Meet Our People

Executive Director

Chris Baker

BIO

Chris is on a mission to make the world better for people affected by homelessness and poverty. Since graduating from the State University of New York at Oneonta in 2007, Chris has worked many different jobs in the field of homeless services and activism, but also as a musician, writer, and even paralegal. He started The Other Ones Foundation in the summer of 2017 to bring his innovative ideas for addressing homelessness to life.

Chief Operating officer

Joe Westphal

BIO

Joe is a passionate and dedicated leader to our neighbors experiencing homelessness. After leaving a career in public safety, Joe has turned his efforts to fighting homelessness in Austin and advocating for the people he serves.

Chief PROGRAMS officer

Elizabeth Baker

BIO

As the Chief Programs Officer, Elizabeth Baker serves to develop, implement and monitor TOOF's programs. Elizabeth comes to TOOF with 11 years of experience in homeless, housing, substance use and mental health services.

As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she brings skills in social interventions and systemic change to elevate TOOF's operations and collaborative involvement in the continuum of homeless and housing care in Austin.

Chief Financial Officer

Kris Wade

BIO

Kris Wade is a Quickbooks nerd with a passion for community involvement. From volunteer income tax assistance to his 15 years as a professional musician, he is always thankful to contribute to organizations who value their products, processes, and most importantly, their people.

DIRECTOR OF

OUTREACH & DIVERSION

David Gomez

BIO

David has been involved in community-based mental health service development and delivery since 1976.


He has provided these services to very diverse population groups.
For 5 years he worked with truant, paint-sniffing youth and their families providing individual, group and family therapy wherever the individuals felt most comfortable. Many times there were more individuals who used drugs as a coping mechanism in the family which required teaching different skills to the entire family.


He assisted with the implementation of the State Case Management roll-out in Houston serving recidivists of the State Mental Health Hospitals to try and help them integrate back into the community system of care.


He has worked with youth returning from TDC who could not return home and helped them and their new foster families learn how to co-exist, deal with issues as
they came up and develop a plan for the youth to remain in the community.
In 1992 he returned to Austin and ATCMHMR, and worked as a family worker with the federally funded Family Preservation Program. He provided family therapy at
their home as a way to help them develop family-specific tools to keep them
together and provide for them a way to live more harmoniously.


In 1994 he began working specifically with individuals who are homeless with the
PATH/ACCESS Program. He has worked and grown the Program to include a
Safe Haven Program and to ensure that the agency play an integral part in the
Continuum of Care in the Austin Travis County Community.


In 2021 he joined The Other Ones Foundation to continue to do the work he has dedicated his life to. Outreach and engagement of disenfranchised individuals are his love and expertise. His programs have helped many individuals feel re-connected to a system that gives them hope that things can get better.
He is involved in many community processes to better the situation for individuals who are homeless in Austin Travis County.

director of

SAFETY & SECURITY

Duane Carter

BIO

Duane is responsible for Safety and Security, as well as hiring, training, and scheduling for all security personnel.

Duane has many years of extensive experience in the areas of healthcare safety and security, casino and hotel security, as well as retail and transportation security. Duane holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey and an Associate Degree in Criminal Justice from Camden County College in Blackwood, New Jersey.

DIRECTOR OF

PEOPLE FIRST OPERATIONS

Mike Pereida

BIO

Mike is a creative & passionate leader that brings a wealth of experience & knowledge in the field of Policy & Procedure, Training, Management, Recruiting & People Development across a wide variety of industries. After spending many years working in other industries, Mike wanted to work for a company that was truly making a difference by helping people in our local community.


He originally joined TOOF  as Front Desk Manager in our Community Center at Esperanza during the Pandemic. During this time, Mike worked very closely with our front line staff and with our unhoused neighbors and quickly became familiar with how to effectively communicate our services to those we serve & how to support our staff in doing so. This offered great insight into what our People First Operations Department should be built on. Mike carries those values & the culture of TOOF very close to his heart with the intent of serving People First, not just delivering the same HR services of the average organization, but also effectively communicating TOOF’s values to all members of our staff & how those are carried over to our unhoused brothers & sisters that we serve.


In his off time, he’s a touring music artist, running his own Hip Hop Record Label - College of Hip Hop Knowledge Records & is also helping to develop a next level live-streaming platform called Purple Bee TV. 

director of

PROGRAMS & SERVICES

Karen Dorrier

BIO

Karen Dorrier is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 27 years of experience working within the Crisis and Homeless Service divisions of our Public Mental Health Systems. 


Throughout her career, Karen has recognized the impact of homelessness on a person’s mental and physical health.  Karen was honored to serve as Co-Sectretary on the The Other Ones Foundation Board of Directors for two years prior to coming to the The Other Ones Foundation full time.  


