Susan Barrow is an anthropologist who works as a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City. She has been doing research on homelessness since 1979. Her work has combined qualitative methods in studies of service interventions and housing programs for psychiatrically disabled men and women as well as other homeless adults staying in shelters or on the streets or other public places. Recent studies have focused on low demand transitional housing and on alternative approaches to permanent housing.
Susan Barrow, Ph.D.
New York State Psychiatric Institute
722 West 168th Street, Box 102
New York, NY 10032
Phone: 212-740-5904
Fax: 212-923-0517
Email: barrows@nypimail.cpmc.columbia.edu
Ellen Bassuk is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is co-founder and president of The Better Homes Fund, a non-profit organization started in 1988 by Better Homes and Gardens magazine to help homeless families and their children nationwide. Its purpose is to reduce family homelessness by developing and helping to implement preventive, comprehensive, and long-term policies and programs. Dr. Bassuk has published many articles, monographs and books and has completed some of the seminal research about homeless families and children. She is currently the principal investigator of an epidemiologic longitudinal study, investigating the risks of family homelessness and its impact on children. Dr. Bassuk received her B.A. from Brandeis University, her M.D. from Tufts Medical School and completed a residency in psychiatry at Beth Israel Hospital. She served as director of Hospital’s Continuing Care Clinic and Psychiatric Emergency Services. Dr. Bassuk was also a Fellow at The Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College. She received an honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Northeastern University in 1993. Dr. Bassuk just completed a 3-year editorship at the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.
Ellen Bassuk, M.D.
Better Home Fund
181 Wells Avenue
Newton, MA 02159
Phone: 617-964-3834, x14
Fax: 617-244-1758
Email: ebassuk@tbhf.org
Jim Baumohl holds a doctorate in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been a professor at Bryn Mawr College since 1990. Between 1986 and 1990, he taught at McGill E-mail: barrows@pi.cpmc.columbia.eduUniversity in Montreal, Quebec. Before turning to full-time academic work in 1986, Jim Baumohl had been a streetworker, a welfare rights advocate, a shelter director, and a tenant organizer, among other things for 15 years.
Jim Baumohl, D.S.W.
Bryn Mawr College
Graduate School of Social Work
300 Airdale Road
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-1672
Phone: 610-520-2621
Fax: 610-520-2655
E-mail: jbaumhol@bryrunawr.edu
William Breakey completed his medical and psychiatric training in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Subsequently, he held faculty positions at Cornell, Punjab University in India, and the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center. In 1976, he joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, where he is currently a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. His extensive work in community psychiatry and services for persons with severe and persistent mental illness has included a special emphasis on homeless people. His research focus has been primarily on the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders among persons who are homeless, and the evaluation of programs for persons with serious mental illness. Dr. Breakey has published widely on topics relating to homelessness and has participated on APA and other national committees and task forces. He recently served as chair of the Mental Health Section of the American Public Health Association.
William R. Breakey, M.D.
Johns Hopkins University
Meyer 4-181
Johns Hopkins Hospital
600 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21287-7481
Phone: 410-955-2302
Fax: 410-614-8761
E-mail: bbreakey@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu
Martha Burt has been involved with research on homelessness, emergency assistance, and hunger since 1985. In 1992 she completed a book, Over the Edge, analyzing the causes of homelessness in the 1980s. She has recently focused on the impact of federal and state policy changes on the well-being of children and youth, on homelessness, on hunger among the elderly, on services integration projects for at-risk youth, and on service issues related to domestic violence. She directed the first national probability-based study of the urban homeless (1987), resulting in one book and other publications. She was involved in planning the second such study (National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients, 1995-96), and is currently completing a report on its results. She helped to develop and disseminate different ways to count and describe homeless children and adults; has examined state policies, legislation, funding and programs to serve the homeless and to prevent homelessness; has written about rural homelessness; evaluated the effectiveness of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program funded through the Federal Emergency Management Administration; and has worked with European researchers on homeless measurement.
Martha R. Burt, Ph.D.
