Leadership Council

Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum is the CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). LAHSA is the lead agency in the HUD-funded Los Angeles Continuum of Care and coordinates and manages federal, state, county, and city funds for programs providing shelter, housing, and services to people experiencing homelessness. Immediately before joining LAHSA, Dr. Adams Kellum worked with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in her first 100 days as the architect of the Inside Safe housing intervention program.  

Dr. Adams Kellum is perhaps best known for her time as President and CEO of St. Joseph Center, a social service organization offering outreach & engagement, housing, mental health, and education & vocational programs throughout Los Angeles. The Center is a trailblazer in deploying integrated, multidisciplinary teams to help the most vulnerable homeless individuals obtain and maintain stable housing. Under her leadership, St. Joseph Center nearly quadrupled its staff, expanded its services, and broadened its geographic reach, becoming a recognized leader in homeless services. 

Dr. Adams Kellum holds a gubernatorial appointment to the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s No Place Like Home Program Advisory Committee. She served on and continues to support the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness under the newly established Anti-Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion (ARDI) initiative, as well as the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ Race Equity Network. She currently sits on the California Policy Lab Advisory Board and Board of Trustees for Mount Saint Mary’s University. 

Born and raised in Southern California, she received her B.A. from the University of Southern California and earned an M.A. from Ball State University before completing her Ph.D. at Stanford University.

Sherri Allen-Reeves is the Executive Director of Phoenix Foundation, NFP (PHX-NFP). She has passionately worked in the service of others for over 30 years and is a vocal advocate for the homeless and other disenfranchised people. In her inaugural year as Executive Director, she generated over four million dollars in program revenue to support individuals experiencing housing insecurity. 

As a member of the Illinois Racial Equity Roundtable on Black Homelessness, Sherri significantly influenced the University of Illinois at Chicago report, “Black Homelessness in Illinois: Structural Drivers of Inequality.” Under her leadership, PHX-NFP recently opened Phoenix Rising Emergency Triage Shelter, a 75-bed non-congregant shelter for single men and women, became an Access Point for the Coordinated Entry System, providing services for 38 units of Rapid Rehousing, and partnering with Centers for Housing and Health, providing Case Manager for forty families in Permanent Supportive Housing.  

Her service includes Board Member roles for the Chicago Continuum of Care, Supportive Housing Providers Association, Legal Council for Health Justice, and the Darren B. Easterling Center for Restorative Practices. She is also a member of the Collaborative on Child Homelessness Illinois Leadership Committee, Rotary Club Chicago Southeast, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness BIPOC Collective and Leadership Council. Additionally, she is the founder of the Renaissance Bronzeville Toastmasters Club. 

Sherri holds a BA in Counseling from Midwest Theological Institute. She is a wife, mother of three, and grandmother of six, and she still manages to find little time for self-care. 

Joslyn Carter, LCSW, a native of Antigua, migrated to the US with her mother and 4 sisters in the early 80s. Growing up in a typical Caribbean household, the family lived with her mother and 2 aunts and their families. This unique upbringing instilled in her a deep sense of community and a passion for social work. 

During her 20 plus year tenure at the Department of Homeless Services, Joslyn has made significant contributions, leading to several promotions and eventual appointment to the head of the agency in 2017 under the de Blasio administration. Because of her strategic initiatives and effective management that greatly improved the operations of the City’s shelter system, Joslyn was reappointed in 2022 under the Adams’ administration. As Administrator, she is responsible for managing the daily operations of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive municipal shelter system. 

Prior to joining DHS, Joslyn worked both for public and private entities, including Kings County Hospital as a Social Worker in both the Emergency Room and Obstetrics; the American Red Cross as the Director of Social Services, and Talbot Services Children Services as the Director of Preventive Services. She has also worked as a Clinical Therapist, providing treatment for individuals, including children. 

She is a certified Student Field Instructor, has provided clinical supervision for MSW students, and has developed and run support groups for women, girls, and families. In her present position, Joslyn has facilitated “talk sessions” with women employees focused on self-sufficiency, and also is a mentor for young women. Joslyn is on the Leadership Council of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and is a thought partner with the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) where she provides guidance on the development and design of trauma-informed spaces that are inclusive to all children, regardless of their life circumstance. 

