Board Of Directors

Board of directors

Sheila Aharoni

President

Learn More

Sheila joined the HomeRise board in 2015 and served as Treasurer for six years before she was elected President in 2024.

Sheila is a global technology leader who built, grew, and transformed businesses for 40 years. As a Revenue Operator in public and private start-up companies, she was successful in scaling sales and turning around struggling businesses.

Sheila’s career foundation was refined at Fortune 50 market bellwethers– GE, Motorola, and Black & Decker. She leveraged her big company learnings in two software startups, launching sales from scratch, scaling pre and post-sales, customer success, and sales engineering. Sheila is an advisor for SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s startup incubator.

Derek Barnes

Vice President

Learn More

CEO, East Bay Rental Housing Association (EBRHA)

Derek Barnes has over 15 years of executive leadership transforming organizations through all stages of a business’ lifecycle – startup, rapid growth, business turnarounds, and M&A. Derek’s expertise includes building strategy, global organizations, and new technologies in highly competitive markets. He has worked within high-tech, nonprofit, telecom, financial services, real estate, healthcare, and retail sectors.

Derek is CEO at EBRHA and responsible for developing programs and services to support the organization’s growing membership, who own and operate over 45,000 rental homes accross the counties of Alameda and Contra Costa.

He is also Senior Advisor at Ignition Point Consulting, supporting clients such as Fremont Bank, Homebridge, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and TeleNav.

Previously, he’s held positions as COO/CTO and co-founder at g-dii Enterprises, COO at Executive Networks, Global Operations Director at Openwave, and VP of Technical Services and Operations at PlanetOut/Here! Media.

Neil Sims

Treasurer

Learn More

Neil Sims joined the HomeRise board in 2021 after retiring as Managing Partner and Technology Sector Practice Leader for the San Francisco office of Boyden Global Executive Search. Throughout his adult life, Neil has served in voluntary leadership roles within his community. His most recent contributions include Board President and long-standing board member for Openhouse, a pioneering non-profit offering low income housing and services to LGBT seniors in San Francisco. He also served as a Commissioner for the San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services.

John Fisher

Secretary

Learn More

John joined the HomeRise board in 2015 and has served as Secretary since 2018. John is a native San Franciscan and currently lives in the city’s Mission District with his young family. Since 2014, John has worked in real estate development and investment.

Jonathan Wyler

Learn More

Jon joined the Board in 2014. He serves on the Advancement and Finance committees. Jon works with a number of entrepreneurial businesses through his role investing in medical technology companies at SV Life Sciences, one of the largest international healthcare-focused venture capital firms.

Heidy Braverman

Learn More

Heidy joined the HomeRise board in 2022. She has a longtime interest in the problem of housing and the issue of low rates of voter engagement in the United States. Currently, she is also serving as President of the Board of Foundation for Quality Housing Opportunities in addition to being a partner in the development of both Senior and Family Affordable Housing. She is retired from a 40 year career in the concrete repair and strengthening industry. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors for the International Concrete Repair Institute as well as many American Concrete Institute Technical and Development Committees.

Juthaporn Chaloeicheep

Learn More

Juthaporn joined the Board in 2020, having been a HomeRise resident at Arnett Watson Apartments since 2016. Twenty years of lived experience with drug addiction and homelessness enable her to bring a fresh new lens and perspective to her role as resident board member. She understands what it means to go from being homeless to having a home. Because her life was stabilized through permanent supportive housing, she has been able to establish work, graduate from San Francisco State University, and raise her now six-year-old son, all while continuing to stay clean and sober. She is a community leader who believes in going big or going home. Her success is the success of the core mission of HomeRise: housing gives hope to the hopeless.

Devra Edelman

Learn More

Devra Edelman is the Director of Programs at Hamilton Families, where she’s worked since 2005. She previously worked for five years as Executive Director of the Haight Ashbury Food Program. She received a Master of Social Work and a Master of Arts in International Development from the University of Denver in 1996 and worked in Colorado, California and internationally with homeless families and individuals for more than 18 years. She provides operational oversight and directly supervises the program directors of Hamilton Families’ shelter and transitional housing programs, including case management and children’s services.

