Experience

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  City of San José

  • San Jose, California, United States

  • Strategic Advisor on Homelessness, City Manager's Office (Senior Executiv...

    • Dec 2023 - Present
    • San Jose, California, United States

    As Strategic Advisor on Homelessness for the City Manager's Office, I advise on innovative research and best practices to end homelessness, enhance enterprise-wide homelessness data and analysis, support cross-departmental data analysis, work with internal and external partners to maximize de...

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  DRVR Consulting, LLC

  • United States

  • Principal Scientist

    • Jun 2023 - Present
    • United States

    Developmental Research on Vehicle Residency (DRVR) Consulting, LLC, assists municipalities, social service providers and continuum of care organizing agencies to better understand, support and include vehicle residents in their networks of housing and care. DRVR provides Technical Assistance (TA)...

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  National Vehicle Residency Collective

  • Director

    • Apr 2023 - Present

    The National Vehicle Residency Collective (“NVRC”) is a network of vehicle residents, social service providers, and legal experts joining together to support people living in their vehicles. Our goal is to honor and value the voices of vehicle residents, support their policy and service goals, and protect their legal rights. We believe that a key component of this work is to raise positive public awareness about people living in vehicles and vehicle residency.Launched in 2022, NVRC is a growing movement emerging from a national affordable housing crisis that has led people out of traditional housing and into their vehicles for temporary shelter and permanent housing. Laws prohibiting living in vehicles are growing rapidly, and governments use expensive fines, arrests, and towing and impoundment of vehicles to keep vehicle residents from accessing public space. Public lands, such as National Forests and Bureau of Land Management land, are becoming more restrictive. Meanwhile, private RV parks and campgrounds are hard to find or priced beyond reach, especially in metro areas where folks can maintain access to necessary services and family support. The NVRC was formed to combat stigma against vehicle residency and advocate for places where vehicle residents can park and be part of healthy communities.National Vehicle Residency Collective members typically join one of three groups based on their lived and professional expertise:* Lived Experience Group: People who currently live or previously lived in vehicles.* Service Providers Group: Staff from organizations (such as safe parking programs) that provide services to people living in their vehicles.* Legal Forum: Lawyers working to defend the legal rights of people living in their vehicles and enable services provided to vehicle residents.

  • Co-Founder and Organizer

    • Nov 2021 - Oct 2023

    The National Vehicle Residency Collective was formed to combat stigma against vehicle residency and advocate for places where vehicle residents can park and be part of healthy communities.National Vehicle Residency Collective members typically join one of three groups based on their lived and professional expertise:* Lived Experience Group: People who currently live or previously lived in vehicles.* Service Providers Group: Staff from organizations (such as safe parking programs) that provide services to people living in their vehicles.* Legal Forum: Lawyers, policy makers, and researchers working to protect the legal rights of people living in their vehicles and enable services provided to vehicle residents.

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  Colorado Safe Parking Initiative

  • Denver, Colorado, United States

  • Member Board of Directors

    • Sep 2022 - Present
    • Denver, Colorado, United States

    CSPI is a grassroots, all-volunteer nonprofit organization working to create a statewide network of safe, legal parking locations for individuals and families sheltering in vehicles because they are experiencing homelessness.Learn more about the CSPI's work at:https://www.cpr.org/show-segment...

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  UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at ZSFG

  • United States

  • Postdoctoral Scholar

    • Sep 2020 - Sep 2022
    • United States

    Postdoctoral Scholar with the Benioff Homelessness & Housing Initiative at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations (2020-2022)

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  City of Seattle

  • Department of Neighborhoods

  • Liaison for the Unhoused Community (contractor)

    • Jun 2017 - Sep 2022
    • Department of Neighborhoods

    Seattle's Community Liaisons are a team of professionals located throughout Seattle who serve as resources and liaisons for community members. Together, we assist City departments in their outreach and engagement needs ensuring that the City provides information to all community members, forg...

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  University of Washington

  • Greater Seattle Area

  • Lecturer Part-time

    • Nov 2019 - Jun 2020
    • Greater Seattle Area

    Teaching the Medical Anthropology of Displacement and Homelessness in America (Winter, '20) and Visual Anthropology of Protest Music (Spring, '20).

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  WeCount

  • Seattle, WA

  • Executive Director / Co-Founder

    • Apr 2015 - Sep 2018
    • Seattle, WA

    WeCount develops tools for people to directly help others in their communities. We address social inequalities through simple solutions to promote civic engagement. WeCount.org is an phone-friendly website that enables users to donate and request items within their immediate area. We partner wi...

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  All Home King County

  • King County, WA

  • Executive & Governing Board Member; Chair of Policy Committee

    • Oct 2015 - Dec 2016
    • King County, WA

    AllHome is the federally mandated Continuum of Care supervisory agency that oversees McKinney-Vento/HUD funding for social services in Seattle/King County.I served as a member of the executive committee, governing board and chair the policy subcommittee, where my focuses were social service outre...

