BRENDA VALIENTE
Executive Director
Brenda’s dedication to Miriam’s House since 2015 has led her from volunteer to Executive Director. With her leadership and passion for serving the women and children of Miriam’s House, Brenda has helped expand the base of support for the organization and helped provide a safe, sober home for over 75 families. Under her stewardship, she aims to ensure the long term sustainability of the program and to keep what she calls “the house of miracles” open and ready for mothers in need.
RHONDA EVANS, CADC
Program Director
Rhonda Evans is a Certified Alcohol & Other Drug Counselor (CADC), and has been a part of Miriam’s House for the past decade. She herself had the opportunity to experience first hand the magic of Miriam’s House as she was one of the very first women to come through the home. She has dedicated her time, love and selflessness to the growth and endless transformations of these women and children. Her passion for helping women shines through the halls of Miriam’s House daily as she continues to make this house a home.
BRYAN MOELLER
Chairman of the Board
Bryan Moeller is senior vice president and director of Small Business Banking for Wells Fargo in Greater Los Angeles serving small and mid-size business customers across greater Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernadino Counties.
Moeller joined Wells Fargo in 1999. Prior to assuming his role managing Small Business Banking in 2007, he was vice president and regional sales manager for Wells Fargo Merchant Payment Solutions, overseeing teams in greater Los Angeles and Central California. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, he was a regional sales manager and Director for financial services giant, First Data Corporation.
Moeller is active in the non-profit community and currently serves as board member for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters, Jewish Family Services, the Los Angeles Opera and chairman of the Promises Foundation.
In 2010, Moeller was appointed to the L.A. Mayor’s Office of Economic and Business Policy (OEBP) Small Business Advisory Committee, which was formed to assist the needs of small business owners in the City of Los Angeles.
Moeller has attended college in the U.S. as well as studied abroad including the University of France, the Goethe Institute in Munich, and intensive study of classical music at the Conservatoire de Nancy in France. Moeller is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington.
PATRICIA MEYERS
VICE CHAIRwoman
Patricia Meyers, Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor (CCDC) and Family Crisis Interventionist has tirelessly devoted the past two decades to helping people find the support and create the community so they can overcome the struggles of addiction. Recently, Patricia joined the team at START UP Recovery as a Partner and is continuing to help addicts and their families. In her previous position as Executive Director of Alumni and Client Services, as well as Clinical Admissions Director at Promises Treatment Centers, Patricia helped thousands seeking treatment find their path to recovery and helped establish a seamless reintegration plan for those returning to their communities and for those looking to build new communities. Since its inception in 2007, Patricia has also served as part of the leadership team and Board of Directors at Miriam’s House, a recovery home that helps low-income women reunite with their children. As a member of the Board she has consistently brought the vision, support and most significantly, the money that has made so much of the work possible. As the Chair of the Polo in the Palisades event, Patricia has been a magnet for supporters and members in our community to come together and bring both awareness and much needed funding to help those in need.
Her uncompromising commitment to bring out the best in people has been a source of inspiration to many in the field of addiction. She has consistently set a standard of excellence for professionalism in our field, overcoming never-ending obstacles while remaining undaunted in her determination to live a mission-focused life. Patricia has been a source of hope to those who thought they were lost, she has brought renewal to those who thought they were forgotten, and she has stood up for people when nobody else would care anymore.
Over the years, Patricia has been honored by many organizations including, in 2015 at the Share! Recovery Awards with the Ken Schonlau Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sobriety and in 2018 was named Woman of the Year at Miriam’s House.
DAVE BARGE
Post humous emeritus Board member
Dave Barge has served in the recovery/treatment community in several different capacities during his 42 years of sobriety. He has been on the Board of several transitional living homes including the House of Hope in San Pedro, Ca since 1975, Serenity House in Lomita, CA and is a past board member of the House of Miracles in Redondo Beach. Working with the National Council of Alcoholism since 1980 (which supports many 12 step houses), Dave has a deep knowledge of what it takes to help people in recovery. He has worked in several hospital setting including Gardena Memorial Hospital, South Bay Hospital and Long Beach Memorial Hospital. He is also a founding member of “Wayback Inn” detox center. He is the founder and current CEO of the South Bay Roundup convention for AA and Al-Anon.
BOB BURKE
TREASURER
Bob Burke has been strongly involved in public and government affairs, public and legislative law and governmental relations for over 30 years. Beginning as an attorney, he was central to the California campaign of Bobby Kennedy for President. Following the tragic events of this campaign he lived in Geneva Switzerland, working for an international financial giant in the transnational real estate arena. He followed this position by establishing his own legal practice in Paris, France.
