Cal ICH Lived Experience Advisory Board (LEAB)
Melanie Robledo
Melanie is an advocate for the humanity of all people experiencing homelessness. She leverages her lived experience to bring awareness, bridge community resources, and encourage policy change.
Melanie spent five consecutive years battling homelessness, mental health, trauma, addiction, and institutionalization in the criminal justice system. These experiences were formative for developing her commitment to providing comprehensive supportive services that meet system- impacted individuals where they are at.
Currently, Melanie is the Housing Project Manager at the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), a national re-entry organization. She was initially connected to CEO during her last incarceration. Through this program, Melanie successfully overcame adversity and secured housing and employment upon release. In her current role, Melanie combines her passion for supportive services and wisdom from her lived experience to deliver effective housing navigation to individuals embarking on their re-entry journeys.
Melanie has a passion for supporting her community, and offering her volunteer services to street outreach teams. When she's not working or volunteering, you can usually find her at the soccer field, enthusiastically cheering on her two teenage children. Melanie's long-term goal is to obtain a degree in Public Health.
Marjorie Beazer
Like the proverbial diamond, Marjorie Beazer is a woman whose form, grid, and hue have been hewn, shaped, and reshaped by the pressures, hills, and valleys of her extraordinary journey. She is a mother of seven, grandmother of five, an honorably-discharged soldier, and emerging local and international social change, health & wellness, violence prevention, trauma-informed entrepreneur with a focus on life and business coaching. Marjorie describes her experience this way: “They say what don't kill you makes you stronger...but I'm still on the fence on that one. What I can agree to is that it brings with it opportunities to take the pressure and transform into that diamond that will grow, shine, and thrive.”
Marjorie is committed to policy development with a lens of harmonization, reform, and sustainability. She is a passionate advocate for families, youth, justice, leadership, accountability, and transparency. She is committed to doing her part to create places and spaces where people can enjoy just being.
Marjorie is vice chair of Sacramento County's Persons with Lived Experience Committee, as well as a community leader with SacACT's Housing Federation. She was a member of the SacACT Team that was instrumental in passing Senate Bill 567, which strengthened tenant protections against evictions. She also served as Chair of Jamaica's award-winning Correctional Services Technical Committee (TC) in 2023. The TC, which includes 25 local, regional, and international experts, is focused on developing innovative, first-ever correctional services standards for the country.
Marjorie is a life-long lover of learning, storytelling, and knowledge sharing. She holds a BA in Communication Studies with a minor in Government from CSU Sacramento She also has embarked on her journey to add a Master of Arts degree in Human Development to that accomplishment.
Marjorie believes each person should have access to a quality of life and outcomes that match their wants and needs--the only limitation should be their desire to go for it! She wants to contribute in even some very small way to this vision of the future and wants others to be magnified and magnificent because of her work.
Audrey Pearson (AP)
Audrey Pearson is currently serving as a Team Lead/Case Manager at a South Los Angeles Homeless Outreach Agency in Service Planning Area (SPA) 6. In her 6-year tenure, Audrey continues to be a trailblazer and innovative outreach worker who utilizes her lived experiences and assets to approach her daily tasks as a beacon of light for the unhoused population. Audrey is also a mental health advocate, LGBTQIA++ activist, poet, and writer. She began her work in the LGBTQIA++ community 25 years ago and eventually became the first recognized female President of St. Louis Black Pride in 2011. Audrey received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri, St. Louis in Psychology, with a Minor in Sociology and a Certificate in Women's Studies.
Audrey has worn many hats in her 30 professional years serving the community—supporting low-income families, youth in juvenile detention centers, adults and children with severe mental health challenges, and veterans. Audrey is a multi-dimensional visionary and community organizer who founded a community service organization, InTheLyfe St. Louis, in 2013. The 100-person volunteer led organization cooked homemade hot foods, collected clothing, and provided unhoused individuals and families with entertainment organized by the community at large. Audrey is a strong believer in community involvement to combat the mental health and housing crisis.