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  Compass Housing Alliance

  • Greater Seattle Area

  • Outreach Specialist

    • Jun 2014 - Apr 2015
    • Greater Seattle Area

    * Performed daily outreach to people living in vehicles throughout Seattle for a program that provided people who sleep in vehicles with off-street parking, restrooms, and housing case management.* Developed this program and lobbied for its funding, transfer from Sustainable Seattle, and incorpor...

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  Sustainable Seattle

  • Greater Seattle Area

  • Outreach Coordinator

    • Sep 2013 - Jun 2014
    • Greater Seattle Area

    * Performed daily outreach to people living in vehicles throughout Seattle for a program that provided people who sleep in vehicles with off-street parking, restrooms, and housing case management.* Worked regularly with law enforcement officers and management, the municipal court, social service ...

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  Seattle University

  • United States
  • Higher Education
  • 700 & Above Employee

  • Project Coordinator, Project on Family Homelessness

    • Nov 2012 - Jun 2014

    * Coordination of the online materials, website, social media, and team projects* Partner marketing/communication-campaign efficiency analysis* Independent research and analysis on issues pertaining to family homelessness* Event and partner support

  • Research Fellow & Director, Vehicle Residency Research Program

    • Feb 2012 - Jun 2014

    * Designed, developed and successfully taught two quarters of "Sociocultural Anthropology: Vehicle Residency in Seattle" through the Department of Strategic Communications* Directed eight undergraduate student teams for two years of field research, mapping vehicle residency settlement patterns on public streets

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  Ballard Community Taskforce on Homelessness &am...

  • Ballard Neighborhood; Seattle, WA

  • Chair

    • Sep 2011 - Jun 2013
    • Ballard Neighborhood; Seattle, WA

    * Directed weekly meetings of advocates, law enforcement officers, service providers as well as representatives from the business, resident and homeless community.* Led numerous subgroups and iniatives, including the placement of a "permanent" outdoor toilet in a nearby public park.

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  CAJA International Imports

  • Sarchi, Costa Rica

  • President

    • Jan 2007 - Jun 2008
    • Sarchi, Costa Rica

    * Identified the need for high quality, low-cost cabinet/furniture hardware in Costa Rica and built a small company to bring these goods direct from China for wholesale distribution. * Traveled throughout Costa Rica performing market research and development with cabinet manufacturers, an...

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  Trax Technologies

  • San José, Costa Rica

  • Account Manager (contractor)

    • Mar 2007 - Mar 2008
    • San José, Costa Rica

    * Led an international team of developers to streamline order and systems tracking for millions of Hewlett Packard's international shipments. * Ensured daily customer and development team interaction through teleconferencing to identify, develop and integrate new product functionality.

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  Washington Mutual Savings Bank

  • Seattle, WA

  • Project Coordinator

    • Apr 2004 - Oct 2005
    • Seattle, WA

    * Contracted to manage the reintegration, reallocation, or sale of all servers/systems acquired byWashington Mutual over the previous ten years (roughly 60,000 machines). * Composed and maintained multiple schedules with a team of Project Managers to coordinate their efforts, highlight interdepen...

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  Cray Inc.

  • Seattle, WA

  • Project Coordinator

    • Oct 2002 - Jan 2004
    • Seattle, WA

    * Designed, monitored and managed a 5 year/$90 million resource-loaded and completely integrated series of development schedules coordinating every department in the organization.* Oversaw daily and weekly meetings with department managers to coordinate the total system hardware and software deve...

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  Tenzing Communications

  • Seattle, WA

  • Market Analysis Manager; Program Manager of Marketing & Content

    • Jun 2000 - Oct 2001
    • Seattle, WA

    * Developed project lifecycle schedules to correlate all airline-marketing activities and product release timelines. * Worked regularly with senior corporate leadership to compose and compile numerousmarketing reporting tools, advising executive board members on marketing strategy based upon anal...

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  NeoInformatics

  • Seattle, WA

  • Program Manager

    • Jan 1999 - May 2000
    • Seattle, WA

    * Directed the production of the world's largest plant database (in 2000) and its related marketing website, NeoFlora.com.* Led a team of PERL programmers, designers, marketing staff, photographers and content experts across the country to integrate hundreds of thousands of cross-referenced e...

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  ShopNow.com

  • Seattle, WA

  • Project Manager; Fraud Detection Specialist

    • Sep 1996 - Dec 1998
    • Seattle, WA

    * Oversaw a team that performed manual charge verifications for one of the first e-commerce companies.* Worked closely with credit card companies, INTERPOL, local police and the FBI to address burgeoning internet fraud.