Dr. Jodi Hall is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at NC State University. She has years of experience in social work education and practice. Her practice experiences range from child welfare and public health to administration. She has worked with families and individuals experiencing homelessness throughout her professional career, which anchors her commitment to the HOST program. Dr. Hall is a qualitative researcher focused on health disparities and exposure to environmental toxins in vulnerable communities. She is also a board member of the NC Center on Actual Innocence.

Elizabeth Benefield, MA, Duke University, BA, College of Wooster, is beginning her tenth year at NC State University as Program Director of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She is leading a campus wide effort to create and nurture a strong social innovation campus ecosystem, and build external partnerships with social sector leaders and organizations to empower students to use their unique skills to become engaged citizens of the world. She established the university’s Social Entrepreneur in Residence program, its TEDx-style COMx series and Dinners With Purpose events. She designed and launched the NC State Social Innovation Fellows in fall 2017 and manages all operations. Prior to coming to NC State, Elizabeth spent fifteen years as a consultant to nonprofits and social sector organizations in fundraising, and worked ten years prior as Director of Development and Assistant Dean for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work. Passionate about blending the expertise of diverse sectors, she launched a social enterprise, the Rosie Group, to help nonprofits innovate in the areas of sustainability and social entrepreneurship. Elizabeth co-authored the book, Building a Strong Foundation: Fundraising for Nonprofits. She loves to travel, practice yoga and champion social justice, especially for women and girls.

Mary is a professor in the Department of Psychology at NC State. In addition to serving on the HOST Advisory Council, she is a member of the Advisory Council for REACH, a program of Passage Home that serves families experiencing homelessness. Mary also serves as the University/College representative on the new Wake County Affordable Housing Advisory Working Group.

I am a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Licensed Clinical Addictions Specialist who volunteered as a member of Pullen Church to sit on the Advisory Board of HOST Homes. As a therapist I have always taken deep satisfaction in walking alongside clients, who are struggling with life's challenges, and assisting them in building a life they find satisfying and purposeful, and which is lived in accordance with their most deeply held values. I hope to use my training and experience to support our staff and help our students and the families who host them as they work toward optimal outcomes relative to their education and college experiences.

Sarah currently works at North Carolina State University for the Student Support Services TRIO Program ensuring low-income first-generation college students are competitive applicants for graduate school and career employment upon earning a bachelor’s degree. She also serves the greater campus community as Co-Chair of the campus Steering Committee on Student Food and Housing Security at NC State and Chair of the community Steering Committee on Student Food and Housing Security at NC State. In these roles, I work with housing insecure and homeless students in a myriad of capacities. To meet the mission of her different roles at NC State, she started several new programs. One is a podcast for TRIO students by TRIO students, Beyond The Bell Tower Podcast. Two, a partnership between TRIO and Wake County DHHS was established to increase the number of eligible students applying for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

Before NC State, Sarah worked at Big Brothers Big Sisters Services, as well as the University of Connecticut, the University of Maine, and the University of Massachusetts.

Sarah earned an M.Ed. in Counseling and Psychological Services from Springfield College (Springfield, MA) and a B.S. in Sport Behavior from West Virginia University.

Mike Giancola (he/him/his) currently serves as the Assistant Vice Provost and Student Ombuds at North Carolina State University. Previously, NC State University’s Associate Vice Provost for Student Leadership & Engagement and Director for the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, & Public Service, Mike has dedicated his professional career to working with college students. He gained early experience working and teaching at Kent State and Ball State Universities prior to his move to Raleigh in 1998.

Mike has been teaching and sharing his passions through keynote addresses on leadership, civic engagement, international development, non-profit leadership and social responsibility for over 30 years and has taught thousands of students including delegations from Canada, China, Hungary, Jordan, Iraq, Mexico, Russia, Slovakia, and Slovenia to name a few. Mike’s travels have taken him to over 25 countries where he has been instrumental in developing service-learning partnerships focused on hunger policy, healthcare, education, substandard housing, water quality and sanitation, interfaith dialogue, environmental issues, and civil rights in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Sri Lanka.

In his role as Student Ombud at NC State, Mike coordinates the Pack Essentials resources and serves as the point of contact for students experiencing food, housing and financial insecurity. He is one of the founding members of Feed the Pack, campus food pantry, and started the Student Emergency Fund and Meal and Housing scholarships to assist students in need. He is an active member on the Pack Essentials steering committee.

Besides his enjoyment found in traveling, serving the community, and coaching youth sports including wrestling, soccer, and volleyball, Mike Giancola proudly cites his most important leadership roles as being a husband to his wife Jennifer and a father to his two children Megan and Sam.

Keith G. Martin joined NC State University in January 2018 and currently serves as the Senior Academic Advisor for the Student Success & Advising Center within the College of Education. In his role, he uses proactive and appreciative advising for 1st and 2nd-year education majors with course selection, university and tutorial resources, student success, and degree attainment.

Martin is a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education Opportunity, Equity, and Justice program area of study at NC State. His research interests are in the following: college access,

retention, and student success; food and housing insecurities; and college environment and climate impact on underrepresented student experiences. He received his Master of Education in College Student Affairs at the University of South Florida, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Tampa.

Prior to his current role at NC State, he served as an academic advisor for the Poole College of Management. He also worked in Residential Education at UNC Asheville as a Community Director. Additional experiences of his include working as an academic advisor for Hillsborough Community College (Dale Mabry campus), and advising first-generation and low-income students at the University of South Florida (Tampa campus).

For Martin, having the opportunity to serve with HOST is something that is both personal and rewarding to him. He believes that HOST is a great resource for a vulnerable and sometimes unseen student population. It is his hope to help bring awareness while also sharing with others ways that they can support students who are housing and food insecure.

Martin is happily married and has a toddler son. He enjoys a good mix of food, music, and travel. One of his favorite past times is hopping in his car and driving miles on end with his radio blasting!

I am a pediatrician at WakeMed and enjoy caring for a very diverse patient population of babies, children, and teens. I see first hand how hard families are working, and know there are way too many in our community struggling to make ends meet. One clear path to reducing family stress and improving outcomes is education. I became interested in the HOST home program because I am passionate about helping students reach their potential. I have so much respect for the hard work my young patients have put into their schooling, and am incredibly proud when they are able to overcome the many obstacles and jump through the many hoops needed to get them into college. I have seen too many times how small things--a needed car repair, an illness, a job change--can derail the delicate balance and force young people to drop out of school. To be so close to obtaining a degree and breaking the cycle of poverty, to have already invested time and money and then have to abandon this goal, is absolutely heartbreaking to me. My family and I want to do what we can to help students through a hard patch so that they can move forward to pursue a productive career. Being a pediatrician is all about prevention, and I’m hopeful that playing a small part in helping a student complete a college degree will go a long way to prevent bad outcomes not only for that student, but for their future children, and even their children’s children. What a great investment in the future of our community!