Joslyn’s academic journey reflects her commitment to social work. She earned her Undergraduate Degree from Syracuse University, her Master of Social Work Degree from the prestigious Hunter College School of Social Work and completed a postgraduate Clinical Social Work Fellowship from Yale University, where she received clinical training in working with children and families. She has also served as an Adjunct professor at the Stony Brook School of Social Work. 

Joslyn currently resides in Brooklyn with her husband Dwayne, her son Jeremy, and her dog, Skylar. 

Dawn Gilman demonstrates her leadership in the mission to end homelessness, with a career spanning over 17 years at Changing Homelessness. Dawn’s strategic focus and commitment have been instrumental in catapulting services and funding from $991,000 to an impressive $20.2 million, providing vital housing, case management, prevention, diversion, and supportive services to Northeast Florida. Under her direction, Changing Homelessness has evolved from a single-employee organization to a robust agency with more than 90 staff members. Several key milestones during Dawn’s tenure include strong national partnerships that have yielded huge value to the community ~ Community Solutions, 100,000 Homes movement and Built for Zero initiative, and the Jeff Bezos Day 1 Families Fund with a $2.5 million leadership award. 

An alumna of Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Dawn is a Leadership Jax graduate, serves on the Lutheran Services Florida board and remains a steadfast advocate through her work with the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Florida Coalition for Ending Homelessness. Dawn’s unwavering dedication to ending homelessness has established her as a respected leader and a driving force for positive change in Northeast Florida and beyond. 

Tasha Gray received her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan and a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California. 

Tasha has 18 years of experience working to house homeless populations. While completing her Master’s degree, Tasha was employed as an Assistant Project Manager with Skid Row Housing Trust, where she worked to develop permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals in Los Angeles’ Skid Row community. She later served as a Program Manager for the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH). At CSH, Tasha provided technical assistance and led workshops and trainings on developing, financing, and operating permanent supportive housing for homeless populations. 

In June 2009, Tasha joined the Homeless Action Network of Detroit (HAND) as a Program Coordinator. In this role, she was responsible for coordinating nearly $25 million annually in funding applications from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) for homeless programming in the cities of Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.  

Tasha is currently the Executive Director of HAND. In this role she provides oversight and leadership to all of HAND’s programs and services and serves as an advocate to the area’s homeless population. In addition, she works with key stakeholders, including the City of Detroit, Michigan State Housing Development Authority, Department of Human Services, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. 

David is the Director of Housing Stability for Hennepin County, overseeing the County’s work to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring. David has worked in the non-profit and public sector for more than twenty-two years across the United Kingdom, Cambodia and Minnesota. David started at a homelessness non-profit in his hometown of London. David held multiple positions – including working in the drop-in center – before designing and managing a national program that helped more than 8,000 people move into rented accommodation over a three-year period.  

In Cambodia, David worked with an international award-winning non-profit that engaged, empowered and educated youth who were living and working on the streets of Phnom Penh. This led to further work in international development, working with the Ministry of Education on improving schools for the most marginalized communities in rural Cambodia. Since moving to Minneapolis, David has led efforts to transform the homeless response system in Hennepin County with an emphasis on racial equity and elevating the voices of people with lived experience of homelessness. David led Hennepin County through its homelessness pandemic response, which saw unprecedented resources allocated and was recognized through multiple awards from the National Association of Counties.     

Sarah Kahn is the President and CEO of Housing Forward, the lead agency of the homeless response system in Dallas and Collin counties. Kahn served as Housing Forward’s Chief Program Officer from September 2021 to December 2023 and has 21 years of experience in evidence-based homelessness solution and policy implementation. Prior to Housing Forward, she led the Homeless Assistance and Housing Practice at The Cloudburst Group, a contractor for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Kahn catalyzed progress on ending homelessness, helping communities optimize public and private resources and accelerate rehousing efforts. She has worked alongside communities to improve homeless response systems in the U.S. and internationally with KPMG’s Government Advisory Services in Sydney Australia and Singapore; the Council to Homeless Persons in Melbourne Australia; and the National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington D.C.

