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.

Cheryl is a dedicated accounting professional with over 35 years of experience spanning diverse industries. For the past two decades, she has focused on supporting non-profit organizations, finding immense fulfillment in helping them achieve their financial and mission-driven goals. This focus has allowed her to align professional expertise with her passion for making a difference in the community.

Outside of Cheryl's career, she's an active participant in community service and takes great joy in connecting with others through meaningful initiatives. She also enjoys live music, outdoor activities, and spending time in spaces that inspire creativity and connection.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.     

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.

Adel brings to TOOF over 10 years of experience in hospitality, 7 of which were specific to risk management and environmental safety in healthcare facilities across the country. After rising from homelessness and lived experience herself, she developed an unwavering passion for serving the unhoused and underserved communities which led her to pursue a degree from the University of Alabama in Community Studies and Sociology. She now hopes to use her knowledge and experience gained to advocate for those unheard voices. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, college football (Roll Tide!) and spending quality time with friends and family

Tim Broad leads the innovative IT Team at TOOF, which provides technology solutions supporting the organization's mission. With over 17 years of continuous IT leadership experience, Tim has successfully managed teams in a wide range of industries, including Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies in the financial services industry, companies in the entertainment industry, as well as various nonprofit organizations. 

Throughout his career, Tim has consistently demonstrated a passion for people-first technology solutions. At TOOF, he focuses on information security, while leveraging technology not just as a tool, but also as a means to improve the lives of our staff and those we serve. His approach to IT leadership centers on empowering teams, fostering collaboration, and using tech innovations to streamline operations, enhance services & security, and increase the impact of TOOF’s mission. Tim’s background in IT leadership, combined with his dedication to nonprofit work, allows him to drive technology initiatives addressing both the immediate needs of the organization and its long-term strategic goals. Whether working with cross-functional teams or designing new systems & processes, he is committed to ensuring every IT decision is aligned with TOOF’s vision of building a more equitable and inclusive community for all.

Stephen is a Licensed Professional Counselor with over 10 years of experience in the Austin area providing and supervising services for individuals at the intersection of mental health, homelessness, and the criminal justice system. Stephen excels at bringing partners together to create and maintain successful programs and develop infrastructure necessary to provide services to our most vulnerable neighbors.  As the Director of Community-Based Services with TOOF, Stephen oversees the organization’s vocational, diversion, and outreach initiatives. Stephen approaches his role with a trauma-informed lens and champions RDEIB initiatives.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.