Stephanie is a survivor of the opioid epidemic that has claimed the lives of many of her friends and members of our community. Her lived homeless experience, along with the grassroots outreach and mutual aid work she undertook in the hardest days of the pandemic, provided the foundations for Shelter the People Cleveland.

After living in New York City for almost two decades, obtaining a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute, and working professionally for 13 years; Stephanie returned home at the start of the pandemic and hit the ground running. While serving our local communities, she shifted her career focus back to what had initially inspired her to become an architect. Stephanie began to apply her radical ideas for how we can provide dignified housing for people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity.