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CSI staff have over 25 years of combined experience working with special needs populations on the local, state, regional, and national levels. Our staff have worked with and developed local housing and service programs to address the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS, homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Click on the links below to email staff members.
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Russell Bennett, LGSW, PhD, Executive Director
Mr. Bennett serves as Executive Director of CSI providing organizational management and program implementation services. Bennett currently serves as the lead on the Rural Supportive Housing Initiative (RSHI) and on the research and evaluation efforts. Bennett provides technical assistance and training under the HOPWA and McKinney Homeless programs. With nearly eight years experience working with issues related to homelessness and housing for persons with AIDS, he has experience in working with nonprofit organizations and the Federal government. In his role with the Federal government he worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of HIV/AIDS Housing, which administers the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program. The HOPWA program provided $277 million in funding this year to over 108 state and city governments and nonprofit organizations to serve the housing and related supportive service needs of persons with HIV and AIDS. Mr. Bennett earned his doctoral degree at the University of Alabama’s School of Social Work. In 2003, Mr. Bennett received an Early Doctoral Research Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to support his research interests in housing for persons with special needs.
Contact Information:
205-939-0411 Ext. 202
rusty@collaborative-solutions.net
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Sharon Fenstermaker, MSW, Director of Operations
Ms. Fenstermaker currently serves as the Director of Operations of CSI providing administrative and program oversight. From 1991 to 2001 she was Executive Director of Bread and Roses, a homeless shelter for women and children in Birmingham, Alabama, where, with Continuum of Care funding, she developed 20 new beds of supportive housing. Fenstermaker is experienced with many HUD programs including the McKinney Homeless Continuum of Care.
Contact Information:
205-939-0411 Ext. 206
sharonf@collaborative-solutions.net
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Crystal L. Pope, LCSW-BACS, Senior Program Director
Ms. Pope serves as the Senior Program Director for CSI projects, providing technical assistance and training under the HOPWA program, including technical assistance relating to Hurricane Katrina recovery in the hurricane-affected southeastern states. She also served as the Project Director for the City of Tampa HIV/AIDS Housing Planning Process . Ms. Pope received her MSW from the University of Chicago and has more than 25 years of executive and nonprofit management experience. She has an extensive background in program and organizational development, strategic planning, outcome-based evaluation practices, staff development, and training. Her experience includes specific involvement in policy, management, and practice issues related to homelessness, HIV/AIDS, mental illness, and developmental disabilities. Ms. Pope relocated to Birmingham from New Orleans in August 2005 as a result of Hurricane Katrina. In New Orleans, she worked as a consultant to numerous local organizations in the homeless and HIV/AIDS Continuum of Care. Most notably, she was the lead consultant for a City of New Orleans/UNITY for the Homeless HOPWA evaluation study and, additionally, acted as the lead in developing a consolidated evaluation model and outcome measures for New Orleans formula and competitive HOPWA grantees and project sponsors. Ms. Pope also serves as the Director of Grants and Development for the Fore!Kids Foundation in New Orleans .
Contact Information:
205-939-0411 Ext. 204
crystal@collaborative-solutions.net
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Ashley Kerr, LCSW MPH, Project Manager
Ms. Kerr serves as Project Manager for CSI and oversees the agency's rural housing initiatives. Prior to her work at CSI, Ms. Kerr was the Adult Program Coordinator and Aftercare Coordinator for Bradford Health Services in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She earned an MSW and MPH from Columbia University, where her primary areas of study included social policy, advocacy, health promotion and disease prevention. During her graduate studies, Ms. Kerr worked with a variety of special needs populations in the New York City area.
Contact Information:
205-939-0411 Ext. 205
ashley@collaborative-solutions.net
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Becky Blalock, MHRM, Project Assistant
Becky Blalock serves as Project Assistant at CSI and works primarily with the Low Income Housing Coalition of Alabama (LIHCA) and Rural Housing and Economic Development (RHED) projects. Prior to coming to CSI, Ms. Blalock was the Director of Faith and Community Partnerships at Alabama Poverty Project. There she oversaw all events, relationship building, and fundraising related to faith groups. Previously, Ms. Blalock also served as the Director of Congregations for Children, a children’s advocacy ministry of the United Methodist Church in Mississippi. She also served as the Assistant Director of the Bennett Center of London in London, KY, a community based organization in rural southeastern Kentucky. She earned her Master's Degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Charleston, where she held a Graduate Assistantship in the Office of Student Life, coordinating service-learning, community service, student leadership development, and student activities.
Contact Information:
205-939-0411 Ext. 210
becky@collaborative-solutions.net
CSI has a diverse, experienced, and knowledgeable Board of Directors that works in partnership with staff to achieve the mission of the agency.
Joanne Terrell, LCSW, PIP, President
University of Alabama School of Social Work
Paul Romjue, Secretary
Independent Presbyterian Church PC (USA)
Lewis Burks, Treasurer
Commonwealth National Bank
Mark Driskill, MSW, LGSW
UAB Substance Abuse Programs
Marc A. Fugnitto
Williams Blackstock Architects
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