top of page
Our interviewees are activists, advocates, policy analysist and experts, organizers, and industry professionals. They all come from organizations that do, well, good work and are pushing to improve residents' lives. 

Danielle Wildkress, Chief Program Officer, Brilliant Corners

Danielle joined Brilliant Corners in 2017. She oversees Brilliant Corners’ supportive housing programs and provides strategic oversight for Brilliant Corners’ Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool. She also plays a leadership role in inter-agency and public-private advocacy and coordination within Los Angeles County’s increasingly robust supportive housing systems. Previously, Danielle served as a Director for CSH, advising public agencies on systems changes to prevent and end homelessness with a focus on reentry issues. Prior to CSH, she served as a Senior Policy Analyst at HomeBase, providing technical assistance for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). Danielle earned her J.D. from New York Law School, where she received awards for her commitment to civil rights and public service.

Chris Contreras, Director, Los Angeles Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool, Brilliant Corners

Chris joined Brilliant Corners in 2014. As a leader of Brilliant Corners’ Housing Acquisitions team, Chris helped to launch the FHSP program and has provided strategic oversight to the scaling of the FHSP’s housing portfolio to include over 4,800 individual market rate scattered-site units throughout the county over the past four years. His current role has given him the opportunity to focus extensively on housing location and landlord recruitment throughout Los Angeles County. Prior to joining Brilliant Corners, Chris worked to improve community housing outcomes in Santa Barbara County. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Brilliant Corners is a California-based housing non-profit specializing in supportive housing.

Dr. Christine Beckman, The Price Family Chair in Social Innovation and Professor of Public Policy, USC

Christine Beckman is The Price Family Chair in Social Innovation and Professor of Public Policy in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at University of Southern California, with a courtesy joint appointment at the Marshall School of Business and Department of Sociology. She is the current editor at Administrative Science Quarterly. Her research focuses on organizational learning, interorganizational networks, entrepreneurship, and social innovation, particularly on how collaborative relationships and diverse experiences facilitate change. Recent work examines the organizational reaction to and individual experience of operating in a technology-enabled world where boundaries between the personal and the professional are blurred.  Her research sites are varied and include F500 companies, Silicon Valley start-ups, mutual funds, law firms, the U.S. Navy, German football teams, American baseball teams, and urban charter schools. She is a native Californian and received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University.

Jane Nguyen, Co-founder of Ktown for All, UCLA Activist in Residence

Jane Nguyen is the Co-founder of Ktown for All, an all-volunteer grassroots organization that engages with unhoused and housed members of the community to fight for compassionate solutions to end homelessness. She is also the 2020 UCLA Activist-In-Residence, an organizer with Services Not Sweeps, Board Member of Invisible People, and Campaign Manager for Kenneth Mejia for City Controller 2022.

Ktown for All is an all-volunteer grassroots organization that engages with unhoused and housed members of the community to fight for compassionate solutions to end homelessness.

More coming soon!

bottom of page