Heidi Haller Groshelle

Learn More

Heidi Haller Groshelle joined the HomeRise board in 2023. She is a Public Relations expert focused on introducing groundbreaking technologies. Her clients span multiple countries and sectors. Over 200 technology startups and established companies have benefited from her strategic PR skills and deep international connections. In addition, Heidi has represented music and film industry innovators who founded or led influential companies including Colossal Pictures, DigitalDomain, LucasFilm, and Pixar. She has also worked as a volunteer helping families needing housing and educational services in San Francisco and previously served as a board member of Traveler’s Aid and Compass Community Services.

Tyler Kyser

Learn More

Originally from Toledo, OH and growing up in Chandler, AZ, Ty has lived all around the Midwest and the Bay Area. They come from a background of electoral organizing and building power in the Midwest and Northern California with an emphasis on shining a light on poverty and helping lead the fight for dignified and equitable services/housing for low income, unhoused, and BIPOC communities. Ty is committed to making long-lasting change for Black and Brown folks across the Bay Area.

John Avalos

Learn More

John Avalos is the Executive Director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, one of the founding organizations of HomeRise and San Franciscan’s long-time convenor of affordable housing developers and providers. John is a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, a social worker, and a community and labor organizer with over 25 years of experience in building coalitions inside and outside of public office to develop public policy, pass people-oriented budgets, support tenants, and develop successful revenue measures to build affordable housing in San Francisco. John has been part of years of struggle for racial equity and affordable housing that has led to dramatic changes in how City Hall relates to and addresses the needs of working-class and BIPOC communities. As a community organizer with community nonprofits and later as a legislative aide and member of the Board of Supervisors, John played a pivotal role in making City Hall more accountable and accessible to everyday people, working with labor and community to create policies, resources, and structures to address inequality in San Francisco.

Donald Graves

Learn More

Donald Graves is a board-certified Anesthesiologist who currently serves as an attending Anesthesiologist at Sutter Health Mills Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame and California Pacific Hospital in San Francisco. In addition to his duties caring for patients, he is also part of the committee that oversees the implementation and maintenance of Sutter Health’s Electronic Health Record.

Before becoming an Anesthesiologist and joining Sutter Health, Donald practiced as a board-certified Family Physician and held the role of Assistant Professor in the University of California San Francisco Department of Family and Community Medicine. In this role, he worked with cross section of patients in San Francisco including those living with HIV, drug dependency, lack of housing, undocumented immigration status and poverty.

Donald is from Denver, Colorado. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France. He received a Bachelor of Arts in French Literature. He went to medical school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He did his first residency in Family and Community Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. After working as a Family Physician for 4 years, he decided to further his training as a physician and completed a residency in Anesthesiology also at the University of California San Francisco.

Donald has always been interested in the health and wellbeing of others. This is what fueled his desire to become a physician. As a Family Physician, he helped to create a free prenatal clinic for families living with HIV. As an Anesthesiologist, he has gone on multiple medical missions in Central America.

Gregg Miller

Learn More

Gregg joined HomeRise’s board in 2012, bringing many years of experience in real estate and land use law as a partner at the firm of Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP. At Coblentz, Gregg represents developers, managers, brokers, owners, and operators in the acquisition, financing, entitlement, development, leasing and sale of various property types. He has done extensive pro bono work throughout San Francisco, representing HomeRise in the acquisition and entitlement of the Edward II hotel for development into housing for transition- aged youth.

Ancel Romero

Learn More

Ancel Romero has devoted his over 20 year career to affordable housing as an executive of leading organizations in both the non-profit and for-profit segments of the profession. Today, under the banner of his own firm, Ancel continues to serve affordable housing stakeholders in the critical areas of operations, advocacy, development consulting and strategic planning.

