Meet the Implementation Board

Rev. Dr Carey Anderson is the Senior Minister of FAME, Seattle, where he has served since November 2004. Prior to his appointment at FAME, Pastor Anderson was Pastor of St. Paul AME in Wichita, Kansas and had been Pastor of the Bethel AME Church in Reno, Nevada. Pastor Anderson holds a BA form California State University, Hayward; a Master of Divinity for Pacific School of Religion Theological Seminary, Berkeley, CA; and a Doctor of Ministry form St Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri. He maintains his substance abuse counseling certification through the National Associate for Addition Professionals.  Programs started during his leadership include FAME Equity Alliance of Western Washington; MLK Fame Community Center in Seattle; and Let’s Get Moving, FAME Seattle. He also served on a number of housing-related boards in Nevada, such as the Bethel Housing Development Corporation, Habitat for Humanity and the Reno Housing Authority.

Paula Carvalho, MIT, joined the Raikes Foundation as program officer on the youth homelessness strategy in August 2019. Prior to joining the foundation, she served as Director of Youth Programs at The Mockingbird Society. In that role Paula oversaw their statewide programing with a dual focus on youth development and systems reform. She also initiated and chaired their Racial Equity Committee until her departure. Before working at Mockingbird, Paula was an Independent Living Case Manager for the YMCA of Greater Seattle focusing on youth transitioning out of care. Having both lived experience in foster care and homelessness and over a decade working in this field, Paula continues to elevate the voices of young people at decision making tables. Paula earned a master’s degree in teaching from Seattle University, where she was also the first graduate of its Fostering Scholars program.

Simha Reddy has worked in the field of homeless health since completing his internal medicine residency at the University of Washington in 2012. Every day as a primary care physician he cares for people who are experiencing or have experienced the trauma of homelessness. Through that experience, he has learned intimately the close connection between health and homelessness, from the practicalities of managing heart failure without a bathroom to the relationship between cognitive impairment and homelessness. The statistics will tell you that people experiencing homelessness have a mortality rate that is three-fold higher than those that are housed, and a nine-fold higher rate if they are on the street. Those statistics, however, don’t tell you the heartache that comes with each of those preventable deaths. The simple answer for why he wishes to serve on this board is that he has lost too many patients to the streets already and feels obligated to do everything in his power to prevent more. Dr. Reddy hopes to see interventions that take trauma-informed approaches, that center the dignity of our unhoused neighbors, and work from the premise that health and housing are deeply intertwined.

Gordon McHenry, Jr. is President and CEO of United Way of King County. A powerful advocate for social and economic equity, he previously led Solid Ground, a Seattle-area nonprofit that works to dismantle poverty. Earlier in his nonprofit career, Mr. McHenry led the nonprofit Rainier Scholars, which champions educational opportunity for young people of color. Before that, he spent 21 years in philanthropy at The Boeing Company, including a position as Director of Global Corporate Citizenship for the Northwest.  A lawyer educated at Georgetown University, Mr. McHenry is a native Seattleite. He attended Seattle University — which in 2013 named him Alumnus of the Year — and, before that, Cleveland High School. He grew up on Beacon Hill, a neighborhood whose character was defined, in part, by redlining. McHenry believes, “Poverty is at the root of so many ills in our community….It steals opportunity and smothers hope. But, as United Way and its partners show every day, it’s something we can beat. It starts with truly centering social and racial equity and then relentlessly innovating until you have strategies that genuinely work. There’s considerable cynicism in the world today, but when you marshal both integrity of intention, and proof of impact, it’s pretty easily dissolved.”

John Chelminiak recently retired as Bellevue Mayor and City Council member.  As Bellevue Mayor, John was involved in the initial legislation setting up the KCRHA. First elected to the City Council in 2004, he is a champion for human services. As mayor, he represented the council on the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board, the Bellevue Convention Center Authority Board and the coordinating board of All Home.  He was Liaison to the Bellevue Human Services Commission, a representative on the Eastside Human Services Forum, the Mental Health Drug Dependency Oversight Committee (MIDD), and on the Governing Board of the Committee to End Homelessness. The Alliance of Eastside Agencies named him Elected Official of the Year in 2011 for his work to preserve human services during the Great Recession: in a time when King County and many cities are cutting human services funding, Councilmember Chelminiak fought hard to add $100,000 to Bellevue’s budget to ensure critical basic needs in the face of the economic recession. John is the senior manager for public sector solutions at Waste Management, the nation’s largest environmental solutions provider. He is the only council member to wrestle a bear, surviving a mauling at Lake Wenatchee in 2010. John holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Washington State University.

Michael Ramos, in his role as the Executive Director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Michael connects congregations in King and South Snohomish Counties, empowering them in working toward God’s shalom. He has worked on ecumenical community building for two decades and enjoys connecting spirituality with social justice. At the Church Council, confronting homelessness, immigration accompaniment and reform and building a living wage future have been his central commitments with faith communities throughout the region. Michael served as Director of Latino Ministries for the Catholic Diocese in Oakland in the mid-1990s before moving back to Seattle with his wife, Donna, and their two (now-grown) daughters. He holds a Master’s of Divinity from Seattle University.  After growing up and going to college in New York City, Michael came to the Pacific Northwest thirty years ago.

