Our Leadership
Elizabeth Funk’s career blends Silicon Valley high-growth start-up entrepreneurship with innovative impact initiatives that align for-profit and nonprofit approaches to accelerate positive social impact outcomes.
Elizabeth was one of the early pioneers in impact investing, founding the Dignity Fund in 2004. One of the first for-profit funds mobilizing investment capital for the microfinance industry, her fund demonstrated the benefits of harnessing capitalism to accelerate an industry that had previously been driven by philanthropy and the public sector.
At the same time she served as Chairman of the Board of Unitus, a nonprofit that was one of the world’s most innovative microfinance accelerators. Through these simultaneous roles Elizabeth developed a deep understanding of the relative roles nonprofit and for-profit approaches play in accelerating impact. Elizabeth continued her impact investing journey as Senior GP of Dev Equity, investing in companies that foster poverty alleviation, including several developers of low-income housing in regions across Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Peru, and Ecuador.
Elizabeth started her career in product design, marketing, and business development as a Product Manager for Microsoft Word and was part of the founding team of Microsoft Office. In 1995, as one of the earliest employees at Yahoo! she helped shape the early consumer internet with services such as Yahoo! Finance, Search, Auctions, Greetings, Travel, and others. Most notably, Elizabeth was behind the creation of Yahoo! Shopping, a forerunner to the booming sector now known as e-commerce.
Elizabeth’s career also extends to experience as the President and CEO of a public company, CML Global Capital, an investment conglomerate based in Canada. As CEO she oversaw several major transactions and eventually a privatization of the corporation.
Elizabeth has been actively involved in homelessness in California for nearly two decades. She served on the board and chaired Glide Memorial’s Community Housing initiative, which built two buildings for the formerly homeless in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, on the board of LifeMoves, a leading homelessness services organization in Silicon Valley, and on the real estate advisory board of HomeRise, a permanent supportive housing developer in San Francisco.
The founding of DignityMoves was the culmination of this lifetime journey– merging her experience in high-growth disruptive entrepreneurship, helping people help themselves through microfinance and low-income housing, and accelerating impact by harnessing the power of capitalism and the private sector.
Elizabeth has served on or chaired over a dozen nonprofit and social enterprise boards including South Pacific Development Bank, Uchu (Ecuador), Candid, Root Capital, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Deutsche Bank’s Microfinance Consortium and FINCA’s microfinance fund.
She is an active member of Young Presidents Organization where she served on the International Board, co-founded the impact networks, and now chairs the YPO Impact Investing Initiative. She is a member of Toniic (an impact investors network) and Battery Powered, among many other prominent impact-focused organizations.
Elizabeth holds an undergraduate degree in International Relations and Economics with Honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar.
Email: elizabeth@dignitymoves.org
Joanne has two decades in real estate development, focusing on homelessness initiatives for the past several years. She drove the LifeMoves|Mountain View project funded by the State of California’s Homekey program, delivering 100 new construction units in an eye-popping six months. She helped surpass this effort on Labath Landing, Rohnert Park, a second wave Homekey project, that also used prefabricated construction, delivering 60 units in a draw-dropping four months enabling the city to achieve an Early Occupancy Bonus and additional funding.
It’s Joanne’s unique, creative and ‘out of the box’ way of thinking that allows her to tackle challenges and come up with new ideas and solutions to help push boundaries and achieve the impossible. She wants to share this magic across communities to bring our unhoused and most vulnerable neighbors indoors and firmly believes our homelessness crisis is not rocket science and can be solved.
Jo holds a BSc (Hons) in Architecture, Building, Planning & Environmental Studies from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London and a MSc in Project Management (with a major in Private Finance Initiatives) from the University of Reading, UK.