As an example, in the Spring of 2021,the Ancel Romero Management & Consulting Group was selected by the State of California’s Department of Aging to create a first project of its kind. This resulted in the completion of a document entitled “California’s Housing Choices for all Ages and Stages: The Housing Continuum for Older Adults and Adults with Disabilities.”

This document, meant for all State of California departments and agencies, details all housing opportunities for seniors provided by the State and “crosswalks” or aligns these to the agencies that provide them since no one document provided such information in the past. In addition, this work which was funded by The SCAN Foundation, presents the challenges, opportunities, recommendations and metrics pertinent to the expansion of housing opportunities for seniors and adults with disabilities in California.

Ancel began his career in the accounting department of G&K Management, one of the largest privately held real estate companies in California where he eventually rose to the position of Director of Property Management. He later joined American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW, a HumanGood legacy organization) and eventually became President of its affordable housing division.

He grew ABHOW’s portfolio from 14 to 35 properties through acquisitions, management contracts and the development of new affordable housing properties. Ancel oversaw the development of HUD 202 PRAC, LIHTC and mixed-financed projects throughout California.

In 2011, he received ABHOW’s highest honor —the Presidential Citation Award — in recognition of his role in expanding the company’s mission through significant strategic growth.

ABHOW has since affiliated with two other non-profits and is now known as HumanGood. As President of HumanGood’s Affordable Housing division, Ancel oversaw the operations of one of the largest non-profit affordable housing providers in the United States. HumanGood is now the seventh-largest nonprofit senior living provider in the country with more than 100 affordable housing communities across five states serving over 9,200 residents.

Ancel earned an AB Economics degree from Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila, Philippines. He is a Certified Property Manager (CPM) as designated by the Institute of Real Estate Management. His professional certifications include the Specialist in Housing Tax Credit Management (SHCM) and National Affordable Housing Professional- Executive (NAHP-E) designations. He is also a Fair Housing Coordinator accredited by the National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA).

Ancel is a Past President of the Affordable Housing Management Association of Northern California and Hawaii (AHMA-NCH). He has served as board member of Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. Before leaving HumanGood, he also served on the Leading Age Board of Directors and on the Business Strategy Council of Leading Age National. He is on the Board of Directors of Center for Elders’ Independence, a leading PACE (Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly) organization. l. Ancel also serves on the leadership team of Sympara (sympara.org) as its Senior Consultant.

In 2015, Ancel was recognized as a “Top 10 Filipino-American Achiever” by the Philippines Children’s Charities Association that presented the awards to Fil-Am professionals with a track record of caring for the underprivileged.

In 2019, Leading Age California named Ancel their Grassroots Advocate of the Year. The public policy award recognizes advocates who contribute the most to improving the lives of seniors in California.

In 2022, as Letran celebrated its 400th anniversary, Ancel’s alma mater honored him as one of the “400 Grandes Figuras,” recognizing him as one of only 400 distinguished alumni of the prestigious institution, which has been a cornerstone of education for over four centuries.

In 2024, AHMA-NCH honored Ancel as its “Pioneer of the Year”.

Ancel’s life work reflects the values of The Ancel Romero Management & Consulting Group:

Integrity, Proactiveness and a Passion for Service

Patrick Schmalz

Learn More

Patrick (Pat) Schmalz, currently the CEO for St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco (SVDP-SF), has more than 30 years of experience in leadership and financial roles. As CEO, he leads SVDP-SF operations and partners with the Board of Directors on strategic planning, fundraising, and policy matters. Previously, he served as the CFO of Meals on Wheels San Francisco (MOWSF) for seven years. During his time at MOWSF, he led financial initiatives that significantly impacted the organization’s growth, including facilitating $8 million in tax credit financing that helped to build the Sangiacomo Flynn Kitchen & Distribution Center. Pat brings residential knowledge of the local community and a passion for service to the HomeRise Board. Pat earned a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Loyola University Maryland, as well as an inactive CPA credential from the state of Maryland. Pat also serves on the Board of Directors of the Bella Primary Care Clinic in San Francisco.

Give Today

$100

$250

$500

$1000

Other