The Urban Institute
2100 M Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037
Phone: 202-261-5551
Fax: 202-463-8522
E-mail: mburt@ui.urban.org
Joseph J. Cocozza is Vice President for Research with Policy Research Associates, Inc. (PRA). Since joining PRA in 1990, Dr. Cocozza has worked on a number of projects including a national survey of pre-trial forensic evaluations, a multi-site study of welfare reform, and an assessment of comprehensive approaches to children and family services. As part of his long-standing interest in mental health services for juvenile offenders, he edited a comprehensive review of existing research in the monograph, Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Youth in the Juvenile Justice System, and has evaluated the changes occurring in a number of states that are attempting to improve their services to these youth. For the past three years, Dr. Cocozza has directed a new national effort, The National GAINS Center for People with Co-occurring Disorders in the Justice System, focused on improving and better coordinating the systems responsible for people with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders who come in contact with the justice system. Over the past year, the Center has undertaken a number of initiatives aimed specifically at youth involved with the juvenile justice system. Currently, Dr. Cocozza is also directing the Coordinating Center for the federally supported, 14 site, Women and Violence Study for women with co-occurring disorders and histories of violence/trauma, and has lead responsibility for PRA=s involvement in the national evaluation of the Center for Mental Health Services=ACCESS Demonstration Program for integrating services for homeless persons with mental illness. Prior to joining PRA, he spent seven years as Executive Director of the New York State Council on Children and Families (CCF) where he had earlier served as its Director of Research. As head of CCF, a state agency charged with improving the provision and coordination of services for children and families, Dr. Cocozza worked with the Governor's Office, budget and legislative officials, state commissioners and local officials and providers to analyze and develop major state initiatives aimed at promoting more effective and better integrated services. Dr. Cocozza had held a number of policy-oriented research, academic and administrative positions over his career including work over a five year period with the New York State Office of Mental Health. Dr. Cocozza received his doctorate in Sociology in 1975 and has authored a number of professional publications and reports.
Joseph J. Cocozza, Ph.D.
Policy Research Associates, Inc.
262 Delaware Avenue
Delmar, NY 12054
Phone: 518-439-7415
Fax: 518-439-7612
Dennis Culhane’s primary area of research is homelessness and
housing distress. His current work includes studies of the impact of homelessness
on utilization of Medicaid services, public hospitals, state psychiatric
hospitals, jails, prisons, and behavioral health treatment, in New York City,
and studies of the dynamics of public shelter use in New York and Philadelphia.
He recently completed the development of a management information system
for tracking utilization of homeless services for HUD and HHS. He also recently
completed studies of housing and neighborhood factors related to the distribution
of homeless persons’ prior addresses in New York, Philadelphia and
Washington, D.C. He is currently leading an effort to integrate property,
neighborhood, and human services data from Philadelphia into a geographic
information system to support policy analysis and program planning and
evaluation.
Dennis Culhane, Ph.D.
School of Social Work
University of Pennsylvania
3600 Market Street, 7th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-349-8705
Fax: 215-349-8715
E-mail: dennis@cmhpsr.upenn.edu
Deborah Dennis is vice president with Policy Research Associates,
Inc. (PRA) in Delmar, New York, where she has worked since 1988 conducting
research and providing technical assistance to federal demonstration programs
serving homeless persons. She is the project director of the National Resource
Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness (operated under contract to the
Center for Mental Health Services) and the Health Care for the Homeless
Information Resource Center (operated under contract to the Health Resources
and Services Administration). Deborah has written several book chapters,
journal articles and reports on homelessness and mental illness and is the
co-editor of a book, Coercion and Aggressive Community Treatment.
She is the treasurer of the American Public Health Association’s Caucus
on Homelessness and has served locally on the board of directors of the Homeless
and Travelers Aid Society, the Homeless Action Committee, and the Capital
District Gay and Lesbian Community Council.
Deborah L. Dennis, M.A.
Policy Research Associates, Inc.
262 Delaware Avenue
Delmar, NY 12054
Phone: 518-439-7415, ext. 238
Fax: 518-439-7612
E-mail: ddennis@prainc.com
David Eldridge is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Welfare at the University of Pennsylvania. His proposed dissertation is entitled, "Paying the Rent: Tenancy, Landlord-Tenant Law, and Housing Justice", and is a multi-method analysis of the conflict between landlords and tenants in the context of legal disputes and housing economics. His major research interests are housing, homelessness, and fair housing.