Email: joanne@dignitymoves.org
Freya Estreller started her career in real estate development, project management, acquisitions and finance at Ryan Homes in Northern Virginia, Abode Communities, a non-profit affordable housing developer in Southern California, and at a $20m multifamily real estate fund focused on Echo Park/Silverlake. Her career took a left turn into CPG when she and her wife co-founded Coolhaus Ice Cream in 2009 as food truck and artisanal food pioneers. Coolhaus is now the largest women-led and LGBTQIA founded ice cream company and their ice cream pints, mini-cups, sandwiches and cones are sold in over 6,000+ doors all across the US and internationally. Perfect Day, a Bay Area food tech start-up making animal-free dairy, acquired Coolhaus in December 2021. She also co-founded Future Gin, a collaboration with her wife and their two female friends to create a Los Angeles distilled and California inspired gin with an activist mission that can be found in 6+ states including CA and NY and shipped to your door all across the US. Most recently as COO of Tea Drops, a minority and woman founded Organic and Fair Trade omnichannel tea company, she scaled the team and company revenues from $400k to $10m while raising $8m in seed and Series A funding. She was born and raised in Los Angeles (Atwater Village represent!) and has a BA in Sociology with a minor in Business from Cornell University. She is a mom to two wonderfully rambunctious kids and is active in youth and entrepreneur mentorship and has even given a couple TED-X talks. She is an Advisor to FabricVC, a fund dedicated to diverse founders and the capital they deserve. She is excited to bring her start-up and real estate experience to help scale DignityMoves and its mission to end unsheltered street homelessness. She is also an active member of the YPO Beverly Hills chapter.
Email: freya@dignitymoves.org
Jennifer is a seasoned philanthropy professional, committed to systems change and catalyzing lasting social impact. Jennifer brings her entrepreneurial spirit and experience leading cross-sector partnerships to translate vision into innovative strategy, impactful programs and alignment of partners for action.
Jennifer has two decades of experience leading and consulting on a wide range of philanthropic and social impact projects in the non-profit sector. She has led successful multi-sector, systems change initiatives focused on addressing social determinants at the community, policy and systems level, including a public/private start-up initiative, Shine On SF. She helped launch the Tenderloin Health Improvement Partnership with the Saint Francis Hospital Foundation, a groundbreaking collective impact project that was recognized by the American Hospital Association as demonstrating excellence in advancing community health.
Prior to joining DignityMoves, Jennifer spearheaded a philanthropy start-up focused on addressing the gap in access and opportunity to STEM education, technology and materials in under-resourced communities, as part of a community transformational change initiative. Jennifer has also helped raise the capital to support a broad cross-section of capital projects and community serving programs in the Bay Area.
Jennifer sits on a number of non-profit boards, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco, and is committed to supporting healthy and vibrant communities. Jennifer’s work in the non-profit sector follows a successful career as an attorney in financial services based in London and Hong Kong. She has a B.A. in economic history and a law degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Carlie Danielson is an accomplished strategist and communicator with more than 20 years of versatile professional experience across non-profit and private sectors.
With the global public health non-profit PSI, Carlie marketed condoms (and plenty of other public health goods and services) in Burma. As a brand strategist, she led research, positioning, brand architecture and naming efforts to equip technology brands, higher education institutions, and nonprofits with tools to align on and effectively communicate who they are, what they do, and why they matter.
During Carlie’s time leading the strategy teams at design consultancies fuseprojct and NewDealDesign, she guided seasoned executives and start up founders from across industries and managed the planning and execution of large scale, cross-disciplinary design initiatives that brought multiple brands, products and experiences to market. Also during her tenure at fuseproject, Carlie co-designed and executed key elements of SPRING Accelerator, which delivered technical and financial support to early stage enterprises in Africa and Asia whose products and services enable girls to safely learn, earn and save.
Carlie holds an undergraduate degree in English from Georgetown University, and a master’s in Integrated Marketing from Northwestern University. She is thrilled to return to impact-driven work and to apply her expertise to help scale DignityMoves and advance its mission to end unsheltered street homelessness.
An architect and executive with more than 40 years of professional experience, both nationally and internationally, Maureen is recognized as a leader in the design and construction industry. In her nearly 20 years with Gensler, she specialized in the implementation of complex multi-facility projects for key clients such as Apple Computer. Among her more significant projects were the international rollout of multiple Apple Retail stores and the design and construction of more than a dozen Apple iOS development centers built within major engineering colleges throughout Brazil. Her extensive experience developing innovative delivery systems and leading programs has been leveraged across multiple building typologies, including airport terminals, mixed-use centers, and corporate campuses. Her experiences as an architect working outside the US have allowed her to develop quick and creative responses to unfamiliar practices, statutes, and regulations.
Maureen’s expertise will impact her work with DignityMoves as the organization responds to the immense pressure in the face of the crisis of the unhoused and increases its scale and reach to improve the lives of these worthy individuals. She joins DignityMoves with a profound commitment to using her skills, talent, and resources to address the crisis of unsheltered homelessness in our community and beyond.
