Jenn Oakley

Areas of expertise: Consumer advocacy, homelessness, addiction and mental health issues, caregiving for older adults with complex social and medical needs, strokes, Continuum of Care and policy work, public speaking, case work, housing navigation, PTSD, fitness and healthy eating advocacy, workforce development, navigating health and social service systems.

Bio: Jenn Oakley has overcome significant challenges, including 8 years of homelessness, more than 30 years of addiction and mental health struggles, and surviving a major stroke. Passionate about helping others, she currently works as a case manager at Rising Sun Center for Opportunity and founded a non-profit organization called Equal Access to Services and Housing which empowers people with prior lived experience of homelessness to provide case management and housing support for those currently facing homelessness. Jenn is actively involved in her community serving on the Alameda County Continuum of Care Outreach Access and Coordination Committee, the 2030 Task Force for the Strategic Plan to End Homelessness, Alameda County’s Emerging Leader Program, several local consumer advisory boards, and she was a member of the Camden Coalition’s 2023-2024 National Consumer Scholars. In her free time, Jenn enjoys running and encourages her students and clients to embrace healthy eating and exercise to improve both physical and mental health.

Experience:

• Continuum of Care Outreach Access and Coordination Committee, 2023 to present
• Home Together Task Force for the 2030 Stategic Plan to End Homelessness, 2025
• Camden Coalition – National Consumer Scholar, 2023-2024
• Storyteller at the Putting Care at the Center Conference, 2024
• Presenter at the Center for Health Care Strategies Conference- “How Lived Experience Can Inform your Work”, 2023
• Presenter at the Everyone Home CoC Community Meeting – “Advocating for accessibility for people with lived experience in committee spaces, 2023
• EveryOne Home Emerging Leaders Program, 2022
• EBHO’s Leadership Academy, 2023
• California Department of Public Health Lived Experience Advisory Board, 2023 – 2024