HomeAbout UsProgramsResourcesPartners


    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.

     

    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


    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


    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@c
    ollaborative-solutions.net


    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


    Amy B. Richter, MSW, Project Manager
    Ms. Richter serves as the Project Manager for the HOPWA Data Verification and Analysis Project managing the tasks associated with collecting and analyzing national performance data for the national HOPWA program.  Ms. Richter received her MSW from University of Michigan in 1998.  Prior to joining CSI, Ms. Richter was the Housing Manager for the District of Columbia Department of Health, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration (HAHSTA).    She was involved in developing strategic plans for the Region, administered the competitive bid process for community-level housing services in the District, and ensured appropriate oversight of administrative, fiscal and programmatic housing service systems serving people living with HIV/AIDS  in the Washington Regional Area.   Before that Ms. Richter was the Primary Care Manager for the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) managing the development of curricula and the implementation of Regional Trainings for the Supporting Networks of HIV Care by Enhancing Primary Medical Care (SNHC by EPMC) Project.  Ms. Richter spent eleven years working in the largest AIDS Service Organization in the Southeast, AID Atlanta, as a case manager providing services to HIV infected individuals and families, as an intake worker providing baseline assessment and referral packages to clients entering into the care system, and as a supervisor managing the work of both Ryan White and HOPWA funded case managers. 

    Contact Information:
    202-402-3563 Work
    703-859-6578 Cell
    amy@collaborative-solutions.net

    Alan Cowan, Finance & Grants Specialist
    Mr. Cowan serves as Finance & Grants Specialist for CSI. He is responsible for accounting operations, budgeting, financial reporting, and grant fiscal compliance. Mr. Cowan has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Alabama, and has over 15 years of nonprofit management experience including fiscal management of grants from HUD, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Energy, and FEMA.

    Contact Information:
    205-939-0411 Ext. 209
    alan@collaborative-solutions.net

    Katherine (Katie) Pittenger, Program Specialist
    Ms. Pittenger serves as Program Specialist for CSI and primarily works on data collection and analysis projects for the agency. Ms. Pittenger works within the HOPWA Data Verification team to support data collection and verification efforts.  She also works with individual HOPWA and Homelessness Prevention programs to provide data analysis support. Prior to her work at CSI, Ms. Pittenger was a researcher at Data for Solutions, Inc. where she provided statistical analysis on a variety of public health-related projects. She also worked as a Policy Analyst at Food and Water Watch, working with marginalized populations negatively impacted by natural resource privatization. She graduated summa cum laude, earning a B.S in Economics from Georgia State University. Ms. Pittenger also worked with CSI in an administrative role prior to completing her degree.

    Contact Information:
    205-939-0411 x210
    katie@collaborative-solutions.net

    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:
    becky@collaborative-solutions.net

    Tony Cox, Administration & Communication Assistant
    Mr. Cox provides administrative and communications support to the overall operation of the agency. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Jacksonville State University. Prior to joining CSI, Mr. Cox worked for 26 years with a large regional bank in its advertising, marketing, and training areas.

    Contact Information:
    205-939-0411 Ext. 201
    tony@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.

    Marc A. Fugnitto, Chair
    Williams Blackstock Architects

    Joanne Terrell, LCSW, PIP, Past Chair
    University of Alabama School of Social Work

    Mark Driskill, MSW, LGSW, Secretary
    UAB Substance Abuse Programs

    Lewis Burks, Treasurer
    Commonwealth National Bank

    Lisa Graham, PhD
    Organizational Psychologist

    Tim Blanton
    Episcopal Place