Since moving to Los Angeles in 2017, Audrey has dedicated her time to helping end homelessness through housing vulnerable subpopulations. Audrey prides herself in her zeal and intentionality to help heal and be a catalyst for change, supporting those experiencing a lack of resources as they navigate systemic hurdles.
Audrey has been working to pursue her dreams as a screenwriter, while continuing to center her activism and working on the frontlines with LA's unhoused population. During the pandemic, Audrey attended a Film Certificate program through the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension Program to harness her craft. Audrey is currently working on a few projects and is looking forward to someday having her scripts and documentaries shared with movie goers.
Monique Guerra
Monique, a 25-year-old with an inspiring story of resilience, faced the challenges and housing instability well into college., Monique overcame homelessness by reaching out for resources, finding employment, and eventually securing transitional housing while leveraging loans for stability during college.
Graduating from the University of California Riverside with dual majors in Education and Spanish, Monique engaged actively with various organizations such as California Youth Connections, Youth Teaching Project, EAOP, and UCR Guardian Scholars. Interning with the City of Riverside's Homeless Solutions Department, she gained insights into the multifaceted challenges faced by homeless individuals.
As an AmeriCorps VISTA for United Way of the Inland Valleys, Monique aided foster youth in achieving economic mobility. Presently, she serves as the Homelessness Youth Coordinator at the Housing & Workforce Solutions - Continuum of Care Division. Her role involves running and managing the Youth Action Board (YAB), aiming to empower members with lived experiences of homelessness to advocate for change and increased youth participation within the Continuum of Care. Monique's mission is to pave the way for her siblings and enable them to follow a positive trajectory.
Mary Maldonado
Mary grew up in a small town outside of Fresno called Raisin City, surrounded by countryside and grape growers. Her early life on a farm full of animals shaped her character by teaching her to value hard work and responsibility. She still loves the feeling of being out in open spaces, and the peace and quiet that comes with it.
She currently lives in an encampment community in Hanford, CA. She is proud of the way her community takes care of itself, keeping the encampment clean and sticking by each other. Her work with the Cal ICH LEAB is inspired by her own lived experiences and by the lives of the people around her. She sees an urgent need for resources and funding to help people find places to live inside, but also to protect those who are forced to live outside. She wants to work for dignity, respect, and basic needs like water, food, and safe places to be for people in encampments.
Caressa Smith
Caressa Smith is a graduate of the Human Services Program at SRJC and a Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor. She served as the lead Case Manager for Women's Recovery Services in Santa Rosa for several years before moving to Lake County in 2020 to live closer to her family in Clearlake. Since then, she has served as the Case Manager at Hope Center before being promoted to Program Manager. A popular speaker on the power of second chances, she grew up surrounded by addiction, the wreckage it causes, but also recovery. She has experienced homelessness for many years and is now a Lake County homeowner. Caressa was formerly incarcerated, and her criminal record has been expunged. She is a member of the Lake County Continuum of Care. She has turned her pain into purpose and lived experience into lived expertise. She is passionate about helping people overcome barriers to living their best life. Caressa is a student at Woodland Community College Lake County Campus. Her goal is to transfer to Cal Poly Humboldt and to earn a degree in Social Work. Caressa is motivated to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.
Alex Sánchez
Alex Sánchez (he/él) is a Mexican-American community advocate who grew up in rural parts of Fresno County. He started his work in housing justice and reform when he was a youth experiencing homelessness in rural and metro Fresno County. Alex experienced chronic homelessness and housing instability for several years. Along his journey, Alex used his lived experience to advocate for others who were also experiencing discrimination and violence within systems that were supposed to help those of us in need.
After three years of serving as LEAB Chair, Alex has recently accepted the position of Lived Experience Coordinator for the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care (FMCoC). This work is committed to restructuring the FMCoC system wide for the integration and incorporation of people with lived experiences of homelessness on all levels of the Continuum. Prior to this work, Alex had worked in Street Medicine providing people experiencing homelessness with mobile health services and enhance care management within Fresno & Madera County.
