RECOVERY CAFÉ NETWORK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Engagement Manager
Alex Welch serves as Senior Engagement Manager for the Network. Before joining the team in November 2021, she earned her Master of Public Health in Health Policy & Law from Boston University's School of Public Health and has worked in community engagement, policy, and program implementation settings. They were raised and lived in Massachusetts until moving to Seattle in 2020. Alex's commitment to behavioral health equity is driven by her personal and familial connections to mental illness and substance use disorder.
Job Titles:
- Network 's Associate Director of Training and Learning
Camille Anderson serves as the Network's Associate Director of Training and Learning. Prior to joining the Network team, Camille served as Director of Recovery Café Indy (RCI). While at RCI she implemented programs such as Family Friendly Friday, birthed the vision behind Youth Cafés to develop a multigenerational approach to recovery and healing, and aided in expansion of the Recovery Café model across Indiana. Camille has a bachelor's degree in Social Work and a MA in Human Service and Nonprofit Management. She has over 12 years of social service experience and owns her own holistic health and education business focused on mind, body, and spirit connections. The Recovery Café Network's mission and work aligns with Camille's drive, passion, and commitment to community healing centered in love, accountability, and acceptance.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Recovery Caf
David Coffey is the Executive Director of Recovery Café. He has guided Recovery Cafe's programming with the Founders Killian Noe and Ruby Takushi for more than 12 years. David also serves as the Co-Chair of the Seattle Human Service Provider/Seattle Police Department West Precinct Forum, on the Mirabella Foundation Board, on the Fundraising committee of the Food Bank at St. Mary's, and is the Secretary of the Board of the Washington Recovery Alliance. David is passionate about finding better solutions than incarcerating people for behavioral health disorders.
Joshua Palmer serves the Recovery Café Network as an Emerging Member Manager. Originally from Texas, he has lived in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and now Seattle, where he joined the Network team in 2023. After studying music and creative writing for several years, he began working in service-oriented nonprofits with a focus on prison abolition and housing justice. After working directly with people moving through the criminal punishment system and eviction courts, he was struck by the unique difficulties folks struggling with substance use faced in trying to find peace and stability in their lives-a major motivating factor in his decision to join the Recovery Café Network in nurturing recovery communities dedicated to radical hospitality and loving accountability.
Job Titles:
- Network 's Special Projects Manager
Julia Selle serves as the Network's Special Projects Manager. She joined the Recovery Café family in 2021 as the QuEST Fellow and Radical Hospitality Coordinator at Recovery Café South Lake Union. Julia previously worked in environmental justice and public health research, conservation and outdoor education, and outdoor adventure leadership. She joined the Network team in 2022 and feels extremely lucky to work alongside such a welcoming, unique, and caring team. She truly believes in the Recovery Café model and is excited to support communities embracing and exuding radical hospitality.
Job Titles:
- Senior Catalyst and Outreach Manager
Ken Goldstein serves as Senior Catalyst and Outreach Manager. Ken has been working in nonprofits and community-based organizations since 1989 and consulting to nonprofits since 2003. He has served many organizations as a senior executive or board member, including having been the first executive director of Recovery Café San José, from 2015-2019. Since 2021 he has been committed to using his experience to help grow the Recovery Café Network. Ken holds a Master of Public Policy and Administration from CSU Sacramento and a BA in Politics from UC Santa Cruz.
Job Titles:
- Founding Director of Recovery Caf
Killian Noe is the Founding Director of Recovery Café. Before starting Recovery Café in 2004 with Ruby Takushi, Killian co-founded Samaritan Inns, a nonprofit in Washington, DC which provides transitional and longer-term drug- and alcohol-free, community-oriented housing for people recovering from homelessness, addiction, and other mental health challenges. She has written about Samaritan Inns in Finding Our Way Home and about Recovery Café in Descent Into Love. Killian is passionate about authentic community and its power to transform.
