HYA Staff
Mary Howe – Executive Director (mary@homelessyouthalliance.org)
Karin Adams – Director of Programs (karin@homelessyouthalliance.org)
Ellie Gossman – Outreach Counselor (ellie@homelessyouthalliance.org)
Michelle Ibarra – Outreach Counselor (michelle@homelessyouthalliance.org)
Scout Zorn – Outreach Counselor (scout@homelessyouthalliance.org)
Sheila Ollila – Operations Manager (operations@homelessyouthalliance.org)
Dan Gala – Development Associate (development@homelessyouthalliance.org)
Meg Fuller – Logistics Coordinator
Mental Health Team
Nancy Mullin, PsyD – On-Staff Therapist / Psychologist, Homeless Youth Alliance
Irina Alexander, LMFT – Therapist, Harm Reduction Therapy Center (Available Mondays at SFNE)
Jason Brown, LCSW – Therapist, Harm Reduction Therapy Center (Available Wednesdays at SFNE)
Alisa de los Reyes, LCSW – Therapist, Harm Reduction Therapy Center (Available Mondays on street outreach, Fridays at SFNE)
Staff Bios
Mary Howe – Executive Director
Mary is a formerly homeless youth who has dedicated her career to developing and implementing interventions that empower young people to improve their own lives and those of their peers, and to addressing the structural causes of poverty and homelessness. Mary assumed leadership of HYA in 2006 when two longstanding grassroots programs—Haight Ashbury Youth Outreach Team and San Francisco Needle Exchange—ended their affiliation with Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, Inc. and merged to form a single organization under the name “Homeless Youth Alliance.” Mary secured fiscal sponsorship for the newly created HYA and spearheaded its consolidation and growth. She brings over ten years’ experience in direct service and outreach with marginalized and underserved populations. With each successive position she has held, she has been increasingly responsible for managerial, administrative, and supervisory duties, while still maintaining a hands-on approach to day-to-day operations. Prior to serving as Executive Director of HYA, Mary was an outreach worker and later the Center Manager for Haight Ashbury Youth Outreach Team, Program Coordinator for San Francisco Needle Exchange, and Trainer for the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project of the City and County of San Francisco. She is the recipient of a 2009 Bay Area Unsung Hero Award from KQED Northern California.
mary@homelessyouthalliance.org
Karin Adams – Director of Programs
Karin Adams is an organizer, service provider, and has worked in the field of harm reduction in Northern California for over a decade. Karin has a long and fond history of working with and alongside marginalized communities; centering around the ethos of “There is no such thing as the ‘voiceless’, there are only the deliberately silenced, or preferably unheard” (Arundhati Roy) and ‘Nothing about us, Without us!’. Karin’s personal history and life experience fosters their passion and commitment to this work. At age 17 Karin began distributing safer sex supplies at local punk shows and proceeded to work several years in the field of HIV & HCV prevention. Karin joined the team at Homeless Youth Alliance in San Francisco where they’ve worked for seven years and feels it’s an honor to show up to this work everyday. While frontline work is undoubtedly necessary, Karin also prioritizes their efforts in advocacy around the decriminalization of the poor and addressing systemic inequalities.
karin@homelessyouthalliance.org
Scout Zorn – Outreach Counselor
Scout is an SF native that’s been working in harm reduction for two years. They’re into drug user empowerment, feeding people tasty snax, and cats.
Scout@homelessyouthalliance.org
(415) 400-6546
Meg Fuller – Logistics Coordinator
Meg came to the Bay Area in 2013 from the Pacific Northwest. As an Outreach Counselor, she is excited to work for an organization that aligns with her belief that all people deserve non-judgmental care and compassion. In her spare time, she can be found hanging out with her dog, nerding out on music, reading and crafting herbal medicine.
Dan Gala – Development Associate
Dan grew up in the East Bay and has a wide-ranging background that includes law, finance, real estate, and baseball in addition to non-profit work. At HYA, his role is similarly multifaceted, spanning from grant writing and donor correspondence to coordinating HYA’s meal program and cooking meals. Dan’s favorite part about his work at HYA is interacting with the participants, which he gets to do while serving the Monday meals. His non-HYA gigs include writing legal news and analysis, as well as freelance editing. When not working, Dan is usually riding his bike on the San Francisco Bay Trail, taking timelapse videos of clouds and stars, or playing with his synthesizers.
development@homelessyouthalliance.org
Nancy Mullin, PsyD
Nancy is a licensed psychologist who has experience providing therapy to folks from a range of backgrounds and in a wide range of settings, including sidewalks, shelters, therapy offices, and drop-ins. As a mental health provider, she is aware that many of the people she meets with have had challenging, even harmful experiences with other therapists and providers. She strives to offer something different. Nancy does this by prioritizing the relationships she has with the people she works with in everything that she does in her role as a therapist and by honoring every person’s right to choose how much they want to share and engage in therapy. Her work is guided by a harm reduction, social justice philosophy that truly seeks to meet people where they are from a stance of non-judgment. In her spare time Nancy likes to hang out with her family and friends, cook and eat, read, and nerd out on rap samples.
Irina Alexander, LMFT (Harm Reduction Therapy Center)
Irina Alexander is a licensed therapist through the Harm Reduction Therapy Center who has worked at the HYA needle exchange since 2021. Irina’s roots began in drug policy reform, which led her to offering street-based counseling and outreach services beginning in 2010. She provides support to people from various backgrounds, lived experiences, and experiences of trauma and survival. Irina works with individuals and couples from a client-centered lens, focusing on the strength of relationship and looking at healing through attachment theory and social justice frameworks. In therapy sessions, Irina prioritizes what’s most important to each person, and has experience working with substance use, trauma, neurodivergence, cultural identity, incarceration, sexuality, relationship therapy, plurality, altered states integration, and more.
Where you can find Irina at HYA: Mondays at SFNE
Jason Brown, LCSW (Harm Reduction Therapy Center)
Jason Brown is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. He works as a therapist for the Harm Reduction Therapy Center’s Community Programs at Homeless Youth Alliance, at HRTC’s mobile sites in SOMA and Bayview, and in its office-based practice. Jason uses a relational and collaborative approach when working with clients. He has twelve years of experience working with transitional age youth, adults with severe mental illnesses and members of the LGBT community both in San Francisco and the East Bay.
Where you can find Jason at HYA: Wednesdays at SFNE
Alisa de los Reyes, LCSW (Harm Reduction Therapy Center)
Alisa de los Reyes is a staff therapist in several locations in San Francisco including the Transitional Age Youth Navigation Center, Homeless Youth Alliance Needle Exchange, and the Merlin Drop-In at HRTC’s office. Alisa’s practice is grounded in harm reduction, and she strives to center liberatory frameworks. She honors the expertise and wisdom of those that she works with and incorporates somatic practices in session. Alisa is committed to working collectively towards a world where all people are cared for and can thrive.
Where you can find Alisa at HYA: Mondays on outreach, Fridays at SFNE