Excellence in Leadership

SPONSOR: Marin Community Foundation

2011 Award Recipient: Diane Linn, Executive Director, Ritter House

Diane believes that sound partnerships and networks can often deliver social services more effectively and efficiently than one organization alone.

One of the hallmarks of Diane’s tenure has been collaboration. She helped forge partnerships with Goodwill Industries and Novato Human Needs Center for joint donation drives; St. Vincent de Paul, Adopt-a-family and Legal Aid of Marin to provide rental assistance and homelessness prevention services; Canal Alliance and Legal Aid in operating the Marin helpers.com job matching services; Sutter Health, Marin Community Foundation and the County of Marin on integrated behavioral health services; and Homeward Bound and Marin General Hospital on Transition to Wellness medical respite bed program.

In 2010, Diane partnered with the Marin Economic Forum to research the true costs of Marin residents living on our streets. The report, called ‘Room to Live’ provides compelling empirical evidence that the costs of allowing the chronically homeless to live on our streets year after year is more expensive than housing them in basic housing units.

Recently, Diane helped Ritter Center secure the inaugural Housing First contract through the County of Marin. The Marin Community Foundation matched this contract that will allow them to place 20-24 chronically homeless residents and medically fragile individuals that have been living on the streets for 5-20 years in permanent housing.

Ritter Center’s medical clinic has expanded under Diane’s leadership. The clinic is open more hours, they have implemented an electronic medical record system and they now provide chronic illness education and treatment, behavioral health assessment and counseling, psychopharmacological medicine management, specialty care coordination and medical case management.

Last year Ritter Center helped 75 households from becoming homeless by providing case management and emergency rental assistance.

Diane has doubled the agency’s budget from 1.2 million in 2008 to 2.4 million.

Diane bought Art House of Marin into existence, placing pieces of public art around Marin that featured information educating the public on the issue of homelessness.

In partnership with Marin City Health and Wellness Center, Ritter Center received a federal Health Resources and Services Administration Grant to become a Federally Qualified Health Center serving the homeless.

National competition was fierce and became more so when mid-term election results forced the administration to cut the number of grants by two-thirds. An enormous accomplishment, this grant provides $300,000 to support health services and qualifies the agency for other benefits than bring a half a million in new resources.

Thanks to Diane’s leadership Ritter Center has become a sustainable agency that is focused on changing the lives of clients and creating positive outcomes for the community.

The Excellence in Leadership Award and $5,000 for the recipient’s nonprofit is presented to an executive director who has demonstrated excellence in leadership and whose vision has inspired meaningful and lasting change benefiting the organization and community.

Download 2011 Heart of Marin Brochure and Form

1. Briefly state the organization’s mission. Provide date of hire for the nominee. To qualify, the nominee must have held their current position for a minimum of three years.

2. Describe the programs, strategies and services the nominee implemented to advance the mission of the organization. Please include measurable outcomes.

3. Describe any extraordinary challenges the nominee has overcome and how they were addressed.

4. What has the nominee done to ensure the organization’s sustainability?

5. How has the nominee exemplified excellence in leadership and served as a role model among their peers and the community?