A long-time member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and past Product Council Chair, Maureen has also recently joined the Advisory Boards of two other non-profit foundations, Tiny Village Spirit-Richmond and the Lotus Campaign. The Lotus Campaign serves as the bridge between the public and the private in the fight against homelessness. Lotus connects public advocates and services (who identify people at risk of homelessness) and landlords (who have available units) and ensures through agency partnerships that tenants receive the ongoing support they need to transition to stable housing successfully. Tiny Village Spirit is an arts-based program that has successfully developed a tiny home village in Oakland, CA, for people leaving the foster care system ages 18-24. Tiny Village Spirit is working with Rebuilding Together East Bay Network and the City of Richmond to deliver a second tiny home village for the same at-risk youth in Richmond.
Jeff Gaddess most recently was the Director of South County Programs for Good Samaritan Shelter Organization, the largest provider of homeless services in Santa Barbara County and the service provider of the DignityMoves site in Santa Barbara, California. Jeff has been tasked in a variety of setting with building collaborative, person-centered, treatment approaches for our most vulnerable populations. His focus is on creating safe and healing environments where people are able to come off the streets stabilize, heal and move forward with their lives. Jeff also addresses the needs of all community stakeholders from elected officials, the business community, law enforcement, public defender and district attorney’s office, and concerned citizens with the intention of ensuring all voices are heard in an effort to create real and lasting change.
Becky joins DignityMoves with over 15 years of experience in marketing and communications, specializing in establishing and scaling high-impact strategies in both nonprofit and corporate sectors. She has honed her expertise in fast-paced startup environments, where she has orchestrated communication campaigns that significantly enhance brand visibility and drive organizational growth.
Becky’s passion lies in crafting compelling narratives that inspire action, a skill she has honed through various roles across healthcare, science, nonprofit, and private sectors. With a proven track record of building marketing frameworks from the ground up, she is particularly excited to bring this skill to a team that is leading the way in creating scalable, innovative solutions to homelessness.
Outside of her professional work, Becky is an avid runner and a lover of Philly sports. She enjoys giving back to her community through volunteer efforts and is passionate about finding creative ways to support local organizations that are making a difference in people’s lives.
With over a dozen years of experience in real estate development and construction, Ken has worked across a diverse range of project types, including infrastructure, office, lab, non-profit, hospitality, and housing— with a particular focus on modular and homeless housing. Organized, creative, and results-driven, he excels at building trust with diverse stakeholders to tackle complex challenges and drive projects to successful outcomes.
Ken first collaborated with Elizabeth Funk and Joanne Price in 2020 as the development manager for the LifeMoves | Mountain View project, which delivered 100 homeless housing units in just six months. He considers it an honor to have contributed to such an innovative initiative, which has since inspired numerous projects led by DignityMoves, LifeMoves, and others. While overseeing LifeMoves | Mountain View, Ken simultaneously led the development of a Google hospitality and housing project, utilizing factory-built modular rooms.
Ken earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and began his career in construction with a General Contractor, gaining hands-on experience before transitioning into real estate development and construction management.
Ken thrives on high-impact projects and is passionate about delivering creative, entrepreneurial solutions to complex development challenges—turning ambitious ideas into reality.
Outside of work, Ken enjoys mountaineering, hiking with his wife and kids, and endurance sports—including running, swimming, and biking. He was formerly a professional triathlete.
Jeff joins the Dignity Moves team from the real estate development and construction industry where he has renovated property for over 30 years. Starting with his own GC firm in Los Angeles and then developing Southern California projects for Legacy Partners and Steelwave. His experience in commercial high-rise buildings, capital improvement projects and renewable energy lead him to work extensively for portfolio managers and large corporate clients. He brings an entrepreneurial passion for development along with his construction skillset. His team building and leadership experience will be valuable in our rapidly expanding geographic reach. Jeff is a California Native and excited at the prospect of making a real impact in our homeless communities – both in California and beyond…
Jeff is LEED certified, a licensed General Contractor and holds a BS in Business Administration.
Email: jeff@dignitymoves.org
Derek joins us with a history of community involvement. He began volunteering at the age of 4 with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and hasn’t looked back since!