He was called back to the United States to serve as a senior strategist and advisor to the former Senator Birch Bayh. Continuing with Federal service, he was called to work in several positions with the administration of Jimmy Carter in Washington, D.C.. Working closely with the Executive Office, he managed the Congressional relations at NOAA for the United States’ domestic satellite and spectral scanners. While in Washington, D.C., he further expanded his public service experience by serving as the International General Counsel to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Returning to his hometown of Los Angeles, Burke announced the formation of his boutique law practice, specializing in the practice of land use, environmental and commercial law. Appointed to the Appeals Board of the Building and Safety Commission by former Mayor Tom Bradley, he served as president of that Commission. He directed his practice to regulatory affairs and Administrative Law. He was named by Senate leader pro tem David Roberti to serve as president of the California State Advisory Board on Alcohol-Related Problems. He was a founder of the Harvard AIDS Institute and president of the UCLA School of Law Board of Directors. Burke was also president of the Board of Alternative Living for the Aging, a senior congregate housing non-profit in the Fairfax area. He is currently serving on the Board of the Los Angeles branch of Volunteers of America and Chair of their Property Committee. He also held with distinction a position on the Executive Committee of the State Bar Section on Public Law. Burke is actively integrated in the downtown business community with participation in the Greater Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Central City Association.
MARTA HARMON
SECRETARY
Marta Harmon is a management consultant and executive coach with a passion for helping clients identify and remove obstacles standing in the way of reaching their full potential. Based in Los Angeles, Marta has worked with clients in entertainment, technology, architecture/design and the non-profit sector to work towards goals related to leadership strategy, management style, executive presence and career path development. She is committed to a continuous learning process that allows her to address the uniqueness of each client and experiment with a variety of coaching modalities to meet the needs of both the company and the individual.
Prior to launching her coaching practice in 2016, Marta had a diverse and successful career in entertainment marketing, recruiting, consulting and management. An Emmy Nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television, she spent 15 years marketing television most recently as a Vice President of Marketing for two networks within NBCUniversal. Before moving to Los Angeles in 2003, Marta spent nearly a decade in San Francisco working in consulting, technology and recruiting.
Marta is a Bay Area native and graduated with Distinction from Stanford University (top 15% of class). She is a Certified Hudson Institute Coach, has a coaching credential from the International Coach Federation and currently lives in Culver City, CA with her husband, two kids and four fur-children.
NIKKI YOUNG LEBOW
Board Member
Nikki Young Lebow is a dedicated philanthropist invested in service and community. Over the last 20 years, she has served on numerous boards and raised funds for causes near and dear to her heart. Currently, she is serving as a board member at IDLA, President Emeritus of Open Temple, and she is the newest board member of Miriam's House. Nikki's passions include helping women in recovery, mothers, and children with learning disabilities. She also dedicates her time to her beloved family, her husband Dave Lebow and her daughter, Rose.
Dr. LOUISE STANGER
Board Member
Louise Stanger EdD, LCSW, CDWF, CIP, CSAT-1 is a preeminent interventionist and thought leader in the behavioral health and addiction treatments industry. She has received many distinguished awards and performed thousands of family interventions in the US and abroad, gives presentations around the country on various topics related to mental health , trauma and addiction, process disorders and chronic pain, and has received prestigious awards from her fellow industry colleagues for her dedication to intervention and recovery Harvard McLean Hospital an affiliate of Harvard University and DB Resources honored her as Interventionists of the year In addition to her work with clients and families, she is former University faculty at San Diego State University and University of San Diego, where she brought in over 4 million in grants for substance abuse and alcohol training and education.
Dr. Stanger is lauded for developing the invitational intervention process, which uses CIS: Collective Intervention Strategies, a revolutionary way of working with professionals and support systems to invite change.
Her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Recovery Campus, Journal of Alcohol Studies, Recovery View, Sober Way, Sober world and more. Her book Falling Up: A Memoir of Renewal, in which Dr. Stanger recounts her travails growing up in a substance abuse family and forging her unique career path, is available on Amazon; and Learn to Thrive: An Intervention Guidebook is available on her website.
Her book, The Definitive Guide to Addiction Interventions: A Collective Strategy, is the first academic book in the U.S. about the intervention process and is used at universities.
Her latest book discusses addiction , mental health and trauma : Addiction In the Family : Helping Families Navigate Challenges, Emotions and Recovery and has been lauded for its compassionate approach.
Dr. Louise is passionate about the work she does with families.
Dr Louise welcomes hearing from you and learning about you. You can reach her at 619-507-1699 and DrStanger@allaboutinterventions.com
CANDICE HENRY ROSALES
Board Member
Candice is a communications, marketing and fundraising professional with more than 20 years of agency, in-house and consulting experience. She specializes in message development, strategic planning and crafting compelling stories that drive business and fundraising objectives, as well as donor and constituent relations. Currently, she is the Director of Development for New Roads’ School, a socioeconomically diverse independent school that awards need-based aid to more than 40 percent of its student body. The mother of four children, Candice is also a birth doula and a fierce advocate for women, especially around issues of reproductive autonomy, maternal well-being and race, equitable healthcare and economic justice.
