Pioneering Program Assists Seniors Transition from Hospital to Home

Linda McKay

Grief Group Facilitator

Linda is a San Francisco native and has worked as a restaurant designer for 25 years. She has traveled extensively and found a love for all places and different cultures. After losing her husband to suicide in 2011 she was directed to Dr Patrick Arbore who brought his Friendship line and Grief Services programs to The Institute on Aging. Linda participated in grief groups and counseling with Patrick until 2023. She was a member of the planning committee for Cable Car Caroling 2016- 2019, a benefit for the Friendship Line, a service helping isolated seniors connect with a volunteer by phone. In 2020 she began volunteering as a Grief Group Peer facilitator to give back to the grieving community. In 2024 she and the other facilitators brought the Grief Groups to San Francisco Village.

Katherine Okpara

User Experience Researcher and certified Aging-in-place Specialist

Katherine Okpara specializes in helping organizations create inclusive services and products. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2016. Her passion for working in the field of aging was ignited by the lessons she learned working as a caregiver throughout college. She witnessed firsthand the moments of joy and daily challenges that older adults face while trying to maintain their independence. She now uses her caregiving experiences to help older adults feel supported, energized, and inspired as they navigate life changes. In her free time, Katherine enjoys baking, learning languages, writing poetry, and volunteering with San Francisco Village.

Bill Haskell

Emeritus
Long Term Care Strategist

Bill worked as a long term care strategist for San Francisco’s Department of Disability and Aging Services, developing strategic initiatives benefiting older adults and adults with disabilities. At the request of the SCAN Foundation, following the development of San Francisco’s plan for long term care integration (LTCI) for older adults eligible for Medicare and Medi-Cal, he mentored three other California counties in developing their LTCI plans. For 10 years, Bill was the facilitator of the Mayor’s Long Term Care Coordinating Council. Prior to his work in long term care, Bill was Assistant Chief of Health Services in the AIDS Office of San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, where he administered community-based HIV/AIDS services as well as HIV/AIDS housing resources. Earlier in the AIDS epidemic, he was project manager for the development of Coming Home Hospice, the first AIDS hospice in the US. Bill served on the SFV board of directors for nine years, from 2014 through 2022. He was co-chair of the board for five years.

Michelle Maalouf

Innovation Consultant

Michelle Maalouf is a Principal Innovation Consultant who brings to her clients almost a decade of experience in strategy and innovation in aging and senior care. Michelle has led strategy, business development, marketing, project management and event production for clients who are startups, large corporations, academic institutions, for-profit and not for profit organizations including: Juniper Communities, Activated Insights, Cubigo, CareAcademy, Genesis Rehab Services, University of California, Berkeley, Sompo Digital Labs and more.

In one of Michelle’s prior roles with Seismic, she led market operations where she helped bring Powered Clothing to the global market while managing all market-facing activities. Michelle’s impressive start to her career was as part of the founding team at Aging2.0, a global innovation platform. Michelle played a pivotal role in building a strategic accelerator program, growing a community to 30k+ subscribers, hosting over 400+ events, forming 100+ global chapters, supporting an aging-focused venture fund, and producing Aging2.0’s first-ever conference. Michelle has performed patented, published, and award-winning research, developing tools for personalized medicine at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biomolecular Engineering and Bioinformatics.

Liv Schaffer

Professor, Artist, and Intergenerational Specialist

Liv Schaffer is a Bay Area artist and educator with a focus on intergenerational practice at the intersection of dance and social impact sectors. Her professional dance performance and choreographic career are bolstered by her faculty position at the University of San Francisco’s Performing Arts & Social Justice department, where she directs an on-campus intergenerational dance company, Dance Generators. She is also the Intergenerational Programs Director with EngAge, Inc., catalyzing programming that connects generations within affordable family and senior housing communities across California and Oregon. Liv was named a 2021 Gen2Gen Innovation Fellow by CoGenerate.

Mary Fitzpatrick

Retired Financial Systems Director, CCSF

Mary worked for several small nonprofits before joining the City and County of San Francisco (CCSF) in the early 1980s as the accountant for the Arts Commission. Subsequently, she earned her MBA from SF State and worked in accounting, financial systems management, and project management, for other CCSF departments before joining the Controller’s Office in 2001. There, she led the Controller’s Accounting Operations and Systems Division, managing the citywide financial systems with a team of accountants, programmers, analysts, consultants and external auditors with a wide range of roles and responsibilities. Happily retired since 2014, she is the volunteer treasurer/ board member of her neighborhood group MPIC( Miraloma Park Improvement Club), and is active on the local NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team). She’s volunteered with San Francisco’s Martin de Porres Soup Kitchen, and Audubon Canyon Ranch’s elementary nature education program.