David Eldridge, M.S.W.
University of Pennsylvania
Center for Mental Health Policy & Services Research
3600 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19096
Phone: 610-649-6162
Fax: 610-649-4092
E-mail: eldridge@dolphin.upenn.edu
Sally Erickson has more than fifteen years social service, managerial, public relations, and special events experience in non-profits and the private sector in Los Angeles, Seattle and Honolulu. For the last three years, she has served as a Project Director for Mental Help Hawaii in the development and startup of Safe Haven Honolulu. She received her MSW in 1997 from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Sally Erickson, M.S.W.
Mental Help Hawaii
41 South Beretania Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: 808-524-7233
Fax: 808-524-0353
E-mail: erickson@hula.net
Judith Feins has over 20 years' experience in housing research and policy analysis, the evaluation of federal and local programs, and management of research studies. A senior associate at Abt Associates in Cambridge, MA and a political scientist by training, she came to the study of housing programs for homeless families and individuals through her interest in improving the living conditions of low-income people in the United States. Dr. Feins=current primary research focus is housing mobility--helping low-income families to leave the concentrated-poverty neighborhoods in which so many live and move to areas of opportunity, where work is available and the quality of schools and public services is better. She directs the project to assist HUD with long-term tracking and monitoring of the Moving to Opportunity Demonstration program and is helping sites around the country to improve their Regional Opportunity Counseling programs. She holds a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Chicago.
Judith D. Feins, Ph.D.
Abt Associates
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge.- MA 02138-1168
Phone: 617-349-2370
Fax: 617-349-2670
E-mail: judie_feins@abtassoc.com
Linda Fosburg is a senior associate at Abt Associates in Cambridge, MA, with 24 years of experience in managing and conducting research for HUD and other clients. Skilled in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, she has directed projects in a wide variety of fields including homelessness, housing, education, banking and financial services, employee satisfaction, health, nutrition and publishing. She has had lead responsibility for three national evaluations of homeless programs funded by HUD and HHS: the 1987-1990 NIMH McKinney Demonstration Program for Homeless Persons with Mental Illness, the HUD Emergency Shelter Grant Program evaluation, and the HUD Shelter Plus Care Evaluation. She holds a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Educational Research from the University of Florida.
Linda B. Fosburg, Ph.D.
Abt Associates
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge.- MA 02138-1168
Phone: 617-349-2388
Fax: 617-349-2670
E-mail: linda_fosburg@abtassoc.com
Lillian Gelberg is Associate Professor of Family Medicine in the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Gelberg is a health services researcher who conducts community-based research on the health of homeless and impoverished adults in Los Angeles County. She has studied homeless adults living in shelters and outdoor areas, and the health and use of health services among homeless and low-income housed patients. She also has studied change in health status and use of health services among homeless adults; delays in onset of treatment for tuberculosis patients; health status, contraception use, access to care, and patient satisfaction among homeless women in shelters and food programs; structures and processes that predict access to care in medical facilities providing care to impoverished women; and satisfaction of patients treated in ambulatory settings in public health care clinics. Dr. Gelberg is an alumna of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program and is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar. She has received the Association for Health Services Research 1995 Young Investigator Award and the 1997 Article of the Year Award. Dr. Gelberg graduated with an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and completed her internship and residency at Montefiore Hospital in The Bronx, N.Y. She earned an M.S.P.H. in health services research from the UCLA School of Public Health. She has been a member of the UCLA School of Medicine faculty since 1986.
Lillian Gelberg, M.D., M.S.P.H.
UCLA School of Medicine
10920 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1815
Los Angeles, CA 90024-6520
Phone: 310-794-6092
Fax: 310-794-6097
E-mail: gelberg@ucla.edu
Nicole Glasser is the Area Training Coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Metro Boston Area Office. In this role, she is spearheading an initiative to educate Area and provider staff on how they can facilitate recovery and incorporate empowerment principles into their programs and agencies. Nicki also works as a consultant and advocate for people with mental illness and people who are homeless, where her main focus has been on recovery, empowerment and consumer involvement. In this role, Nicki has authored a number of articles, both for press and professional publications; presented at conferences; and has become involved in a consumer initiate to influence mental health public policy and funding on the state and national levels. Nicki also brings the wealth of knowledge and experience one can only gain by having been a receiver of mental health services.
