Sheila joined the HomeRise board in 2015 and served as Treasurer for six years before she was elected President in 2024.

Sheila is a global technology leader who built, grew, and transformed businesses for 30+ years.  As a Revenue Operator in public and private start-up companies, she was successful in scaling sales and turning around struggling businesses.  Her career foundation was refined at Fortune 50 market bellwethers– GE, Motorola, and Black & Decker. She leveraged her big company learnings in two software startups, launching sales from scratch, scaling pre and post-sales, customer success, and sales engineering.  Sheila is an advisor for SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s startup incubator.

Sheila earned her BS from Georgia Tech and MBA at GA State and Indiana University.

CEO, East Bay Rental Housing Association (EBRHA)

Derek Barnes has over 15 years of executive leadership transforming organizations through all stages of a business’ lifecycle – startup, rapid growth, business turnarounds, and M&A. Derek’s expertise includes building strategy, global organizations, and new technologies in highly competitive markets. He has worked within high-tech, nonprofit, telecom, financial services, real estate, healthcare, and retail sectors. 

Derek is CEO at EBRHA and responsible for developing programs and services to support the organization’s growing membership, who own and operate over 45,000 rental homes accross the counties of Alameda and Contra Costa.

He is also Senior Advisor at Ignition Point Consulting, supporting clients such as Fremont Bank, Homebridge, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and TeleNav. 

Previously, he’s held positions as COO/CTO and co-founder at g-dii Enterprises, COO at Executive Networks, Global Operations Director at Openwave, and VP of Technical Services and Operations at PlanetOut/Here! Media. 

Tom Azumbrado’s career has focused on housing, including working at HUD for over 30 years, concluding as the Regional Director for the Multifamily West Region. The jurisdiction includes 14 states, and has a portfolio of 5000 projects, with billions of funding per year. Tom grew up in public housing in Brooklyn, NY, but has also lived  and worked in a multitude of environments, including rural Alaska. He has worked on large urban projects to small rural houses and village planning. Tom was a commissioner with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for 16 years. He designed and built houses in Mexico with a youth group, including his 2 daughters, for 11 years. He is a licensed architect in Alaska and California. He’s walked many cities’ streets and has walked the Appalachian Trail.

 

He enjoys the varied cultures and peoples throughout the world, none more or less important than others. He buys into HomeRise’s goals and aspirations and wants to contribute to making it even more successful.

Heidi Haller Groshelle joined the HomeRise board in 2023. She is a Public Relations expert focused on introducing groundbreaking technologies. Her clients span multiple countries and sectors. Over 200 technology startups and established companies have benefited from her strategic PR skills and deep international connections. In addition, Heidi has represented music and film industry innovators who founded or led influential companies including Colossal Pictures, DigitalDomain, LucasFilm, and Pixar. She has also worked as a volunteer helping families needing housing and educational services in San Francisco and previously served as a board member of Traveler’s Aid and Compass Community Services.

John Avalos is the Executive Director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, one of the founding organizations of HomeRise and San Franciscan’s long-time convenor of affordable housing developers and providers.  John is a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, a social worker, and a community and labor organizer with over 25 years of experience in building coalitions inside and outside of public office to develop public policy, pass people-oriented budgets, support tenants, and develop successful revenue measures to build affordable housing in San Francisco. John has been part of years of struggle for racial equity and affordable housing that has led to dramatic changes in how City Hall relates to and addresses the needs of working-class and BIPOC communities. As a community organizer with community nonprofits and later as a legislative aide and member of the Board of Supervisors, John played a pivotal role in making City Hall more accountable and accessible to everyday people, working with labor and community to create policies, resources, and structures to address inequality in San Francisco.

Patrick (Pat) Schmalz, currently the CEO for St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco (SVDP-SF), has more than 30 years of experience in leadership and financial roles. As CEO, he leads SVDP-SF operations and partners with the Board of Directors on strategic planning, fundraising, and policy matters. Previously, he served as the CFO of Meals on Wheels San Francisco (MOWSF) for seven years. During his time at MOWSF, he led financial initiatives that significantly impacted the organization’s growth, including facilitating $8 million in tax credit financing that helped to build the Sangiacomo Flynn Kitchen & Distribution Center. Pat brings residential knowledge of the local community and a passion for service to the HomeRise Board. Pat earned a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Loyola University Maryland, as well as an inactive CPA credential from the state of Maryland. Pat also serves on the Board of Directors of the Bella Primary Care Clinic in San Francisco.

Don Falk served as Chief Executive Officer of the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) from 2005 to 2021, after previously serving as Director of Housing Development from 1994 to 2005. During his tenure as CEO, TNDC’s housing portfolio doubled to more than 4,000 homes, and its staff grew to 500.

Before joining TNDC, Don spent a decade at Jubilee West, a nonprofit housing and social services organization in West Oakland, where he held roles including Director of Housing Development, Deputy Director, and Co-Executive Director.

Don holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Economics and Urban Studies from Oberlin College. He has served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including the Corporation for Supportive Housing, Insight Housing, SPUR, and the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California.

Missy S. Mastel is an enthusiastic resident of San Francisco for more than 30 years.  She has raised children here, participated actively in the public school system, owns real estate, and walks her pet pig regularly in her neighborhood.  Every morning, she walks down to Starbucks and back up to her home on the hill, greets her neighbors and their dogs and picks up their blown over trash cans.  She believes strongly that this is the best city in the world and is honored to have a chance to work on its sustainability long into the future.

A licensed CPA, CGMA and a CFO with a specialization in nonprofits and Environment, Social and Governance sustainability, Missy is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Said Business School at Oxford with degrees and certification in Accounting, International Management and Theology.  In audit service with KPMG, Missy has traveled to Australia and Europe as a specialist in operational efficiency and design. Her innovative philosophies about accounting as a language and impact as the culmination of lifelong planning are promulgated in two bestselling books and a bevy of keynotes, articles and corporate talks. If organizations live and die by the numbers, it is because they know how to use them effectively to get their goals achieved. 

Missy is excited about getting involved with mitigating the housing crises here and appreciates the Housing First initiative as a proven methodology.  She hopes to add value by uncovering ways that we can tweak the program/message/efforts so that larger San Francisco and the world can understand all the good work and results HomeRise is contributing to San Francisco