She enjoys being outdoors, walking and hiking throughout the area, travels whenever possible, and dabbles in various art projects.

Sha'Nice Patterson

Wellness Coordinator

Sha’Nice joins the SFV with a background in working with youth and individuals with disabilities. Her experience stems from her work at various San Francisco non-profits and most recently as the Community Outreach Worker for the San Francisco School District. Sha’Nice was raised by her mother and grandparents in the Bayview District. In recent years she became the primary caregiver for her grandmother, who has inspired her to partner with and support older adults. She is excited to be a part of the SFV Team, and to help grow the community. In her free time, Sha’Nice enjoys coaching, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends.

Contact Sha’Nice via email: sha’nice@sfvillage.org

Jessica Da Silva

Communications and Fund Development Director

Jessica joined SFV in 2019 as the Wellness Program Coordinator to build and implement the Hospital Readmission Prevention Program, a pilot program created through the partnership of SFV and the California Pacific Medical Center- Mission Bernal Campus. Prior to that, Jessica worked in Behavioral Health Integration and community-based services for over five years in the Boston area. She has helped build communities, managed a local government election campaign, and provided support and services to underrepresented groups. Jessica earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology, with a minor in Spanish, from Framingham State University. She has a master’s degree in Public Administration from Clark University, which has deepened her understanding, appreciation, and interest in public health and the healthcare system. When not working, Jessica spends her time with her family exploring the outdoors and learning about gardening.

Contact Jessica via email: jessica@sfvillage.org

Kate Hoepke

Executive Director

Kate has been a community-builder for 35 years, in the field of aging since 2001 and with SFV since 2012. In addition to her role at SFV, she is a leader in the national Village Movement and Chair of Village Movement California, advancing the Village Movement statewide. She is the founder of 40 Mothers Clubs, social support networks for young families in the San Francisco Bay Area, which have served more than 1.5 million families since the early 1990’s. Kate has a BA in sociology and an MBA from San Francisco State University, and she is a 2019/2020 Encore Public Voices Fellow.

Contact Kate via email: kate@sfvillage.org

Nidhi Patel

Administrative Assistant

Nidhi has spent most of her early childhood moving from one state to another. Having had the opportunity to live in various communities around the country, each vibrant and lively in their own way, she’s met a myriad of people who each have had a story to tell and love to share. Now, after earning her Bachelor’s in Marketing at San Francisco State University, she hopes to use her experiences and background to share the stories of as many communities as she can.

Contact Nidhi via email: nidhi@sfvillage.org

Jill Ellefsen

Member Services Director

Jill has been working in the field of aging for 20 years, starting as an in-home care provider until going back to school to earn her Masters of Gerontology from San Francisco State in 2013. She has experience as an Activities Coordinator at an assisted living facility, a Resident Services Coordinator at a low income senior housing complex and has also been a hospice volunteer. While she joined the staff in 2018, Jill has been part of the San Francisco Village community since 2014, when she began as a volunteer. In her free time she loves spending time at the beach, cycling, hiking and knitting.

Contact Jill via email: jill@sfvillage.org

Sarah Brigid Newsham Kent

Program and Creative Director

Sarah has spent the past 15 years working in creative and non-profit settings in Chicago, Baltimore, Juneau, and San Francisco. She is passionate about community building, art making, accessibility, and social justice. Sarah studied social work, art, and psychology at Loyola University Chicago and spent two years post- graduation volunteering with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. She enjoys reading, biking to playgrounds and parks with her two young kids in tow, making feasts from farmer’s market finds and scheming her next creative project.

Contact Sarah via email: sarah@sfvillage.org

Gretchen Addi

Design Consultant

Gretchen Addi is passionate about the power of empathy and design and the people who get past the talk and make things happen. She speaks and writes about design, the longevity economy, and the needs of the aging population. She is currently consulting with startups, foundations, and commercial ventures in health, wellness, and aging. She was previously an Associate Partner and business lead for IDEO in the Bay Area for 17 years, including 7 years as the location lead for San Francisco. She serves on the executive board for the SF Village and At Home with Growing Older (AHWGO) as well as on the advisory boards for the Center for Aging + Brain Health Innovation in Toronto, Canada, and Aging into the Future in LA, CA.