Tamera Kohler has served as the CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness (RTFH), the Continuum of Care Lead Agency, since November 2018. In addition to overseeing RTFH, Ms. Kohler advises elected officials, including national leaders, and helps shape policies so they’re incorporating best practices that strengthen the region’s homeless response system. Ms. Kohler has more than 20 years of senior leadership experience serving state and local governments and nonprofits specializing in poverty, homeless, housing, and private mortgage lending. She serves on multiple state and national boards including the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) Leadership Council. Before joining RTFH, she served as the Division Director of Homeless Strategy and Investment in the City of Seattle. Prior to that, she spent 8 years helping to lead the nationally-noted homelessness reduction programs for the State of Utah as the Assistant Division Director of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for the Department of Workforce Services.

With more than 25 years of experience in a variety of shelter, street and housing programs, Jennifer Loving has spent her career working to solve homelessness in Silicon Valley.   

Since being tapped to lead Destination: Home in 2010, Jennifer has convened public officials, government agencies, private sector leaders, nonprofit executives and leaders with lived experience to implement a collective impact model to end and prevent homelessness in Santa Clara County, resulting in well over $2B in new public, private and philanthropic funding and over 20,000 people permanently off our streets in the last five years.  

In collaboration with a 27-member Board of Trustees, Victoria L. Mallette is responsible for directing and implementing Miami-Dade County’s Community Homeless Plan: Priority Home, the local Continuum of Care’s framework for preventing and ending homelessness. The Homeless Trust administers and leverages a first-in-the-nation dedicated source of funding for people experiencing homelessness, a Food & Beverage Penny Program. Through the CoC’s work, unsheltered homelessness has been reduced in Miami-Dade by nearly 90-percent.

Mallette’s public service career has included serving as Communications Director for the Office of the Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Acting Director of Development, Advocacy & Communications for Miami-Dade Parks and External Affairs/Governmental Coordinator for the Office of Emergency Management. Mallette began her career in broadcast journalism and served as a Senior Political Producer and Investigative Producer.

To learn more about the Homeless Trust, visit www.homelesstrust.org.  

Maura McCauley is the Managing Deputy Commissioner for the City of Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), overseeing the City’s homeless, gender-based violence and new arrival programming.  She plays a key role in managing the City’s infrastructure for new arrivals, homelessness and gender-based violence programs. She provides oversight for programs related to prevention, shelter, outreach, housing services, legal advocacy, and counseling services, and she leads local strategic efforts towards the larger goal of preventing and ending homelessness and gender-based violence.  

Prior to joining DFSS, Maura served in a range of leadership positions at Heartland Human Care Services, Inc. (HHCS), related to homelessness and violence prevention, most recently as senior director of the HHCS Housing Division where she led the strategic direction, planning, and operations for the organization’s portfolio of services to more than 800 households in Chicago.  

Shireen McSpadden is the Executive Director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing for the City and County of San Francisco. She was appointed by Mayor London N. Breed in April of 2021, after a nation-wide search. 

Her experience and connection to communities will help the Department meet its strategic goals of serving our most vulnerable residents, including the critical work of delivering on the promise of the Mayor’s the Homelessness Recovery Plan. Shireen has over 30 years’ experience providing services to people with disabilities and seniors, in both the nonprofit and public sectors. In 2020, she was recognized for her anti-ageism work by Time Magazine, named as one of 16 people and groups fighting for a more equitable America. She has served on several boards and committees including the San Francisco Long Term Care Coordinating Council, the San Francisco Palliative Care Work Group, and the California Association of Area Agencies on Aging. 

As a member of Governor Newsom’s Master Plan for Aging Stakeholder Committee, Shireen helped shape California’s Master Plan for Aging. She is also an executive board member, representing California, for the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. Shireen was recently appointed by Secretary Mark Ghaly to California’s Disability and Aging Community Advisory Committee. 

Shireen holds a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco.

Cathryn Vassell has dedicated her career to working with individuals experiencing homelessness and individuals living in marginalized communities for over 25 years.   She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Partners for HOME, where she creates and executes the strategy and vision for ending homelessness in the City of Atlanta.  Prior to joining Partners for HOME, Cathryn served concurrently as the Legal, Policy and Compliance Officer for St. Joseph’s Health System, and the Behavioral Health Coordinator for Mercy Care, Inc.  There, she was instrumental in the development and management of a holistically integrated medical and behavioral health care program across 13 clinic sites.  Cathryn has also served as the Program Director for City of Refuge, a shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness.   

Cathryn was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 2012 and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) as well as an Advisory Board member for HouseATL and the Justice Policy Board.