About Us

Serg brings more than 25 years of experience in social service focusing on behavioral health. He focuses on connecting with people and improving programs. He can be found in county collaborative meetings and spending time downtown with people experiencing homelessness. He shares his knowledge of programs and resources with people on the street and with case managers. He was a member of the City of Santa Cruz’s CACH (Community Advisory Committee on Homelessness), the YHDP’s (Youth Homeless Demonstration Projects’ Internal Steering Committee, and the Santa Cruz County Grand Jury. He is a member of the Coordinated Entry / Smart Path Steering Committee, the Continuum of Care / Homeless Action Partnership, and the County of Santa Cruz’s Mental Health Advisory Board.  He enjoys advocating and consulting. He created an extensive unified Resource Directory for homeless services, both online, and printable which can be found at SteppingUpSantaCruz.org.

Elaine is an addiction specialist with over 25 years of experience. Educated at San Jose City College, Elaine graduated 1997 and became  licensed through CCAPP. Elaine’s extensive career began as a Drug educator at Thomas Russel Middle school, where she focused on prevention and early intervention. At CAPS OP, Elaine was a Senior counselor. Her caseload consisted of parolees acclimating into society. She was responsible for management of 7 homes under Rainbow Recovery Services, in this capacity she provided training for staff and was also responsible for safety in the homes and policy and procedure compliance. Elaine functioned as a Rehabilitation Counselor for Santa Clara County for 18 years. Her responsibilities included facilitator, counselor, assessor, supervisor, and Emergency Response team leader. Her work has always been in multi-disciplinary settings such as Addiction medicine, re-entry and justice services. Elaine is of the belief that each member of the team is a vital component in the process of healing. She has worked with many afflicted populations, TAY (Transition Aged Youth), LGBTQiA, Dual-Diagnosed, providing Trauma-Informed care.

Christine worked for 25 years as Director of Adult Custody Mental Health for Santa Clara County.  She has extensive experience working with populations suffering from trauma, homelessness, incarceration, mental illness and poverty.  

Christine is an RN with experience in Trauma, holds a Master’s in Public Administration with the bulk of her medical career spent in Hospital Administration and forensic mental health.  Christine is a recent graduate of the Compassion Institute and a Certified Compassion Cultivation Training Instructor.  She has experienced the effects a lack of compassion and common humanity have on individuals.  Her work compelled her to begin meditation and study of Buddhist philosophy and practices. Her current position is as Mental Health Consultant for Recovery Café San Jose where she has been for 5 years.

Ken has been working in nonprofits and local government agencies since 1989. His many years of senior management experience include being the first Executive Director of Recovery Cafe San Jose and Sustainable San Mateo County, Assistant Director of EHC LifeBuilders, and Silicon Valley Director of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. As a consultant, Ken has served half-a-dozen organizations as an Interim Executive Director, managing nonprofits through transitions, mergers, and turn-arounds. Ken has also facilitated strategic planning processes, taught fundraising and nonprofit management workshops, and performed other contract consulting work. He has also served on the Boards of Directors of Future Families and Habitat for Humanity Santa Cruz County. Ken earned his BA in Politics from UC Santa Cruz and Master of Public Policy and Administration from CSU Sacramento.

Chanda has over 20+ years of leadership experience in Engineering and Product, with a strong focus on Silicon Valley style agile startup teams driving emerging trends and technologies.

Chanda holds a PhD in Computer Science and is a trained educator in Compassion Cultivation Training, jointly certified by the Compassion Institute and Stanford's CCARE (Compassion Cultivation and Altruistic Research Education). She is also a Reiki Master, an active practitioner of meditation and a long-time practitioner at the Bay Area Cancer Connection, leading healing therapy sessions for over 12 years.

In her time with CCARE and Compassion Institute she has seen the visible impact of the practices in her classes and recognizes that our deeper self with its immense capacity to nurture and stay centered in the heart is magically connected with everyone and everything around us.