Wayne Pan

Health Care Entrepreneur

Wayne is a co-founder and chief medical officer for myNurse.ai, a technology-enabled healthcare services company that supports nurse coaches to make them more efficient and effective in managing older adults with chronic diseases. Previously, he has had experience as a medical director for global and US medical affair teams at Genentech and BioMarin as well as a chief medical officer for several San Francisco Bay Area Medicaid and Medicare managed care plans. He currently serves as an independent board member of Semler Scientific, a medical device company with a proprietary device that screens patients for peripheral vascular disease, and is an advisor for several healthcare technology start-ups. Wayne holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his post-graduate clinical training in orthopedic surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals and Clinics and a fellowship in hand and microsurgery at the Philadelphia Hand Center. He also completed a post-graduate fellowship program in design thinking at the California College of the Arts.

Marcia Weisbrot

Clinical Counselor and Art Therapist

Marcia Weisbrot has a special interest in teaching older adults and teaches art in the lifelong learning program at City College. She is also a clinical counselor (LPCC) and art therapist (ATR) and uses her training in both areas to provide therapy for adults. She is a practicing artist, and you can see her work on marciaweibsrot.com Marcia has lived in San Francisco for thirty years, and has served on several boards during the past 25 years: Access Advisory Board of the de Young museum, Northern California Art Therapy Association, Root Division, Progressive Perspectives and the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association.

Andrea Jacoby, PhD

Finance, Executive Coach

Andrea is a retired Professional Certified Integral Coach, having trained at New Ventures West in San Francisco. For many years she was a Principal Consultant with Cameron MacAllister Consulting, a firm that catered to the design industry. Prior to that she served as the CFO at MBT Architecture for 20 years, and prior to that she was an Assistant Professor of English at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. She currently serves as a Director and Treasurer on the Board of Directors of Everyday Zen Foundation. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Lectureship and a Danforth Fellowship.

Sara Ortega Roliz

Operations and Advancement Manager

Sara joined the team in 2018. She brings with her 20 years of experience in community development, philanthropy, and organizational management. She completed her bachelors at George Washington University and her masters at UC Berkeley. Her career focus has been on evaluating how community groups run from year-to-year and strengthening daily processes to increase institutional success. Sara loves travel and global development issues, particularly a non-profit she founded 10 years ago focusing on students’ access to school in Cambodia. Sara is raising her family here in San Francisco.

Contact Sara via email: sroliz@sfvillage.org

Wanda Borges

Associate Dean, School of Nursing and Health Professions, USF

Wanda Borges, PhD, RN, ANP-BC is the Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Community Partnership at University of San Francisco. She has worked as a nurse for more than 20 years in a wide variety of settings. She has specific training as an Adult Nurse Practitioner and obtained her PhD from University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2004 with her dissertation research on an intervention to improve self-care behaviors in patients with diabetes who were being seen in the emergency department for non-urgent care. Since graduation she has continued to build her research trajectory has focused her research efforts in Community Based Participatory Research. In her current role she works to establish intentional Academic Practice Partnerships with health care agencies that have a shared mission and values with USF and provide students the opportunity to learn to solve real world problems. Partnering with community based health centers to improve health care outcomes, she has provided external evaluation and continues her work in evaluation of health care interventions.

Lauren Chaitkin

Finance / Accounting

Lauren brings 40 years’ experience in finance and accounting, serving in various capacities including private industry, public accounting, non-profit organizations and private foundations. Prior to retirement, she served as the Finance Director for the Zellerbach Family Foundation and since retiring, she continues to consult for the San Francisco Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund. Lauren is a competitive Masters swimmer and a member of San Francisco Village.

Claudia Lewis, JD

Attorney / Community Organizer

Claudia practiced litigation for over 15 years as a partner at Farella Braun & Martel LLP, specializing in securities litigation and white collar criminal defense. She is a Founder of San Francisco Village. She previously served as the President of the San Francisco Women Lawyers Alliance and the Community Learning Center at St. James. She founded and led Richmond Presidio Neighbors, which successfully resolved a dispute over the redevelopment of the Public Health Services Hospital in the Presidio. She has been very involved in addressing quality of life issues for Richmond District residents, particularly its children and older adults. She also has been a passionate fundraiser for two independent schools and Yale Law School.

Joanne Low

Community Volunteer

Joanne is a San Francisco native with over 40 years of experience in the field of adult education. She has worked for non-profits and City College of San Francisco in various teaching and administrative positions. While at City College, she served as the Dean and then as the Associate Vice Chancellor for the Chinatown/North Beach Campus and the School of ESL and International Education and eventually retired as the Interim Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. One of her major accomplishments was the development, design, and construction of 183,000+ square foot campus in Chinatown. Joanne also served 23 years in different capacities on the Board of the Richmond District Neighborhood Center, a non-profit with programs for youth, adults, and families.