Karen is a fierce advocate in the fight to end homelessness and has used her experience and understanding of the structural, systemic and relational issues that cause and perpetuate homelessness to further ignite her passion by serving to advance programing and supportive services at The Other Ones Foundation.     

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Max Moscoe

BIO

Max has honed his communication and media knowledge in the music industry, and is excited about bringing those skills to the table at TOOF. Distilling complex topics and cultivating community support are at the core of the communications work Max does for TOOF.

Max has always had a heart for service, volunteering from a young age and always working to help his community when possible. He is enjoying the ride of finding his role in the world of social service at The Other Ones Foundation.

DIRECTOR OF QUALITY & DATA

Gwen Shapard

BIO

Gwen has 15+ years of experience contributing to the continuous improvement of human service programs. She has worked for Any Baby Can, Foundation Communities, and the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs to analyze and report data on program outcomes for grants and contracts, and manage and improve processes. She collaborates with direct service providers to ensure completeness of documentation, quality of data, and compliance with regulations.

Our Board of Directors

Board Chair

Jim Ward
Texas Homeless Network

BIO

Currently the Assistant Director of Planning at the Texas Homeless Network, but coming from a decade long career in direct service, Jim understands the pressures on the ground when working to end homelessness. Please consider him your ally in the fight to end homelessness.

Board Treasurer

Melanie Connolly
IBC Bank

BIO

Melanie currently serves as treasurer for The Others Ones Foundation Inc. She has a background in finance, and she has worked as a financial consultant and bank manager. Prior to that she did Festival and event production. Volunteering and serving her community has been a priority of hers for the past 20 years. In her free time she enjoys her family, dogs and garden.

Board of Directors

Rachel Morris 
City of Austin Parks & Recreation Department

BIO

Rachel Morris is passionate about building resilience through meaningful and sustainable community spaces. As a landscape architect and project manager for the City of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department, Rachel understands how to engage a wide variety of stakeholders and work collaboratively to design solutions that serve individuals, communities, and the environment.

Rachel holds a Bachelor Degree in Landscape Architecture from Texas A&M University, with a minor in Urban and Regional Planning.

Board of Directors

Matt Glazer
Blue Sky Partners

BIO

Matt is a native Texan with fifteen years of experience in the nonprofit community and another ten in consulting and start-ups. Matt started his career working in political and civic campaigns across the country, working at every level of government.

After a half decade on the road, Matt moved back to his native state working for non-profits and local candidates in San Antonio. In 2009, Matt was recruited and hired by Representative Pete Gallego to lead his natural resources legislation and run his communication. After successfully working in research, communication, policy, and campaign management, Matt, with two others, opened his first consulting agency in 2010 and successfully launched GNI Consulting. 

Matt spent 7 years as a non-profit Executive Director and launched Progress Texas, the Texas affiliate of ProgressNow, and served as the ED of the Austin Young Chamber of Commerce. Most recently, he was the Regional General Manager for WeWork in Central Texas, and launched Blue Sky Partners.   

Matt brings a rich and diverse background of working closely with Boards of Directors and nonprofit staff to meet community need with mission alignment, and approaches organizational growth with an entrepreneurial mindset. He has served as the Vice-Chair on the Skillpoint Alliance Board and has been a 10-year volunteer at the Annette Strauss Institute. He has an undergraduate degree from Trinity University in San Antonio and a Master of Science Technology and Commercialization from the University of Texas. 

Board of Directors

Amy Lefkowitz
Lefkowitz & Haire PLLC

BIO

Amy Lefkowitz grew up in Lubbock, TX. Her father, Mark Paden, is a career musician and still lives and plays music in Lubbock. Amy and her husband Michael, also a musician, have lived in Austin for the past 16 years. Prior to pursuing academia, Amy worked for many years in the restaurant and entertainment businesses. In addition to growing up in Lubbock, Amy has also called Nashville, Scottsdale, and Los Angeles home.


Amy graduated Summa Cum Laude from Huston-Tillotson College (now University) in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology. She worked in the field of pharmaceutical research for five years before starting law school in 2009. Amy graduated with her law degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio in 2011 and was licensed to practice law in May of 2012.

Board of Directors

Rhie Azzam Morris

BIO

Rhie is an educator and leader in racial equity work, an organizer, and a thought partner and strategist in addressing and working towards a better world for all. She evolved into a tireless anti-racist activist and community organizer as a teen and has carried that work with her in all
aspects of her life for over 20 years.


Rhie discovered a need to make the world around her a more just and equitable place during her life as a homeless youth. Having worked with LifeWorks in Austin as the Coordinator of the Austin Youth Collective, Rhie worked on an initiative with community partners and the City of Austin to bring an end to youth homelessness.


