Erica Weirich, MD, Director, Global Health Research Foundation; Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine; Department of Family Medicine, Palo Alto Medical Foundation
Malinda Mitchell, former CEO of Stanford Hospital
Willie Mackey, Santa Clara County Homeless Advisory Board & Jeff Rensch, Community Working Group
EXECUTIVE TEAM
Carol Garsten
Ms. Garsten is the current Chairwoman of the Peninsula Healthcare Connection Board of Directors where she has served for two years. Carol is also the Director of the Downtown Streets Team Mentor Program which aims to match volunteers with people re-entering the community from homelessness. Her focus is to create community awareness of homeless issues among service organizations, businesses and individuals and to encourage people to take an active part in being a solution to homelessness. Ms. Garsten has been a business owner and leader in the community since 1987. She is a member of Palo Alto University Rotary Club where she pursues her support for many worthy charitable causes.
Lisa Douglass, JD
Ms. Douglass is the Director and Supervising Attorney of Stanford Law School's Social Security Disability Project, in the Mills Legal Clinic. She trains and supervises law students representing homeless clients in Social Security disability hearings and appeals. She began her career serving as a public defender in Seattle for four years, initially representing juveniles in criminal proceedings and later, adults in felony cases. As a public defender, Lisa was known for her compassionate and zealous advocacy on behalf of her clients and her success in obtaining drastically reduced sentences for her mentally ill clients. She partnered with a social worker to develop community-based mental health treatment plans that judges could choose as alternatives to incarceration. She later left the public defender’s office to join a plaintiff’s/public interest law firm and represented indigent clients in Social Security Disability hearings and appeals, ensuring that basic needs such as living stipends and medical benefits could be covered for the rest of her client’s lives.
Sally B. Cadigan
Ms. Cadigan retired after many years in non-profit management with a focus on early childhood education and developing affordable, quality child care resources for lower income families in- or returning to- the workforce. Recent community volunteer activities include serving on the Outreach Commission at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, and as a participant over many years in PIA’s efforts to advocate for effective local resources for people at-risk of or currently homeless in Palo Alto. She also facilitates groups as a certified leader in the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill – NAMI’s free 12-week course for family caregivers of individuals with severe mental illnesses. In the fall of 2006, Ms. Cadigan was a member of the planning committee for the celebration of the opening of the Opportunity Center. She is currently Treasurer of the Downtown Streets Team and Chairperson of the InnVision Peninsula Advisory Council.
Eileen Richardson, Executive Director
Ms. Richardson joined PHC as Executive Director in May 2009. After a long career in high technology as an investor and managerial executive, Eileen decided to devote her time to the homeless issue in her home town of Palo Alto. She began by volunteering at the food closet and took over the reins at the Downtown Streets Team in June 2005. Today Eileen sits on the Steering Committee for the Santa Clara County’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, Destination: Home’s CEO Leadership Group and InnVision’s Peninsula Advisory Council.
Eileen Richardson, Executive Director
Ms. Richardson joined PHC as Executive Director in May 2009. After a long career in high technology as an investor and managerial executive, Eileen decided to devote her time to the homeless issue in her home town of Palo Alto. She began by volunteering at the food closet and took over the reins at the Downtown Streets Team in June 2005. Today Eileen sits on the Steering Committee for the Santa Clara County’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, Destination: Home’s CEO Leadership Group and InnVision’s Peninsula Advisory Council.
Patricia McGann, MD.
Dr. McGann is a Family Physician who splits her time between PHC and the Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group's Los Altos Clinic. She has been working at PHC for three and a half years and is currently serving as the Managing Medical Director. She is also an Associate Professor on the Adjunct Clinical Faculty at Stanford. Her time at PHC is underwritten by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
Daryn Reicherter, MD.
Dr. Reicherter is Academic Faculty at Stanford University, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. He is a founding member and a board member for the Opportunity Health Partners. He created the mental health program at OHP and currently serves as the Director of Mental Health and the treating psychiatrist for Palo Alto's homeless at OHP. Dr. Reicherter is the creator and Clinical Director of the Integrated Behavioral Health Program at Ravenswood Family Health in East Palo Alto and also serves as the Faculty Adviser for Stanford's Arbor Free Clinic. In addition, he is on the board for Survivors International, is a Director of Cross-Cultural Studies at Gardner Family Care, on staff at the Center for Survivors of Torture and is an adviser for the Khmer Krom Federation.
