
Catherine Sweetser
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
I’m motivated to serve as a VCH Board Member because I used to work in Venice and it keeps growing more and more unaffordable. Venice is for everyone!
What is one fun fact about you?
A fun fact that not everyone knows is that I love to paint and draw. I got back into it during the early part of the pandemic, when my book club and I started doing art zooms where we drew, painted, sewed, or did other relaxing hobbies together.

Daniel Johnson

Michel Dory
Co-Chairperson
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
Having been raised in an organizing, non-profit family that embraces the motto “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.”, being a VCH Board member allows me to use my experience and talents to help create positive change for the unhoused. The bonus is I get to serve alongside truly wonderful people who are also committed to creating change.
What is one fun fact about yourself?
I watch Hallmark movies to de-stress. Who doesn’t want a guarantee of the main characters finding love in two hours?

Michelle Groisman
Co-Chairperson
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
My motivation for serving on the VCH Board of Directors is twofold: (1) I cannot fathom a life without the security and stability a home provides—and everyone deserves to feel that incredulity and (2) each of us has an obligation to leave the world a better place than we found it.
What is one fun fact about you?
I owe my involvement in VCH to a teammate I met when I was co-captain of an adult kickball team.

Mike Lindley
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
The opportunity to help and work on solving the homelessness problem
What is one fun fact about yourself?
I like waking up in the morning knowing I have another day to have that fun and reason throughout the day

Motique Alston
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
I want to serve on the Board because of the help I received from Venice Community Housing when I was experiencing homelessness. I went through the TLC program and am now permanently housed, and I want to give back to others.
What is one fun fact about yourself?
I love refrigerator magnets.

Sophia Guel-Valenzuela
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
I believe in equity and affordable, supportive housing. I believe VCH is a positive and impactful solution for those that are unhoused in our communities
What is one fun fact about yourself?
I walked the Great Wall of China when I was 5 months pregnant

Steve Diaz
Secretary
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
The idea of being part of a historic organization that is working to provide housing for the people most in need. Who are always forgotten about in higher resources communities.
What is one fun fact about yourself?
Diet soda or sparking water is my favorite drink.

Sylvia Aroth
Treasurer
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
I feel passionate about income inequality. In my honest opinion Steve Clare and VCH were/are most effectively addressing the issue in my changing community of Venice (and now greater LA)
What is one fun fact about yourself?
I was born in Berlin

Theresa Hwang
What motivates you to serve as a VCH Board member?
VCH does so much transformative and beautiful work in neighborhoods where not many people are advocating and organizing for equitable development. I wanted to support these efforts so that neighborhoods, especially on the westside of LA continue to be places where people and families of color can continue to remain and thrive.
What is one fun fact about you?
Venice Beach was the first place I surfed in California, Nearly ten years later Venice Beach was the first place my child caught a wave on a surfboard and those memories will always stay with me!