Nicole Glasser
Metro Boston Area DMH
85 E. Newton St.
Boston, MA 02218
617-626-9226
Nicole.Glasser@dmh.state.ma.us
C. Scott Holupka is a Research Associate at the Washington Office of the Vanderbilt University center for Mental Health Policy where he has worked on a number of projects involving homelessness, supportive housing, and social service systems. Current and recent research efforts include the development of a cost study of supportive housing for people living with HIV/AIDS: participating in the coordinating center for a multi-site study of housing approaches for persons with serious mental illness; an evaluation of the Corporation for Supportive Housing for The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Ford Foundation, and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and an evaluation of a supportive housing employment initiative. Dr. Holupka has also been involved in the evaluation of the Homeless Families Program, a nine city demonstration developed and jointly sponsored by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Dr. Holupka was part of a research team that evaluated the Lafayette Courts Family Development Center, a pilot social service program in Baltimore. In addition to his evaluation activities, other areas of interest include urban development and community change.
C. Scott Holupka, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University
Institute for Public Policy Studies
1609 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 401
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202-234-1190
Fax: 202-234-1185
E-mail: sholupk@ibm.net
Marsha McMurray-Avila works for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council as a Program Coordinator for activities related to training, education and research in the field of homeless health care. She is the author of Organizing Health Services for Homeless People: A Practical Guide (1997), a reference for communities or groups interested in creating or improving health care services for homeless people, and has co-authored several articles related to various aspects of homelessness and health. Beginning in 1985, Marsha worked for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, serving as Executive Director from 1987 to 1996. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Health Education from the University of Washington, and a Master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico.
Marsha McMurray-Avila, M.C.R.P.
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
1907 Anderson Place, S.E.
Albuquerque, NM 87108
Phone: 505-266-7683
Fax: 505-232-3464
E-mail: mmcavila@aol.com
Gary Morse is the founder and president of Community Alternatives in St. Louis, MO, a managed behavioral health care agency formed specifically to meet the needs of persons with serious mental illness, including those who are homeless. As a researcher and clinical psychologist, Gary has worked in the field of services for homeless persons since 1983. He is the author of several book chapters, journal articles, and major research reports on homeless issues. He was one of the first NIMH-funded researchers to study the relationship of homelessness and mental illness and the efficacy of service and treatment modalities for the homeless mentally ill population. Bridging the worlds of both clinical practice and research, Gary is an expert on case management and outreach to homeless persons.
Gary Morse, Ph.D.
Community Alternatives
3115 South Grand Avenue, Suite 600
St. Louis, MO 63118
Phone: 314-772-8801
Fax: 314-772-7988
Jaimie Page is the project coordinator of Kalihi-Palama Center’s Health Care for the Homeless Project (HCHP). HCHP provides comprehensive services to more than 2,000 homeless persons each year on the island of Oahu. Jaimie was an integral member of the task force that designed and planned Safe Haven Honolulu, a collaborative project of HCHP. She was clinic coordinator for Safe Haven’s first two years before moving on to her current position. Jaimie received her bachelor’s degree is social work from San Diego State University in 1989 and her master’s degree in social work from the University of Hawaii in 1991. She has ten years experience working with homeless persons in San Diego, Salt Lake City, and Hawaii in outreach, case management, clinical and administrative areas.
Jaimie Page, M.S.W., L.S.W.
Health Care for the Homeless Project
350 Sumner Street, #101
Honolulu, HI 96817
Phone: 808-521-8609
Fax: 808-533-6207
Marjorie Robertson, Ph.D. is a Senior Scientist at the Alcohol Research Group in Berkeley, California, with a specialization in psychiatric epidemiology. Since 1983, Dr. Robertson has conducted community-based research on the health of homeless and other indigent populations including both epidemiological and services research. Her research with youth has included surveys of homeless youth in the Hollywood area and in San Francisco and has assessed youth health and mental health status, substance use, HIV risk, adaptation strategies, and barriers to care.
Marjorie J. Robertson, Ph.D.
