For over 20 years, Nick has worked professionally to address issues of social justice, cooperative action, and livable community environments.  The phenomenon of homelessness stands witness to the broader dysfunctions in our society.  Nick is currently the Deputy Executive Director at Burbank Housing Development Corporation, a nonprofit builder of affordable homes for renters and first time homebuyers, and remains concerned about the folks who remain unhoused within our affluent community.  He served on the Sebastopol City Council from 1988 to 1992, developing an appreciation for the power and limitation of government.  Nick has lived in Sonoma County since 1967, a time when homelessness was virtually unknown.  He has been on the Board of Directors of the Task Force for the Homeless since 1990.

Gale Brownell is the current Vice-Chair of the Task Force. She has has been on the Task Force Board since 2000, also serving as Vice-Chair, Advocacy Committee convenor and co-chair of the October in Paradise auction. She has also represented the Task Force on the Sonoma County Housing Coalition's Consensus Council and on the Steering Committee of the Continuum of Care. She retired after working for 20 years as a Housing Programs Manager for theCity of Santa Rosa. Members of her family have experienced homelessness as a result of poor life choices.

Non-profit administrator, Diversity Management Consultant, Homeless Advocate, Advocate for people with disabilities, and advocate on issues affecting people who are farmworkers outlines my work for the past 30 years. Worked in the private development business for 7 years as a civil engineering assistant. Native Californian first introduced to Sonoma County in 1957.

Sam Barnhart worked for several years with Interfaith Shelter Network at the Santa Rosa Armory. Since then he has made it his cause to advocate for the underserved population of homeless single adults in the county.

Georgia Berland, a Task Force founder who consults as the part-time Executive Officer of the Task Force as well as serving on the Board, is an international consultant in community development. She was formerly Executive Director of the Sonoma County Human Services Commission (13 years) and the Association for Humanistic Psychology (7 years), and taught Community Psychology at Sonoma State University (8 years). She teaches her own "Cooperative Action" approach to positive community change, and serves on the Board of the California Community Economic Development Association, and the Executive Committee of Senator John Vasconcellos' Politics of Trust Project.

Belle Cramer has been working with people with disabilities for over thirteen years. She worked in residential, school and facility settings before finding her passion in vocational services. Belle volunteered as a resource counselor at a dining room in Marin for five years and was deeply affected by those with mental illness who were not receiving any housing or employment support services. They would simply come to eat and then wander back into the world, on their own. 
Belle is committed to spreading awareness to our homeless community of available vocational services while  increasing their opportunities for meaningful employment. She does this by continuing to educate the business community how people with disabilities or other "barriers to employment" possess enormous and under utilized talent. Belle is currently the Assistant Director of “The Customized Employment Project” of Becoming Independent. As such, she supports people with disabilities through their job search or in starting their own business. She is also a committed volunteer for S.H.A.R.P. through Drug Abuse Alternatives Center, and is a member of the Mayor's Committee for the Employment of People with Disabilities. She lives in Sebastopol with her husband, two daughters and their dog.

I have had the privilege of working for the Redwood Gospel Mission since 1997, first as a volunteer and later as an employee. As a volunteer I worked in the mission's women's drug and alcohol recovery program, the "Manna Home". I spent a number of years working closely with women in recovery.
In 1999 the mission opened "The Rose" Women and Children's Emergency Shelter. I continued to volunteer at the Manna Home and also volunteered at their new shelter. In 2002 I was offered the position of case manager at The Rose. I held that position for one year and then was given the positon of shelter manager.
I am passionate in my concern for those who are unable to provide a home for themselves and their children. Not everyone who finds themselves homeless has brought it on themselves. My hope is to contribute in a small way toward the effort to meet the needs of those who live on the streets of our cities and thereby help improve their future.

Nancy Lisk worked for 3 years as a Volunteer Information & Referral Specialist with Sonoma County Human Services Department. Her contact with homeless people there led her to become involved with the Task Force. She became a Board Member in fall of 2002, and served as Secretary for the first year and a half. During her AmeriCorps VISTA Service (Nov. 2002-Nov. 2003) Nancy wrote articles for the Task Force newsletter, published wish lists of homeless service providers and shelters, and served on numerous committees of the Continuum of Care, one of which produced a Homeless Resource Guide. Nancy participated in the committee that produced the first Affordable Housing Week. She did an informal survey of the presence and needs of Homeless people in the Russian River area. Her report can be found on this web site in the Newsletter Archives. Nancy is involved with the Russian River Redevelopment ad hoc Affordable Housing subcommittee, and helped draft an Affordable Housing Rehabilitation Program.
Nancy currently volunteers with Russian River Counselors to expand their transitional housing program, does outreach to river area homeless, has distributed warm clothing & toiletries and made referrals to agencies that might help them. Over the winter of 2003/2004, she distributed donated blankets to shelters and to homeless persons. Nancy is also on the Boards of Directors of Community Housing Development Corporation of Santa Rosa, and the Faith-Based Community Housing Development Corporation-West. She attends meetings of the Sonoma County Housing Advocacy group and advocates for housing for very low income people.
Nancy is a low income person with disabilities. Her grasp of the problems of homeless people comes partially from direct service, but is also based on experiences of being homeless herself, on more than one occasion.

Granduated from St. Peter's College with a B.S. degree. Attended University of Michigan Graduate School, and Officers Candidate School. 1st Lt. Infantry, N.J. National Guard. Retired V.P. from Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. Member of the Marin Commission on Homelessness in the '80's. Helped to co-found New Beginnings Center in Novato, CA. Member of Task Force Board for the past few years.