Our Vision
Healers Without Borders is working directly in the homeless encampments of the Bay Area. We are people with a heart for the community. We provide some of the essential items that anyone needs to survive. We try to bring hope to those who have lost hope, compassion to those who are struggling, and basic necessities while focusing on connecting and supporting people as they grow beyond their current life challenges.
Get Involved donate@healerswithoutborders.us
Our Mission
Healers Without Borders was formed by a group of people who have personally experienced their own traumas and are united under a set of common goals. We reach out to marginalized individuals – meeting them where they are, providing compassionate resources – with the goal to facilitate transformation.
Who We Are
Brad Reiss
President
Brad, the president of Healers Without Borders, was born and raised in San Francisco. He enjoys all that San Francisco has to offer, such as organic food, swimming in the bay, running and spending time with his mom.
The people of San Francisco have always weighed on Brad‘s heart. His past experiences have prepared him to be an active advocate. In prior roles, Brad worked with detainees to reenter society, granting many the ability to rejoin society with their educational and material needs met, and with the societal support necessary to flourish. Brad‘s desire is to focus on how he can be part of the solution for this community he loves.
The ongoing social epidemic that the city is experiencing is a burden Brad feels compelled to help lift. He firmly believes Healers Without Borders can bridge this ever-widening gap. Brad wants to support the vulnerable finding the help they need through meeting people where they are and introducing a post-traumatic growth environment designed to meet emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. Brad knows healing can happen.
Brad believes that the miracle of change happens when people are willing to do something different.
Jason Wong
Vice-President
Jason is the vice-president of Healers Without Borders. A first-generation San Franciscan born to immigrant parents, Jason grew up in Chinatown and spent time in the Tenderloin. From early on, Jason saw traumatic experiences treated as a normal part of life. This includes homelessness and poverty being a part of the everyday. Over the past 10 years, Jason has been in recovery for addictions stemming from these early experiences.
What Jason experienced gave him a heart of compassion for those neglected by society. Jason desires to connect people with the type of resources he wishes had been available to him. It is his belief that if he could have accessed a group like Healers Without Borders, his PTSD would have been diagnosed earlier. When not focused on Healers Without Borders, Jason continues his work in the automotive collision industry, where he started his first business at the age of 19, and real estate development.
Vickie Matos
Treasurer
Vickie is a lifelong resident of Daly City. With a background in business administration and accounting, Vickie has worked to provide essential accounting, finance, and technical support to Fortune 500 companies such as Charles Schwab & Co and Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Since 2010, Vickie has worked for her local community church, Good News Fellowship. As Office Manager, Vickie efficiently supports the nonprofit’s mission by managing all office and accounting functions. As Treasurer of Healers Without Borders, Vickie provides bookkeeping services and financial reporting for the organization.
Phyllis Pettus
Strategic Planner
Phyllis was born and raised in San Francisco where she has spent the majority of her life and career as an advocate of social justice. She has worked as a nurse, a counselor, and a social worker, with both personal and professional experience in the area of recovery.
Phyllis has a Master’s Degree in Social Work (San Francisco State University), and currently works for the City and County of San Francisco as a supervisor in the department of older and dependent adults. She also worked with CCSF-HSA on their Government Alliance for Race Equity to develop policy to address racial inequity. For several years, Phyllis has also worked with marginalized and oppressed groups to reduce the impact of trauma individuals suffer.
Both as a supervisor and investigator of allegations of abuse, and/or self-neglect, she saw the worst of society. This has given her invaluable experience providing intensive case management and a heart for those at risk. Phyllis also enjoys traveling and spending time with family.
Megan Penna
Communications Director
Megan Penna was born in San Francisco, earned her bachelor’s degree in History from the University of San Francisco but was raised as a fourth-generation South San Franciscan. Her real estate career began in 2012 in property and office management and in 2013 she began selling residential and commercial property. Megan has worked in the health care field for the past 4 years as a senior account manager and this experience has developed her dedication and passion for helping others. She is eager to address the homelessness issues in the bay area. Megan is also an outdoor enthusiast and an avid traveler which has given her many opportunities to see and experience other cultures and ways of life. She also has a passion for animals and is devoted to her own rescue pet, Honey Bunny.