Nate Caminos is the Director of Government Affairs for the Port of Seattle. In addition to his current role, Nate has worked closely with cities throughout the region in his roles as State Director for U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, and as Senior Local Government Affairs Representative for Puget Sound Energy (PSE). Nate’s other background includes working as a union organizer with SEIU 775. He also has a strong connection to the business community, having served as Vice Chair of the South Sound Chambers of Commerce Legislative Coalition – representing Kent Chamber (2013-2015), and served on the Bellevue Chamber Legislative Committee (2013-15) and Bellevue Chamber Policy Council (2019), where he worked with the business community on issues including homelessness. Nate has a close personal connection to the work of the Regional Homelessness Authority. He grew up in South King County, where his own family experienced food insecurity and poverty, and he has a close family member who experiences homelessness. He understands the foster care system, having served as a foster parent. Nate is a former Board Member and President of the Seattle Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, a national organization whose mission is to secure and safeguard the civil and human rights of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans and all communities who are affected by injustice and bigotry. Nate and his family have made Renton their home.

Dr. Damien Pattenaude has been the Superintendent of the Renton School District since July of 2017. In addition to serving as Superintendent, Dr. Pattenaude has served as a Principal, Assistant Principal, and teacher in the Renton school district. The Renton school district is very diverse (majority minority, with over 90 languages spoken by students in the district). Dr. Pattenaude is a product of the Renton School District: he attended Campbell Hill Elementary School, Nelsen Middle School, and graduated from Renton High. He has also served as Chief Academic Officer for Secondary Schools, and Assistant Superintendent of Learning and Teaching, with duties that include providing direct support and guidance to all district principals, teachers and support staff. His work in the district has always been in service of improving student achievement for all children. Dr. Pattenaude lives in Renton with his family and his children attend district schools.

Juanita Spotted Elk is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. As part of her recovery and healing, she has reclaimed her indigenous identity and spirituality. Juanita is the mother of five children who has survived domestic violence and homelessness. Juanita has been in recovery for over six years and is deeply invested in building relationships with others to dismantle the systemic oppression that her tribe and family experienced deeply. Juanita believes deeply in her core that we can create a community where everyone can thrive. Juanita serves on the executive committee of the Lived Experience Coalition and is a member of Wellbriety at Chief Seattle Club. During her free time, she enjoys helping members in her Native Community who are struggling with homelessness and substance use issues. Juanita has been instrumental in informing the design of the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority and has participated in numerous government workgroups and committees to ensure an anti-racist/anti-oppression lens was utilized in policy, funding, and programmatic decisions to minimize harm and maximize benefit for our most disenfranchised community members.

Okesha Brandon is one of the founders of The Washington State Lived Experience coalition, serves as sole co-chair, and small business owner of Red is For Love. During her time in this work with whom she acknowledges as not only her community but her family, she’s found inner strength and beauty within herself. She’s realized that she has value and purpose while trying to prove to others something she didn’t believe within herself. Difficult times became her testimony of the power of unity, foundation, healing, historical factors and so much more. The changes she’s trying to make are stances, revolution, and battles she doesn’t have to take on alone. This is why she shows up loud, proud, and armored with love.

Professor Sara Rankin is the founder and director of the Homeless Rights Advocacy Project (HRAP) in the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at the Seattle University (SU) School of Law.  HRAP engages SU students, staff, faculty, and allies in research and advocacy to advance the civil, constitutional, and human rights of people experiencing homelessness. HRAP also builds partnerships across a broad range of disciplines with community members, advocates, academic institutions, and other stakeholders.  HRAP’s research not only identifies problematic laws and policies, but also offers effective, legally-sound alternatives.  Ultimately, HRAP aims to influence law and policy in ways that result in positive outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. Professor Rankin supports a broad range of other efforts concerning homeless rights and policies.  She is also a co-founder and co-chair of the Third Door Coalition, an unlikely alliance of Seattle researchers, service providers, and business leaders advancing permanent supportive housing (PSH) as the most humane and cost-effective solution to unsheltered chronic homelessness.  She co-founded and organizes Higher Education on Homelessness, a collaboration between interdisciplinary faculty, staff, students, and alumni at SU, UW, and SPU to facilitate and inspire collaboration and sharing of information and best practices among local universities and colleges on homelessness research, education, advocacy, community engagement and service. Professor Rankin is a member of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance (WLIHA) Public Policy Committee, working with WLIHA and other committee members to develop recommendations for state legislative policy priorities, positions, and ballot measures. Professor Rankin regularly publishes articles (scholarly and mainstream press) and presents on issues relating to the advancement of the rights of people experiencing homelessness. She provides pro bono assistance and consultation on a variety of legal and policy matters concerning housing instability. She also consults for and learns from cities, non-profits, legal aid organizations, and other advocates across the country about progressive, non-punitive, and effective means of addressing homelessness.