, Ms. Donlin Huesman has co-led a number of funding partnerships including the Community Health Funders’ Collaborative, Oral Health Capacity Building Initiative, and the Athens County Funding Collaborative.

Terri is involved with a number organizations including: Appalachian Ohio Giving, Community Shelter Board’s Rebuilding Lives Funders Collaborative, Funders Together – Homelessness Ends Here, and AccessHealth Columbus - Employed Latino Health Initiative.

Prior to her work with the Foundations, Terri led youth and older adult programming for the City of Cincinnati, Kettering and Grandview Heights. Terri holds a master’s in business administration from Franklin University and a bachelor’s from Bowling Green State University. She is a graduate of Leadership Columbus and Leadership Ohio.

email Terri Donlin Huesman

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Tom is an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees of the William S. Abell Foundation and Chairman of its Homelessness Committee. The Committee has been charged by the Board with the responsibility of strategically investing from $5 to $10M over a five year period (ending in 2010) to help end homelessness in the nation’s capital. He is also on the Board and serves as President of the Nurmi Family Foundation. He is a semi-retired lawyer who was a partner at the Washington DC law firm of Arnold & Porter, Associate General Counsel of United Technologies Corporation and has had his own private law practice in Washington, DC since 1988.

email Tom Nurmi

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Bill Pitkin is Senior Program Officer at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.  Bill oversees the foundation’s domestic program initiatives in areas such as homelessness, substance abuse, and children. At Hilton, he has developed the foundation’s strategic plan for its chronic homeless initiative in Los Angeles and has been a lead staff on strategic communications development, including the redevelopment of the foundation’s website. Previously, he was Director of Research and Planning at United Way of Greater Los Angeles (UWGLA), where he oversaw the publication of research reports and led a strategic planning process that resulted in UWGLA’s 10-year action plan to fight poverty in Los Angeles. Other positions have included Executive Director at the Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation and Research Director at the Advanced Policy Institute in the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Bill has published research articles and reports in areas such as community and nonprofit technology, middle school education, homelessness, housing affordability, mortgage lending discrimination, participatory planning in Latin America, and urban planning history and has taught in the UCLA Urban Planning Department and the Urban Studies and Planning Program at California State University, Northridge. Bill received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Urban Planning from UCLA.

email Bill Pitkin

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Nan Roman is a leading national voice on the issue of homelessness. The Alliance is a public education, advocacy, and capacity-building organization with a network of over 5,000 nonprofit and public sector agencies and corporate partners around the country. Under her leadership, the Alliance has developed a pragmatic plan to end homelessness within ten years. To implement this plan, Ms. Roman works closely with members of Congress and the Administration, as well as with cities and states across the nation. She collaborates with Alliance partners to educate the public about the real nature of homelessness and successful solutions. She has researched and written on the issue, is frequently interviewed by the press, and regularly speaks at events around the country. Her unique perspective on homelessness and its solutions comes from over twenty years of local and national experience in the areas of poverty and community-based organizations.

email Nan Roman

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Leslie Strnisha leads the Foundation's program team to develop targeted, outcomes-based approaches for its grantmaking and non-grantmaking activities. She is an adjunct instructor at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2006, Ms. Strnisha served in various capacities for the Cleveland office of the Enterprise Foundation until 2003. She provided training and technical assistance to community-based organizations in the areas of community planning and program development.

email Leslie Strnisha

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Debbie Reznick is a Senior Program Officer for the Polk Bros. Foundation in Chicago. Debbie was on the board of the Chicago Continuum of Care, which initiated and created the city’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. She currently serves on the board of the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness and on the Chicago Planning Council on Homelessness, which is a 23-member body that establishes policies, principles and priorities related to HUD’s SuperNOFA process each year. Debbie also co-convenes a regional group of foundations that meets regularly to discuss homelessness strategies and solutions for the city.

email Debbie Reznick

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Martha Toll is the Executive Director of the Butler Family Fund. Before joining the Butler Family Fund, Ms. Toll was a consultant to foundations and nonprofits on program/policy development and project management and practiced law for 8 years. Ms. Toll is the author of Operating Basics for Small Foundations, published by the Council on Foundations. Ms. Toll currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Neighborhood Funders Group, and has recently completed her term as Co-Chair of the Juvenile Justice Working Group of the Youth Transition Funders.  Ms. Toll is also active in the Funders for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.  She is a graduate of Yale College and Boston University School of Law.

email Martha Toll

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Joseph Weisbord is Director of Homelessness Initiatives at Fannie Mae, where he directs an initiative to create supportive housing and end chronic homelessness. Joe has over 20 years of professional experience in community development, residential real estate development and public policy. Joe worked with community based development organizations for 7 years as a member of the PICCED staff. He also has extensive experience in nonprofit management having spent 5 years as vice president for management and planning at Corporation for Supportive Housing. Prior to Fannie Mae, he was staff director for Housing First!, a coalition of community, business, labor, civic and religious organizations committed to educating the public and promoting solutions to New York City's affordable housing crisis. Housing First! played a key role in facilitating and shaping Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "New Marketplace" housing initiative.

email Joseph Weisbord

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