Jeremy Rosen (NPACH Executive Director)

Jeremy Rosen is the Executive Director of the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH), with responsibility for managing all aspects of the organization. Mr. Rosen previously worked in the National Office of Volunteers of America, where he served as Director for Homelessness and Mental Health. Mr. Rosen has also been employed at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and Legal Services of Greater Miami. He received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994, and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School in 1998.

Mr. Rosen is an expert on federal, state, and local affordable housing policy, with a focus on homelessness, veterans housing, and housing for children, youth, and families. Mr. Rosen’s work also focuses on access to government benefits for low income people, prisoner reentry, and the intersection of affordable housing policy and the child welfare system. He is a frequent speaker on these topics, and has published numerous journal articles and papers.

Board Members

Brad Paul, President (Co-founder, NPACH)

Brad Paul is the co-founder and former Executive Director of the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH), and has been involved in housing advocacy since the Housing Now! march of 1989. Brad is the primary architect of the Bringing America Home Act and contributed to the drafting of the National Housing Trust Fund Act and the HEARTH Act. In addition to ongoing policy work his writings on housing, homelessness, human rights, labor and community organizing have appeared in such journals and publications as Shelter Force, Clearinghouse Review, Ms. Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, International Union Rights, and the Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working Class History. In addition, he has appeared on C-SPAN, numerous community radio and local television programs, and been quoted extensively in print media and on NPR.

Brad currently lives in Maputo, Mozambique, where he has served as a consultant for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Fundaçao Malonda (Swedish International Development Organization), and Techno Serve. His recent work includes developing program responses to issues of neighborhood revitalization, emergency flood relief and resettlement, and rural poverty. He is currently completing a historical case study of labor, community and development in northern Mozambique entitled “Factories in the Field: Rural Transformation and the Organization of Work in Mozambique’s Cashew Triangle.”

Previously he served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Dr. Paul earned his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where his areas of study included comparative labor and industrialization in South Africa and the American South. A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Brad has also worked for Metro Atlanta Fair Housing and for the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida.

Barbara Duffield (Director of Policy, National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, Washington, DC)

Ms. Duffield's involvement in homeless issues began in 1990 as a tutor for homeless children in Washington, D.C. She served as Director of Education for the National Coalition for the Homeless from1994-2003, working closely with educators, service providers, federal agencies and Congressional offices to strengthen policy and practice on children's issues. In addition to her work with NAEHCY, Ms. Duffield was a founding Advisory Committee member for the LeTendre Education Fund for Homeless Children, and continues to serve in this capacity.

Will Forte (Actor, Writer, Comedian - Saturday Night Live, more)
Will Forte is an actor, writer, and comedian best known for appearing on the television show Saturday Night Live, where he has been a cast member since 2002. Forte was born in Alameda County, California and raised in Lafayette, California. He graduated from Acalanes High School and UCLA with a B.A. in History. Before joining SNL, Forte was a member of The Groundlings. He has also written and/or produced for the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun, That '70s Show, and Action.

Will hosted and performed a December 2005 benefit for NPACH at the Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles and is the national spokesperson for the Stem Cell Initiative for Eyes (SCIfEyes), a Raleigh-based, non-profit organization created to support research, training and public education in stem cell biology and to further the field by recognizing and supporting its potential for creating new therapies for the treatment of blinding and debilitating eye diseases.

Robyn Frost (Executive Director, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, Boston, MA)
Robyn Frost has worked with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless for over 15 years, serving as Director of the Coalition’s Donations Assistance Program, Director of Development and currently as Executive Director. Ms. Frost has served as President of the Board of Spare Change, the Homeless Empowerment Project, as well as a trustee of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Trust for the Credit Union League of Massachusetts. She has also served on the board of other organizations, including the Revolving Museum. Ms. Frost is a member of The Mayor’s Emergency Shelter Commission and serves on the Special Fund of the United Way.

Casey Trupin (Staff Attorney, Columbia Legal Services, Seattle, WA)

Casey Trupin is a staff attorney at Columbia Legal Services in Seattle, where he advocates for at-risk, homeless and foster youth as well as adults who are homeless. Trupin chairs the American Bar Association’s Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, as well as the Advisory Board of the Gates Public Service Law Program at the University of Washington. Trupin has served as counsel to thousands of foster youth and homeless adults in litigation and has worked on state and federal legislation designed to improve services to low-income children, youth and adults in Washington State and nationwide. In 1997, Trupin co-founded Street Youth Legal Advocates of Washington (SYLAW), and went on to direct the program until 2005.

Trupin has also served as Counsel for Special Projects for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in Washington D.C. working on federal child welfare policy. In 2005, Trupin was recognized by the Congressional Commission on Adoption Institute as an Angel in Adoption for his work on behalf of homeless and foster youth. In 1996, Trupin conducted a year-long study of programs for homeless youth in Latin America as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. Trupin graduated from the University of Washington School of Law with honors in 1999.

Amy Weintraub (Executive Director, Covenant House of West Virginia, Charleston, WV)

Mrs. Weintraub’s organization works for justice in central West Virginia by offering direct services for people living in homelessness and poverty, while creating social change through advocacy and education. She serves on the board of the Kanawha Valley Collective (the local Continuum of Care) and serves as the chair of its Public Affairs Committee. A certified trainer for SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery), Amy is a leader in bringing to West Virginia this effective model of moving those experiencing homelessness onto the path to recovery through accessing SSA benefits. Amy is a well known state lobbyist and advocate for children and women’s health issues and a community activist.

In addition to her professional work, Amy is the chair of the Local School Improvement Council of her two children’s inner-city elementary school and is an active member of Charleston’s Unitarian Universalist Congregation and the Charleston Interdenominational Council for Social Concerns. She attended college at Emory University and graduate school at NYU, studying politics and religion.

Ruth Anne White, MSSA (Hyattsville, MD)

Ruth White is one of the nation’s leading experts on the nexus between housing policy and child welfare. She is the former Director of Housing and Homelessness for the Child Welfare League of America. In that capacity she co-edited the landmark issue of the League’s journal, Child Welfare, documenting the extent to which children are needlessly held in foster care because their parents lack decent housing. She coordinated conferences site visits, advisory committees and wrote a newsletter to inform the field of promising practices in the Family Unification Program, which provides federal housing vouchers to families where lack of housing is keeping children and parents apart.

White has a Master of Science Degree in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Work from Ohio State University. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and Women in Housing Finance. White is currently studying social work as a doctoral student at the Catholic University of America.

Joe Willard (Vice President of Policy, People's Emergency Center, Philadelphia, PA)

Joe Willard is Vice President of Policy for People’s Emergency Center (PEC). PEC helps homeless families develop skills and resources to stabilize their lives and live independently. Grounded in over 35 years of experience, PEC’s comprehensive approach to resolving family homelessness is recognized nationally as a best practice model. Informed by face-to-face work with families, PEC advocates for sound public policies to ensure that all families have access to the services they need to achieve long-term independence.

Joe is the former Manager for Public Policy for United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and was Associate Director for The Reinvestment Fund. He earned a M.S. in Urban Affairs from Hunter College.