Board of Directors
Below is a list of the Street Sense Board of Directors, along with their current employer, job title and favorite books.
| Lisa Estrada Board Member and incoming Chair Lisa is currenly a partner at Arent Fox and contributes her firm’s resources towards Street Sense. She is a champion for the cause and publicly advocates for Street Sense in her personal and professional circles. Favorite book: The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder. |
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| Ted Henson Co-Founder and Outgoing Chair of the Street Sense Board of Directors Originally from Kentucky, Ted Henson came to Washington, DC, to start a street newspaper in August 2003, after a brief stint at the University of Missouri’s Journalism School. He had been inspired by Street Wise, the street newspaper in Chicago, IL, and had previously helped run a men’s shelter in Nashville, TN. Ted led the street newspaper project out of the offices of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Along with Michael Stoops, Laura Thompson-Osuri, Rebecca Schlesinger, August Mallory, Fred Anderson, and many other vendors and volunteers, Street Sense was officially launched in November 2003. Ted ran the day-to-day operations of the office for the first two years of the project’s tenure before accepting a position at the Service Employees International Union. He remains active on Street Sense’s board of directors. |
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| Michael Stoops, Secretary Founding Board Member Michael is the Director of Community Organizing for the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH). Since 1972, he has been working full-time (primarily as a volunteer) with homeless/formerly homeless people and homeless advocacy groups. He was a founding board member of NCH, and joined NCH’s staff in 1988. Since 1988, he has worked to establish and provide ongoing support to local/statewide homeless/housing coalitions, and homeless self-help and social justice/action groups. He is the project director for NCH’s National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project and serves as an advisor to NCH’s Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau. He also coordinates NCH’s national events such as National Homeless Voter Registration Week, National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, and National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. He has a bachelor’s degree in social work. |
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| Kristal DeKleer Board Member; Communications Director, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs; brings insight on veteran’s issues and plays an active role in fundraising events. Favorite Book: The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri. |
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| Sommer Mathis Board Member; News Editor, TBD.com; Washington-DC-based media company. Favorite Book: Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov. |
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| John Snellgrove Board Member; Owner, Café Saint Ex and Bar Pilar; two Washington, DC-based restaurants; successful local business leader who generously donates goods and services, as well as human resources advice. |
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| Brad Scriber Board Member; Editorial Researcher, National Geographic; brings a diverse skill set; provides guidance in the areas of content, advertising and operations. Favorite book: Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury. |
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| Robin Heller Board Member Robin Heller is director of foundations at the Center for Public Integrity, an international non-profit investigative journalism organization based in Washington, D.C. She has served as a non-profit executive and development officer for a range of academic and human service organizations, including Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Center for Bioethics at University of Pennsylvania, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and Children’s Defense Fund. She received her bachelor’s in comparative literature at Northwestern University and her master’s in social work from Columbia University. She divides her time between Philadelphia and Washington. Her latest favorite Book is Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, by Clay Shirky. |
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| Manas Mohapatra Board Member Manas comes to Street Sense with a legal background and experience as a web developer. Manas is currently an attorney in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection at the Federal Trade Commission, focusing on identity theft issues. Before joining the FTC, he served as a litigation associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Goodwin Procter LLP. He also served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable José Antonio Fusté, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Prior to entering law school, Manas worked as a senior web developer for Nickelodeon Online. Manas has also served on the board of the South Asian Bar Association. Favorite book: Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse. |
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