Chris Cunnie
Advisor
A native of the Mission district, Chris grew up watching his parents give back through their roles in the community. From those early beginnings, he took to heart the desire to serve.
In 1979, Chris’s life changed dramatically. He was introduced to the 12 Steps of Recovery and the Fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Those programs led him to a career in the Criminal Justice System and have been instrumental in guiding him every day since.
Chris has a many-storied background in law enforcement. He was a former Senior Advisor to then-senator Kamala Harris. Before Chris retired as the Undersheriff of San Francisco in 2011, he served as an S.F. Police Officer, spending 17 years on patrol. Another 8 years were spent as President of the S.F. Police Officer’s Association.
In addition to working in law enforcement, Chris served as President of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco-based Walden House (now Health Right 360).
Chris’s focus is on where he came from and he knows that safe spaces can only exist if communities work together. HWB can be the catalyst for that unification and change.
Paul Ferris
Director of Development
Paul earned an economics degree from the University of San Francisco and a juris doctorate from San Francisco Law School. After formal education he worked in financial services and the federal government in various positions of responsibility. Currently Paul is a merchandiser for a national retailer and a residential property manager in San Francisco.
Paul’s interest in Healers Without Borders began when his lifelong friend and neighbor Brad started a nonprofit group to assist those living on the streets of San Francisco. Noticing the growing population of individuals living on the streets and wanting to do something about it, Paul fell back on a mantra his family instilled in him at an early age: “Always give back.” Coming from a family with 3 siblings, he realized that his parents worked hard to provide him with many opportunities for learning and growth, and helped him to develop appreciation through having many various experiences. Paul believes that through empathy and understanding, the needs of those who have been marginalized by trauma can be addressed, and that Healers Without Borders is a great vehicle through which to make a difference.
Prior to his work here, Paul was an advisory board member for the nonprofit Northern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame under Jack Anderson and an executive board member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Cal Sigma as president.
A lifelong San Francisco Giants and 49er fan, avid bicyclist, swimmer and hiker, Paul enjoys soaking in what San Francisco and the Bay Area have to offer.
John Penna
Board Member
John Penna was born in October 1942 and is a lifelong resident of South San Francisco. John received a BA degree from San Francisco State University in 1973, with a major in Economics and a minor in Real Estate and Business.
While John began his real estate career in 1964, as a salesman, he obtained his Real Estate Broker License and open his office in 1966, recently celebrating 47 years of continuous operation. In 1970, he expanded into Real Estate Property Management and 41 years later is ending that part of his business. John later expanded his business to include Real Estate Appraisal and received a certified real estate license, keeping that until 2021.
In 1980, John was one of several that started Liberty Bank in South SanFrancisco and served on the board of directors until 2001. He was also instrumental in starting Damion House for young kids who need addiction support.
And in 1989, he was elected to the South San Francisco City Council where he served as Mayor in 1992, retiring from the city council in 2000.
Currently, John continues to run Penna Realty, a real estate sales office. His guiding principle is that service to others is key in real estate and as an elected official. This life of service began early in his life and continues to lead him every day.
Heather Kriletich
Advisor
Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, but currently calling Colorado home, Heather discovered her passion for helping others during her internship at the SF County Jail when she was 18. That initial experience, combined with other roles, has led to Heather’s current role as a licensed clinical social worker, supporting the underserved.
Heather has worked with a variety of populations, including those involved in the criminal justice system, experiencing or at risk for homelessness, diagnosed with mental illness, or diagnosed with substance use disorders. These are the very people that HWB is most passionate about supporting. Humans need community to thrive and HWB is designed to provide the link to the very community some members of society are missing.
While Heather may be in Colorado, her heart firmly belongs with the people in the Bay Area.