University of California,
San Francisco
Alcohol Research Group
2000 Hearst Avenue, Suite 300
Berkeley, CA 94709-2176
Phone: 510-642-5246
Fax: 510-642-7175
E-mail: mrobertwon@arg.org
Debra Rog is a research fellow with the Vanderbilt University’s Institute for public policy studies, and director of the Washington office of the Center for Mental Health Policy. She has nearly 20 years of experience in program evaluation and applied research and has directed numerous multisite evaluations and research projects. Dr. Rog has to her credit numerous publications on evaluation methodology, housing, homelessness, poverty, mental health, and program and policy development and is co-editor of the Applied Social Research Methods Series and the recently published Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods. Currently, she is on the Board of Directors of the American Evaluation Association, and a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Public Health Association. She completed an appointment on the Advisory Committee of Women’s Services for the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and has been recognized for her evaluation work by the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Evaluation Association, the Eastern Evaluation Research Society, and the Knowledge Utilization Society.
Debra J. Rog, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University
Institute for Public Policy Studies
1609 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Suite 401
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202-234-1190
Fax: 202-234-1185
E-mail: debrog@ibm-net
Robert Rosenheck is director of VA’s Northeast Program Evaluation Center, director of the evaluation division of the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and clinical professor of psychiatry and public health at Yale. He is a nationally known mental health service researcher who is leader in cost effectiveness studies of behavioral interventions. He is currently responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of several hundred specialized VA programs devoted to the care of homeless veterans, veterans suffering from PTSD, and veterans who suffer from severe and persistent mental illness. He has been a prime architect of national VA collaborative programs with both the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Social Security Administration. He also directs the client-level evaluation of the ACCESS program for homeless mentally ill persons, for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services. He has published more than 130 scientific papers on topics such as performance evaluation of large mental health systems, the causes of homelessness, the organization and financing of mental health services, and the cost-effectiveness of treatments of serious mental illness, homelessness, and PTSD among Vietnam veterans.
Robert Rosenheck, M.D.
Northeast Program Evaluation Center
VA Connecticut Health Care System
950 Campbell Avenue
NEPEC # 182
West Haven, CT 06516
Phone: 203-937-3850
Fax: 203-937-3433
E-mail: robert.rosenheck@yale.edu
Amy Salomon, a political scientist, has over fifteen years of experience in research and evaluation, technical assistance and policy and program development. Her work has focused on disenfranchised populations including homeless families, minority elders, people with disabilities, and families with incomes under 125% of poverty. Dr. Salomon is currently executive director at the Better Homes Fund in Newton Center, MA. She has also served as director of programs and evaluation, as well as project manager for the Worcester Family Research Project, and NIMH-funded study of homeless mothers and children in Worcester, MA. Dr. Salomon has focused most recently on the interface between homelessness and family violence; the prevalence of violence in the lives of welfare recipients; and the impact of violence on welfare use and women’s capacity to maintain work over time. Dr. Salomon currently teaches a Community Medicine Clerkship on Homelessness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and has co-taught a course on Poverty, Homelessness and Women at Harvard Divinity School.
Amy Salomon, Ph.D.
Better Homes Fund
181 Wells Avenue
Newton Center, MA 02159
Phone: 617-244-3834
Fax: 617-244-1758
Marybeth (Beth) Shinn is professor of psychology and chair of the psychology department at New York University. She has conducted several studies of homelessness including a five-year longitudinal study of homeless and poor housed families in New York City funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Shinn is a recipient of the award for Distinguished Contributions to Theory and Research from the Society for Community Research and Action. She received her Ph.D. in social and community psychology from the University of Michigan in 1978.
Marybeth Shinn, Ph.D.