Alex's advocacy work also includes educating and advocating for policy changes on: equitable access to health care, anti-discrimination practices, reproductive health education, gender-affirming health care, and accessible mental health care. He served as a board member and Chair of Trans-E-Motion, the only trans specific organization within the Valley, offering resource navigation, low barrier emergency rental relief, support groups, gender affirming services, and many other resources. Alex has worked with young men of color to create safe spaces for brown and black queer men to learn, connect, and access health resources within California's Bible Belt, the Central Valley.
Brenda Mack
Brenda Mack is on both the full San Luis Obispo (SLO) Homeless Services Oversight Council and executive seat for lived experience. She is a board member for a local homeless outreach organization SLO Grassroots. She is involved with her local league of women voters housing and homeless committee. She advocates for mental health and is involved in political organizations, chairing her local DSA. She is also an executive committee member with NAACP SLO and participates with Mujeres de Action, a Latino women's empowerment group. She also volunteers with other groups serving marginalized folks.
Timothy Heavin
Timothy Heavin is an artist, musician, and local radio disc jockey whose work is grounded in a mission of compassion, community healing, and service. (His music is available on all streaming platforms). He is a humanitarian leader, homelessness systems expert, and certified Community Health Worker with deep lived experience in homelessness, reentry, recovery, and system navigation.
For several years, Tim has worked directly with unhoused individuals across Monterey and San Benito Counties, meeting people where they are and supporting access to housing, health care, and supportive services through person-centered, trauma-informed approaches. He is a strong advocate for individuals with lived experience and is widely recognized as a trusted voice for those most impacted by homelessness.
Tim serves on multiple local and statewide advisory bodies, including the Monterey/San Benito County Continuum of Care Leadership Council, where he also serves as Co-Chair of the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, a member of the Governance Committee, and the founder and chair of the Lived Experience Advisory Directive (L.E.A.D.). He is a consultant to the Corporation for Supportive Housing's California State Policy Advisory Committee and the Bring California Home Coalition. He also serves on the San Benito County Community Action Board. Professionally, he works full time providing Enhanced Care Management services to older adults through Senior Network Services.
Tim has played a key role in advancing Cal AIM implementation, advocating for sustained HHAP funding, advocating for peer support implementation, and supporting the development of permanent funding streams for homelessness and housing solutions. He is the founder of Heavin Helps, an initiative focused on outreach, care coordination, and system navigation for people experiencing homelessness - particularly individuals impacted by incarceration, disability, and substance use disorders. Through Heavin Helps, Tim developed and provides a lived-experience-rooted training curriculum for organizations, covering Housing First, trauma-informed care, cultural humility, meeting people where they are, and motivational interviewing. Recently Mr. Heavin was awarded the community hero award at the local Lead Me Home Summit on homelessness.
As a LEAB member, Tim brings a deep commitment to elevating lived experience in policy development, advancing Housing First principles, and ensuring that state strategies are grounded in dignity, accountability, and real-world impact. He is committed to leading the fight to end homelessness through any means and strategy.
Mindy Harrod
Born in Modesto and shaped by communities across California, Mindy Harrod serves as CalPride Stanislaus' SUD Specialist and Community Health Worker. She shows up with a steady, heartfelt commitment to supporting people navigating substance use, accessing care, and finding affirming resources in our region. Mindy is deeply dedicated to advocating for transgender rights and building pathways that make daily life safer, kinder, and more accessible for our trans and gender-expansive neighbors. Her work is grounded in compassion, cultural humility, and a belief that everyone deserves care that honors who they are. In every space she enters, Mindy brings warmth, lived experience, and a clear focus on lifting up community.
Viviana Arenas
Viviana is a community advocate in Santa Clara County. She comes from a diverse background where struggle has been often, but she uses personal and professional experience to help pave way for new opportunities.
Viviana is passionate about humanity, compassion, and meeting people where they are at. She has built and maintained relationships with various community members including our unhoused, young families, charter schools, and nonprofit organizations.
Viviana’s goal is to ensure that her children and future generations can live in a world where they can have access to their basic needs without the struggle, sacrifice, and navigation of community resources. “Basic needs are the bare minimum. We shouldn’t have to fight or beg for them. They are our human right, and we need to be in dialogue with our oppressors to help them understand true humanity.”