2011 Georgia Alliance To End Homelessness Annual Conference and Learning Institute 

Speakers and Presenters: 

Mary Wong
President 
Office Depot Foundation

Mary Wong was named President of the Office Depot Foundation in 2007 after serving as Director of Community Relations for Office Depot since 2000.  Under her direction, the Foundation has built an internationally respected corporate citizenship program.  The Foundation celebrated the 10^th anniversary of its award-winning National Backpack Program in 2010 and, by the end of this year, Office Depot and the Office Depot Foundation will have donated more than 2.5 million backpacks and sackpacks to deserving children.  Wong serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for a Competitive Workforce and the National Advisory Board of the National Recovery Fund of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center, where she is Co-Chair of the Business Disaster Assistance and Recovery Program.  She also serves on the board of directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of America and is a member of the 2011 Talbots Scholarship Foundation Board of Judges.  Wong is a frequent speaker to non-profit organizations and business groups on the topics of corporate citizenship, philanthropy, disaster preparedness, business continuity and non-profit management. 

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Nan Roman
President and CEO
National Alliance To End Homelessness

 Nan Roman, President and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, is a leading national voice on the issue of homelessness. The Alliance is a public education, advocacy, and capacity-building organization with a network of over 10,000 nonprofit and public sector agencies and corporate partners around the country. Under her leadership, the Alliance has developed a pragmatic plan to end homelessness within ten years. To implement this plan, Ms. Roman works closely with members of Congress and the Administration, as well as with cities and states across the nation. She collaborates with Alliance partners to educate the public about the real nature of homelessness and successful solutions. She has researched and written on the issue, is frequently interviewed by the press, and regularly speaks at events around the country. Her unique perspective on homelessness and its solutions comes from over twenty years of local and national experience in the areas of poverty and community-based organizations.

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Secretary Shaun Donovan
Housing and Urban Development

On January 26, 2009, Shaun Donovan was sworn in as the 15th United States Secretary for Housing and Urban Development. He has devoted his career to ensuring access to safe, decent, and affordable housing and he will continue that effort in the Obama Administration. Secretary Donovan believes that America's homes are the foundation for family, safe neighborhoods, good schools, and solid businesses. He has a strong commitment to make quality housing possible for every American. Secretary Donovan previously served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). He created and implemented HPD's New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 affordable homes, the largest municipal affordable housing plan in the nation's history. His work at HPD included the New York City Acquisition Fund, an award-winning collaboration with foundations and banks to finance affordable housing; an innovative inclusionary zoning program; an ambitious supportive housing plan; and the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, one of the earliest responses to the foreclosure crisis. Before his service as HPD Commissioner, Secretary Donovan worked in the private sector on financing affordable housing, and was a visiting scholar at New York University, where he researched and wrote about the preservation of federally-assisted housing. He was also a consultant to the Millennial Housing Commission on strategies for increasing the production of multifamily housing. The Commission was created by the United States Congress to recommend ways to expand housing opportunities across the nation. Secretary Donovan rejoins HUD after his previous service in the Clinton administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing, where he was the primary federal official responsible for privately-owned multifamily housing. At that time, he ran housing programs that helped 1.7 million families access affordable housing. He also served as acting FHA Commissioner during the Clinton/Bush presidential transition. Secretary Donovan holds a B.A. and Masters degrees in Public Administration and Architecture from Harvard.

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Barbara Poppe
Executive Director
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness

Barbara Poppe has more than 25 years of non-profit experience working on homelessness with housing-related organizations.  She was appointed to serve as Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in October 2009. Ms. Poppe served as executive director of the Columbus, Ohio-based Community Shelter Board (CSB) from October 1995 to November 2009. The CSB is a nationally recognized non-profit organization that creates collaborations, innovates solutions, and invests in quality programs to end homelessness in Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio.  Barbara provided visible leadership in achieving community-wide homeless services and prevention objectives.  She was responsible for strategic planning and collaborative efforts, private sector fundraising, resource development, effective governmental systems and private sector relationships. Barbara was honored as a 2006 Woman of Achievement by the YWCA of Columbus. She received the 2005 Honda Equal Opportunity Community Service Award from the Columbus Urban League, and received the 2004 Buddy Gray Award for homeless activism from the National Coalition for the Homeless.  In 2002, she received a Citizen of the Year Award from the Central Ohio Public Relations Society of America.  The CSB received the 2002 Non Profit Sector Achievement Award from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Barbara earned a Masters of Science Degree in Epidemiology from the University of Cincinnati.  She has published and presented on various topics related to homelessness and is a frequent national and statewide speaker.

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• Understanding The HEARTH Act
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•  Housing First and Rapid Rehousing
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•  Youth Homelessness and Sexual Exploitation
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•  The Federal Strategic Plan To End Homelessness
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•  Capacity Building and Rural Homelessness
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• Transitioning Your Transitional Housing
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• Creating A Homeless Prevention System:
  The ABC's of System Development
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•  Ending Homelessness - A Systematic Approach
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• Families and Prison ReEntry - Strengthening Community
  Collaboration
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• Unaccompanied Homeless Youth 
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• Understanding and Creating Trauma Informed Services
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• Nonprofit Board Wellness: Optimizing Performance,
  Revitalizing a Troubled Board
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• Revenue Development Strategies and Understanding
  Organizational Sustainability
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