Following his graduation from Ohio Northern University in 2016, Derek’s path led him from the Midwest to Sacramento, driven by his interest in nonprofit development, the affordable crisis, homeless services, and tiny home development.
His professional focus centers on cultivating and stewarding donors. Most recently, he was pivotal in spearheading development efforts for one of Sacramento’s leading housing service providers. Additionally, Derek extended his expertise through consulting, enhancing the capabilities of small 501c3 organizations in the Capitol Region.
The mission of DignityMoves and its proactive approach captivate Derek’s attention. He finds the organization’s solution elegant and scalable, with a track record of success. Given his experience, he recognized the common challenge of housing organizations—many admirable missions were hindered by limited funding and a shortage of professional leadership. DignityMoves, however, thrives precisely where others often stumble.
In his free time, Derek enjoys exploring Northern California, being frustrated with Cleveland Sports, running, and volunteering in his community. Aside from his involvement in various housing and homeless services agencies, he sits on the board of Reps4Recovery, a national nonprofit organization that provides free support and fitness classes to people in recovery.
Derek encourages you to connect and reach out! Email him at derek@dignitymoves.org.
Domanic Green is a dedicated nonprofit professional and Bay Area native who passionately champions the integration of creative real estate development models to foster wealth generation within underserved communities. With a strong belief that cities and municipalities should adopt a multidisciplinary approach to constructing community-informed developments, Domanic has made significant strides in the field of affordable housing.
Throughout his career, Domanic has held pivotal roles as both Program Manager and Project Manager for two emerging affordable housing developers. In these capacities, he has guided projects from inception through completion, ensuring that the needs and perspectives of the community are central to the development process. His commitment to community engagement and innovative problem-solving has positioned him as a respected voice in the nonprofit sector.
Before venturing into nonprofit development, Domanic honed his skills as an educator, working with children ages 5-14 and later with young adults ages 18-29 in a workforce development program. This diverse background has equipped him with a unique understanding of the challenges and opportunities that different age groups face, allowing him to approach real estate development with a holistic perspective that prioritizes the needs of all community members.
Domanic’s foundation in Construction Management and Real Estate Business Development, combined with his expertise in Program and Project Management, empowers him to effectively bridge the gap between community aspirations and viable development solutions. His goal is to educate communities and their leadership on the Interim Housing model, showcasing how it can be successfully implemented to address pressing housing needs.
In addition to his professional endeavors, Domanic is deeply grateful for the support of his family and friends. He often reflects on the importance of nurturing these relationships and is continually inspired to give back to those who have contributed to his journey. Through his work, he aspires to create environments where families can thrive and communities can flourish.
Domanic Green’s unwavering dedication to leveraging innovative real estate models for community empowerment underscores his role as a transformative leader in the nonprofit sector. Through his efforts, he strives to cultivate a more equitable future for all, one development at a time.
Jack Lorenz has dedicated the last 20 years to serving social and economic justice organizations. He was most recently the Director of Development and Communications for Alliance for Housing and Healing, a Los Angeles based non-profit that provides services to homeless individuals with HIV/AIDS. Prior to Alliance, Jack was the Deputy Executive Director of Programs and Development at Equality California, the largest statewide LGBT organization in the United States.
Other funding projects Jack has overseen include “Protect, Detect, Report,” a program that protects LGBT seniors from Medicare Fraud, the California State Department of Mental Health’s “Reducing Disparities Project,” and the Equality California Institute’s “Health Happens with Equality,” which was recognized by the White House for its impact.
Prior to working in the nonprofit space, Jack was a film and television studio executive supervising productions at The Walt Disney Studios, MCA Universal, and Mandalay Entertainment. He used this expertise to serve as Executive Director of the Gatekeeper Foundation, producing documentaries advocating for the fair treatment of undocumented immigrants and other vulnerable populations.
Jack holds a Bachelor’s in Theatre History and a master’s degree in Humanities from California State University, Northridge.
Email: jack@dignitymoves.org
With over ten years of experience in the construction industry, Brittanie has a diverse background that spans roles such as Project Engineer, Site Superintendent, and Project Manager. While most of her career has been dedicated to overseeing commercial construction projects, Brittanie was inspired to join DignityMoves due to the organization’s steadfast commitment to addressing homelessness and improving the quality of life for individuals through interim housing communities. Brittanie’s expertise and passion now drives her efforts in contributing to meaningful solutions and impactful community enhancements at DignityMoves.