NPACH Info

The National Policy and

Advocacy Council on Homelessness is a grass roots anti-poverty

organization. Our mission is to ensure that national homelessness policy

accurately reflects the needs and experiences of local communities.

NPACH STAFF AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jeremy Rosen (NPACH Executive Director)

Jeremy Rosen is the Executive Director of the National Policy and

Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH), with responsibility for

managing all aspects of the organization. Mr. Rosen previously worked

in the National Office of Volunteers of America, where he served as

Director for Homelessness and Mental Health. Mr. Rosen has also been

employed at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and

Legal Services of Greater Miami. He received his B.A. from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994, and his J.D. from The George

Washington University Law School in 1998.

Mr. Rosen is an expert on federal, state, and local affordable

housing policy, with a focus on homelessness, veterans housing, and

housing for children, youth, and families. Mr. Rosen’s work also

focuses on access to government benefits for low income people, prisoner

reentry, and the intersection of affordable housing policy and the

child welfare system. He is a frequent speaker on these topics, and has

published numerous journal articles and papers.

Board Members

Brad Paul, President (Co-founder, NPACH)

Brad Paul is the co-founder and former Executive Director of the

National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH), and has

been involved in housing advocacy since the Housing Now! march of 1989.

Brad is the primary architect of the Bringing America Home Act and

contributed to the drafting of the National Housing Trust Fund Act and

the HEARTH Act. In addition to ongoing policy work his writings on

housing, homelessness, human rights, labor and community organizing have

appeared in such journals and publications as Shelter Force,

Clearinghouse Review, Ms. Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, International

Union Rights, and the Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working Class

History. In addition, he has appeared on C-SPAN, numerous community

radio and local television programs, and been quoted extensively in

print media and on NPR.

Brad currently lives in Maputo, Mozambique, where he has served as a

consultant for the International Organization for Migration (IOM),

Fundaçao Malonda (Swedish International Development Organization), and

Techno Serve. His recent work includes developing program responses to

issues of neighborhood revitalization, emergency flood relief and

resettlement, and rural poverty. He is currently completing a historical

case study of labor, community and development in northern Mozambique

entitled “Factories in the Field: Rural Transformation and the

Organization of Work in Mozambique’s Cashew Triangle.”

Previously he served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the

Department of History and Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the

University of South Florida in Tampa. Dr. Paul earned his Ph.D. from

the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where his areas of study

included comparative labor and industrialization in South Africa and the

American South. A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Brad has also

worked for Metro Atlanta Fair Housing and for the Coalition for the

Homeless of Central Florida.

Barbara Duffield (Director of Policy, National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, Washington, DC)

Ms. Duffield's involvement in homeless issues began in 1990 as a

tutor for homeless children in Washington, D.C. She served as Director

of Education for the National Coalition for the Homeless from1994-2003,

working closely with educators, service providers, federal agencies and

Congressional offices to strengthen policy and practice on children's

issues. In addition to her work with NAEHCY, Ms. Duffield was a founding

Advisory Committee member for the LeTendre Education Fund for Homeless

Children, and continues to serve in this capacity.

Will Forte (Actor, Writer, Comedian - Saturday Night Live, more) Will Forte is an actor, writer, and comedian best known for appearing on

the television show Saturday Night Live, where he has been a cast

member since 2002. Forte was born in Alameda County, California and

raised in Lafayette, California. He graduated from Acalanes High School

and UCLA with a B.A. in History. Before joining SNL, Forte was a member

of The Groundlings. He has also written and/or produced for the

television series 3rd Rock from the Sun, That '70s Show, and Action.

Will hosted and performed a December 2005 benefit for NPACH at the

Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles and is the national spokesperson for

the Stem Cell Initiative for Eyes (SCIfEyes), a Raleigh-based,

non-profit organization created to support research, training and public

education in stem cell biology and to further the field by recognizing

and supporting its potential for creating new therapies for the

treatment of blinding and debilitating eye diseases.

Robyn Frost (Executive Director, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, Boston, MA) Robyn Frost has worked with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless

for over 15 years, serving as Director of the Coalition’s Donations

Assistance Program, Director of Development and currently as Executive

Director. Ms. Frost has served as President of the Board of Spare

Change, the Homeless Empowerment Project, as well as a trustee of the

Affordable Housing and Homeless Trust for the Credit Union League of

Massachusetts. She has also served on the board of other organizations,

including the Revolving Museum. Ms. Frost is a member of The Mayor’s

Emergency Shelter Commission and serves on the Special Fund of the

United Way.