Rhie has developed and led trainings on the impact of trauma on youth experiencing
homelessness and how providers can build authentic relationships, presented nationally on creating equity in the homeless response system by opening pathways to collaboration with young people experiencing homelessness, and has worked with Dell Medical School to create an educational tool for their Understanding Homelessness course.


Rhie served as co-chair the Austin/Travis County Continuum of Care’s Equity Task Force, as well as served as a core team member for Austin’s HUD Race Equity Demonstration Project (now the HUD CE Race Equity Initiative) team. Through her work with the Austin team, Rhie was invited to serve as a Subject Matter Expert in the intersections of race and lived expertise and is now supporting other communities in the round 1 cohort.


Rhie now works as a Technical Assistance provider working in homelessness nationally as a coach and technical assistance provider on the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program and the Coordinated Entry Race Equity Initiative.

Board of Directors

Flavia de la Fuente

BIO

Flavia de la Fuente is a woman of action trying to make the world a better place. Her experiences include community organizing work in immigration reform and climate justice, investment management for the state of Texas, and currently, building a software company that changes lives - for both employees and customers.


Previous board experience includes serving on the Sierra Club Foundation board as Treasurer, general member, and pot-stirring truth teller. Flavia joined TOOF as a community builder, a donor, and now a board member because in a modern, moral, and wealthy city like Austin, no person should be too poor to live.

Board of Directors

Chris Turnley
UFCU

BIO

Chris Turnley is the Executive Vice President of Member Experience for United Federal Credit Union with a track record of successfully driving growth, building teams, and impacting his community through his work with Financial Services, Fintechs, Fortune 1000 companies, Non-Profits and Startups.  Since being in Austin, Chris has been involved with the growth and development of  dozens of organizations across our region.

 

Chris is passionate about people and believes every person have greatness inside them.  Chris works to help each person find that passion and purpose.   He is also an experienced strategist driving results in the companies and teams where he works and brings this passion to TOOF.

 

His business acumen has led him not only to success in the private sector, but to leadership on many levels in the nonprofit world: He has served as a board member or advisor for many incredible organizations, such as the YMCA of Greater Seattle, University of Houston Business School, and Austin Bridge Builders Association (among many others). 

 

He looks forward to using his skills, connections, and passion to drive TOOF’s mission forward, based in the belief that Austin’s prosperity boom should leave no one behind.

Board of Directors

Michael Nieves
Esperanza Leadership Committee

BIO

Michael Nieves, originally from Altus, Oklahoma, has been staying at the Esperanza Community since before TOOF arrived and began operating and developing the site. Michael has been engaged with TOOF from the start, helping to bridge the gap between the people staying at Esperanza and TOOF staff. A member of the first cohort of Esperanza’s member-elected leadership committee, and now a Board Chair for TOOF, he has remained fiercely committed to community building since his arrival on-site in late 2019.

During his time on the leadership committee, Michael helped advocate for more lighting at night to bolster safety for community members. He was also instrumental in engaging community members to work in partnership with TOOF in developing the site plan that has transformed Esperanza from a tent city to a safe and dignified non-congregate homeless shelter complex.

Michael believes that representation from the people TOOF serves is important at all levels, from the Leadership Committee all the way up to the Board of Directors. He is continuing his journey towards housing, but plans to take the leadership and community building skills he has developed during his time at Esperanza with him, and work in a leadership capacity in other organizations in the future. “I’m looking forward to bigger and better things in the future,” says Nieves. “You could be what you want to be and you could do it if you want to. Don't let nobody put you down saying you can't do it.”

Board of Directors

Kathryn J Kotrla, MD

BIO

Dr. Kathryn J Kotrla is a psychiatrist specializing in the neuroscience of trauma and recovery. She obtained her BA from Rice University (biology and psychology), her MS from Stanford University (developmental neurobiology), her MD from Texas A&M College of Medicine (Highest Honors), and completed her residency at Baylor College of Medicine. Following a fellowship at the National Institutes of Mental Health where she learned functional Magnetic Resonance Imagine, she started her post-training career with UTHSC-Houston.A year later, she became Chief of Psychiatry at Ben Taub General Hospital, and as she was bringing fMRI to the Texas Medical Center, she became Associate Director of a 6 state VA grant to study best practices in mental health care delivery, including for unhoused individuals.

From Baylor, Dr. Kotrla was recruited as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Texas A&M and became responsible first for behavioral health for the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System and then for VISN 17. During this time, she co-founded TexVet which utilizes national, state, and local resources for veterans and their families, including supportive housing. After becoming the founding Dean and starting the medical school in Round Rock, Dr. Kotrla retired to manage family holdings, but has remained active in teaching about trauma recovery and in serving on numerous Boards focused on mental health in underserved and indigent populations.