New York University
6 Washington Place, Room 552
MC 1 0_37
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 212-998-7923
Fax: 212-995-4018
E-mail: beth@psych.nyu.edu
Henry J. Steadman, Ph.D., is President of Policy Research Associates, Inc. Previously, Dr. Steadman ran a nationally known research bureau for 17 years for the New York State Office of Mental Health. His work has resulted in six books, over 100 journal articles in a wide range of professional journals, 18 chapters, and numerous reports. Among Dr. Steadman's major current projects are: (1) the National GAINS Center for Persons with Co-occurring Disorders in the Justice System; (2) the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Violence Risk Assessment Study; (3) the National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness under contract to the Center for Mental Health Services; and (4) the Women and Violence Coordinating Center funded by SAMHSA. Dr. Steadman received his B.A. degree and his M.A. degree in Sociology from Boston College and his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1987, Dr. Steadman received the Amicus Award from the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. He also received the Philippe Pinel Award from the International Academy of Law and Mental Health in 1988, the Saleem A. Shah Award in 1994 from the State Mental Health Forensic Directors, the 1998 Distinguished Contribution to Forensic Psychology from the American Academy of Forensic Psychology, and the 1999 Isaac Ray Award from the American Psychiatric Association for his outstanding contributions to the psychiatric aspects of jurisprudence.
Henry J. Steadman, Ph.D.
Policy Research Associates, Inc.
262 Delaware Avenue
Delmar, NY 12054
Phone: 518-439-7415
Fax: 518-439-7612
Paul Toro is Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Research Group on Homelessness and Poverty at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He has published over 50 articles and other works. His research on homelessness has involved homeless adults, families, and youth and has included studies comparing homeless with matched housed groups, following homeless people in longitudinal designs, evaluating interventions, assessing public opinion, and making international comparisons. He has also conducted research on mutual-help groups, social support, and prevention programs.
Paul A. Toro, Ph.D.
Research Group on Homelessness and Poverty
Wayne State University
71 West Warren
Detroit, MI 48202
Phone: 313-577-0806
Fax: 313-577-0962
E-mail: p.toro@wayne.edu
Carol Wilkins is the Director of the Health, Housing and Integrated Services Network, a collaborative which currently includes more than 30 non-profit and local government agencies which offer affordable housing and an array of services to homeless and disabled adults in three counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has more than 15 years of experience in public finance, services and policy work, including work with the State Legislature’s Office of the Legislative Analyst, the State Assembly Ways and Means Committee, as Deputy Mayor for Finance in San Francisco, and as Finance Director for the San Francisco Housing Authority. She has substantial experience managing complex, multifaceted, multidisciplinary programs serving vulnerable populations. She is the author of the 1996 article, “Building a model managed care system for homeless adults with special needs: the Health, Housing and Integrated Services Network” in Current Issues in Public Health.
Carol Wilkins, M.P.P.
Corporation for Supportive Housing
1540 San Pablo Avenue, Suite 600
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510-251-2712
E- Fax: 510-251-5954
E-mail: carol.wilkins@csh.org
Rita Zimmer is Founder, President, and CEO of Women In Need, Inc. (WIN), an agency established in 1983 to provide services to homeless and underprivileged women and children. Concerned about the lack of adequate social services for this population, Zimmer and a like-minded group of colleagues decided to take action, opening WIN’s first shelter on Valentine’s Day in 1983. WIN has grown from one shelter and a soup kitchen with a budget of $15,000 in 1983, to an organization with multiple residences and programs, 175 staff, more than 300 volunteers, and an $8.5 million budget in 1997. Today, WIN’s services are based in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Programs include transitional residences; employment and educational training; alcohol and substance abuse treatment; children’s services; family support services; HIV prevention education; and aftercare services. From the beginning, WIN’s focus has been not only on the delivery of services, but on program evaluation and research as well. All programs are designed with the goal of enabling the women and their families to realize self-determination. WIN and Rita Zimmer have won 14 awards in the past fourteen years. Among them are the Joseph Webber Award presented by United Way for being on of the six best managed social service agencies in New York City; the Brooke Russell Astor award to Zimmer, “in recognition of her outstanding commitment and contribution to improving the quality of life in New York;” and the Robin Hood Foundation Heroes Award, in recognition of WIN’s “heroic work to serve poor New Yorkers.” Rita Zimmer graduated from Ricker College in Maine and received an MPH from New York University. She is active on several boards, committees, and advisory groups whose missions are to promote the well-being and empowerment of poor and addicted women and their families.
Rita Zimmer, M.P.H.
Women In Need
115 West 31st Street
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-695-4758
Fax: 212-736-1649
E-mail: winzimm@aol.com
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