Casey Trupin (Staff Attorney, Columbia Legal Services, Seattle, WA)

Casey Trupin is a staff attorney at Columbia Legal Services in

Seattle, where he advocates for at-risk, homeless and foster youth as

well as adults who are homeless. Trupin chairs the American Bar

Association’s Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, as well as the

Advisory Board of the Gates Public Service Law Program at the University

of Washington. Trupin has served as counsel to thousands of foster

youth and homeless adults in litigation and has worked on state and

federal legislation designed to improve services to low-income children,

youth and adults in Washington State and nationwide. In 1997, Trupin

co-founded Street Youth Legal Advocates of Washington (SYLAW), and went

on to direct the program until 2005.

Trupin has also served as Counsel for Special Projects for the Center

for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in Washington D.C. working on federal

child welfare policy. In 2005, Trupin was recognized by the

Congressional Commission on Adoption Institute as an Angel in Adoption

for his work on behalf of homeless and foster youth. In 1996, Trupin

conducted a year-long study of programs for homeless youth in Latin

America as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. Trupin graduated from the

University of Washington School of Law with honors in 1999.

Amy Weintraub (Executive Director, Covenant House of West Virginia, Charleston, WV)

Mrs. Weintraub’s organization works for justice in central West

Virginia by offering direct services for people living in homelessness

and poverty, while creating social change through advocacy and

education. She serves on the board of the Kanawha Valley Collective

(the local Continuum of Care) and serves as the chair of its Public

Affairs Committee. A certified trainer for SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach,

Access, and Recovery), Amy is a leader in bringing to West Virginia this

effective model of moving those experiencing homelessness onto the path

to recovery through accessing SSA benefits. Amy is a well known state

lobbyist and advocate for children and women’s health issues and a

community activist.

In addition to her professional work, Amy is the chair of the Local

School Improvement Council of her two children’s inner-city elementary

school and is an active member of Charleston’s Unitarian Universalist

Congregation and the Charleston Interdenominational Council for Social

Concerns. She attended college at Emory University and graduate school

at NYU, studying politics and religion.

Ruth Anne White, MSSA (Hyattsville, MD)

Ruth White is one of the nation’s leading experts on the nexus

between housing policy and child welfare. She is the former Director of

Housing and Homelessness for the Child Welfare League of America. In

that capacity she co-edited the landmark issue of the League’s journal,

Child Welfare, documenting the extent to which children are needlessly

held in foster care because their parents lack decent housing. She

coordinated conferences site visits, advisory committees and wrote a

newsletter to inform the field of promising practices in the Family

Unification Program, which provides federal housing vouchers to families

where lack of housing is keeping children and parents apart.

White has a Master of Science Degree in Social Administration from Case

Western Reserve University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Social

Work from Ohio State University. She is a member of the National

Association of Social Workers and Women in Housing Finance. White is

currently studying social work as a doctoral student at the Catholic

University of America.

Joe Willard (Vice President of Policy, People's Emergency Center, Philadelphia, PA)

Joe Willard is Vice President of Policy for People’s Emergency Center

(PEC). PEC helps homeless families develop skills and resources to

stabilize their lives and live independently. Grounded in over 35 years

of experience, PEC’s comprehensive approach to resolving family

homelessness is recognized nationally as a best practice model. Informed

by face-to-face work with families, PEC advocates for sound public

policies to ensure that all families have access to the services they

need to achieve long-term independence.

Joe is the former Manager for Public Policy for United Way of

Southeastern Pennsylvania, and was Associate Director for The

Reinvestment Fund. He earned a M.S. in Urban Affairs from Hunter

College.

Posted by Jeremy Rosen on March 13, 2008 4:24 PM

| Permalink

NPACH 1140 Connecticut Avenue

NPACH Home

About NPACH

Homeless Children and Youth Act

HEARTH Act Archive

Hurricane Katrina Oral History Project

Staff and Board of Directors

The NPACH Network

NPACH Report Archives

Facts About Homelessness

Donate

DONATE TO NPACH

Subscribe

Subscribe To Our Newsletter