Jill Waller

Marketing Specialist, Community Volunteer

Jill has been engaging consumers of all ages with her messaging, programs and product expertise for more than 20 years, largely in the toy and game industry. She has worked on marketing and product for Pokemon, Cranium, Trivial Pursuit, LeapFrog and many other iconic brands—and always enjoys problem solving to provide innovative products, services and communication to inspire human potential. Jill is passionate about supporting human purpose and fulfillment at all ages, and has served as a volunteer for San Francisco Village since 2017.

Gary Campanella

Chief Financial Officer, On Lok, Inc.

Gary Campanella is responsible for the financial management of On Lok and its subsidiaries. He began his work with On Lok as interim CFO in January 2016 and became On Lok’s permanent CFO in May 2016. As CFO, Gary provides both tactical and strategic oversight in the areas of: accounting and reporting (internally, Board of Directors, and government agencies); financial planning and analysis; business intelligence; cash management and investments; financial systems; and finance organizational development.

Gary has held senior finance roles in healthcare since 2004 in small to mid-sized, private, for-profit entities – a national behavioral health provider involved in substance abuse treatment; a physician-based pain management company; a regional behavioral health provider focused on serious mental illness; and a national developer and operator of urgent care clinics. Prior to healthcare, he worked in high technology companies in Silicon Valley.

Gary holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Duke University.

Maya Kamath

Communications and Fund Development Coordinator

Maya is a public relations and communications professional with more than a decade of experience; her expertise includes consumer products and technology PR, as well as event management and content development. She has been a pro-bono consultant with the Taproot Foundation since 2012, and has participated in three service grants to date. Maya attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and graduated with a BA in mass communications and a minor in political science.

Contact Maya via email: maya@sfvillage.org

Mary Moore Gaines

Emeritus
Rector Emeritus – St. James Church

Mary Moore Gaines is the Rector Emeritus of St. James Church. She served on the Boards of the Community Learning Center and the St. James Preschool. She has been a visionary leader of San Francisco Village from the beginning. Throughout her long ministry, Mary Moore has championed older adults who want to stay in their homes as they age. She has expanded her vision beyond the church to serve older adults and their families in all of San Francisco.

Anne Hinton

Aging and Adult Services

Anne Hinton is the former Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Service (DAAS), a position she held for 10 years. Over the course of her 30+ year career, Anne held various other positions, including the Director of Home Care, Care Management and Fiduciary Services Department for the Institute on Aging; the Director of Aging Services for San Francisco Catholic Charities; and the Director of South San Francisco Senior Services. She has served on the board of directors for the National Association of Area Agencies and the California Association of Area Agencies on Aging. In 2015, Anne was invited to attend the White House Conference on Aging. She is the recipient of the Justice in Aging Award, 2016 Paul Nathanson Distinguished Advocate Award and the Community Living Campaign 2015 Norma Satten Community Service Innovation Award.

Steven Hieger

Vice President, Information Technology

Steve has spent his career involved in the various aspects of technology. He has worked in manufacturing, financial services and long-term care. He is currently the Vice President of Information Technology for Northern California Presbyterian Homes & Services (NCPHS) which provides housing and services to seniors throughout the Bay Area. Steve is responsible for all things IT at NCPHS including providing strategic direction, budgeting, enterprise applications and day to day operations. Originally from Indiana, Steve has lived in San Francisco for over two decades and truly loves the city he now calls home.

Steve Hayashi

Retired Engineer

Steve worked as a Development Engineer, Engineering Manager and Program Manager for 40 years for Tandem Computers and Cisco Systems. He has been responsible for creating, staffing, managing, and budgeting engineering design groups in a high-tech startup environment. Currently, Steve is a committee member for his college fraternity charged with raising $1.5 million to bring the hundred-year-old fraternity house up to modern safety and living standards. An active San Francisco Village member, Steve enjoys participating in the monthly mentoring exchange with students from City Arts & Technology High School.

Patrick Arbore, Ed.D.

Founder & Director, Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention, Institute on Aging

Patrick began his career in the field of aging in 1973. He is the Founder and Director of the Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention and Grief Related Services (CESP), a program of Institute on Aging in San Francisco. Patrick conducts workshops and presents lectures locally and nationally on aging related subjects and he is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of aging related topics. He is a Senior Lecturer at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, CA.; an occasional Lecturer in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley; and an Adjunct Faculty member at The Wright Institute. Patrick is the recipient of several awards including the 2013 Mental Health and Aging Award presented by the American Society on Aging, a Silver Medalist for Public Service sponsored by the Jefferson Award Regional Committee and the 2016 Norma Satten Community Service Innovation Award for his commitment to human rights and community living.

Search San Francisco Village

Can’t find what you’re looking for?

Pioneering Program Assists Seniors Transition from Hospital to Home

Recent News