Krysta Peterson serves the Network as an Emerging Member Manager. She has served in community settings for over 10 years as a program manager, mental health facilitator, family advocate, and volunteer manager. Following two years with the AmeriCorps VISTA program, Krysta attended the University of Montana where she received her M.A. in Global Youth Development in 2018. Her degree included volunteering for a year in rural communities in the Andean Mountains of Ecuador. Krysta has been deeply affected by what recovery looks like in the absence and presence of love and is passionate about providing support and a warm environment to those navigating their pathways in recovery.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Engagement and Communications
Maddy Lee serves as the Network's Associate Director of Engagement and Communications. Prior to joining the Network, Maddy most recently worked with The Phoenix, a sober active community, in Boston. She has a background in institutional giving with experience in grant writing, philanthropy, and development. She is a licensed social worker with a MSW from Fordham University and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Boston University. Maddy returns to this community after beginning her career at Recovery Café Seattle in 2014 as a Jesuit Volunteer where she supported the initial launch of the Recovery Café Network. Maddy's passion for working with healing communities is informed by her strong sense of social justice and experience of loved ones' challenges with substance use disorders and mental health challenges.
Michael Scullin serves as the Recovery Café Network's Network Coordinator. With a background in nonprofit data and technology support, he enjoys the challenge of providing that expertise to the RCN team and larger Network and figuring out how to best utilize all of it for maximum impact. In recent years Michael has been heavily involved in community development initiatives around Puget Sound. He graduated with a degree in Geography/Social Studies from Western Washington University in 2013. A Northwesterner through and through, Michael has a deep connection to the natural world in our region and loves to share it with anyone and everyone.
Job Titles:
- Network 's Communications Manager
Mike Schut serves as the Network's Communications Manager. After college he volunteered for a year as a resident manager at Samaritan Inns in Washington, DC, where he first met Recovery Café's Cofounder Killian Noe. Mike appreciates working with the Network, supporting the creation of communities embodying the truths that we are all loved and that authentic relationships and belonging itself are healing. Mike has spent the majority of his career connecting spirituality and faith with caring for the Earth, at Earth Ministry and with the national Episcopal Church. While working in that field he edited/partially authored three books Simpler Living, Compassionate Life; Food and Faith; and Money and Faith.
Job Titles:
- Director of Programs for Recovery Caf
Ruby Takushi, Ph.D. is the Director of Programs for Recovery Café and co-founded Recovery Café with Killian Noe. Prior to arriving in Seattle, she lived in Washington, DC and completed post-doctoral training at St. Elizabeth's Hospital with a specialization in Group Psychotherapy. She served on the faculty of Howard University from 1992 to 1996 during which time she also worked as a staff psychologist at the DC General Hospital Methadone Clinic for women. From 1996 to 1999, Dr. Takushi conducted research in gambling behavior at the University of Washington Addictive Behaviors Research Center. She served on the Washington Department of Health's Examining Board of Psychology from 2015-2019. She is deeply committed to supporting the growth of accessible, high-quality, long-term recovery support in the community.
Job Titles:
- Monitoring and Evaluation Manager
Sara Jones is the Recovery Café Network's Monitoring and Evaluation Manager. They have a deep connection to the recovery community through lived, academic, and professional experience. Sara holds a degree in Child, Youth, and Family Studies from Edmonds College, where they studied the foundations of social services and the impact childhood development has on life outcomes. They previously worked in social services as a case manager, peer counselor, and life-skills instructor. Sara was inspired by these experiences to return to school and learn ways to deal with homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness at a systems level. They recently graduated from the University of Washington with a Master of Public Health degree. Sara is excited to bring their technical expertise and lived experience to this role to support the Network in creating low-barrier recovery support for communities nationally.
Job Titles:
- Director of Finance & Administration at Recovery Café Seattle
Skye Stuart is the Director of Finance & Administration at Recovery Café Seattle. She has over 15 years of experience in financial reporting and budgeting. Prior to joining Recovery Café, she worked as a program manager on state and federal land acquisition projects and as a financial analyst managing government grants. She provides administrative support to the Recovery Café Network in the areas of member invoicing and contract review. Skye has family members who have struggled with mental illness and is proud to be a part of spreading communities of support across the country.