Meet Lisa! Q&A with a HIP Housing Board Member!

San Mateo local and HIP Housing board member, Lisa Diaz Nash, is a passionate community voice and affordable housing advocate. We sat down with her and her gorgeous doggy, Dolce, to chat about her work with HIP Housing, ambitions as a change-maker, ability to speak with dogs and more!

So, who is Lisa Diaz Nash?

I’ve lived in the Bay Area for about 30 years. We bought our house here, in San Mateo, in 2013. I’m originally from New Jersey and Peoria, Illinois—which are places people sometimes laugh about. But anyhow, I come from the East Coast… After university, I got a scholarship to go out to Asia and study Mandarin Chinese. I went out for nine months and came back nine years later! I lived in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea and Australia.

And you began working in marketing during this time?

Yeah, I worked for American Express. That’s, sort of, where I learned how to do my marketing… Since then I’ve worked professionally for a number of different consumer marketing companies—like; Visa, E-Trade, Charles Schwab and Yahoo… But American Express is where it all began. And it’s how Michael and I met!

We are very fortunate parents of two grown daughters now. One who lives nearby up in Burlingame, and one who’s down in LA. And they’re both getting married this summer! So we’re just writing the checks and having fun.

Are they going to have a joint wedding?

Oh no! Oh no, no, no… There’ll be two. Yes, both very different, both very wonderful!


I understand that you’re very involved in the local community! How did this become a focus for you?

My life, sort of, changed in 2005.

I was the Chief Marketing Officer of a small financial services startup based in San Francisco. We were just starting out and really excited about what we were gonna do! I was walking down Kearny Street, down in the financial district, and walked by one of those great big manhole covers. And there was a huge explosion, and I was burned over half my body. Wound up spending two months in the hospital, in a coma for two weeks, rehab for two years, it was just one of those freak things that happens. And it was all underneath that manhole cover. So I don’t walk over manhole covers very much anymore.

It was a horrible, horrible experience. But I was very fortunate that I was in a place that had amazing healthcare, and a great, big, wonderful, supportive family. So I spent two years just turning into a human being again, and a lot of time trying to figure out what it was I really wanted to do. And I knew that whatever I did professionally or volunteer wise, or whatever, I wanted to make sure it really helped other people and that I could see the impact.

So, from there, I became the CEO of a global clean water and sanitation non-profit for eight years.

Wow! Quite the career change.

Yes, but it was fantastic!

Naturally, I also got involved locally, here, in San Mateo. I got on the Library board. I got involved in local politics and Rotary, and Rotary Haciendas—which is a low income senior housing complex managed by HIP Housing. Yes, that was actually my first introduction to HIP Housing!

And is that how you came to be a board member?

Kate contacted me after I ran for City Council in 2020 and said, “You’ve got a marketing background, don’t you?”… Nonprofits are so focused on doing the great work they’re doing that they don’t necessarily think about telling their stories, which is why I’m so excited you’re here! Telling HIP’s story is just so important. Everyone knows that affordable housing is so important, but people don’t truly understand the issue until they hear stories.

Like; a friend of mine who’s 90 years old. He used to be my boss at Visa and he was recently widowed. He has a lovely house and it’s far too big for him, but he came to me wanting to learn more about HIP’s Home Sharing Program! He said, “Once I’m ready, if I find a great person, I’d love to have them move in because I lived with someone for the last 60 years,” and that’s a real story! It’s very different from the perspective of someone who might be looking for a room or a house to share. But equally amazing.

You’ve been on the board now for the last year and a half. How have you tried to shake things up and get more involved with HIP Housing?

I think, number one, any good board member shouldn’t try to change anything when they first join. So, for the first six months, I just spent time listening and learning. If I was going to be an ambassador, I really needed to know what I was talking about.

But a couple of things that I’ve tried to get more engaged in is trying to help spread the word about HIP. And not just telling people I know about it, but telling others who can then spread the word further—like; the San Mateo Daily Journal and neighborhood associations.

And, trying to think about the work in different ways as well. Rather than just, “we provide housing,” thinking about how we get developers involved, the support networks we create, the skills, education we help individuals to gain and so on.

Above: from left to right, San Mateo City Councilmember Diane Papan,
HHDC Board Member Janet Borgens, and HIP Housing Board Member
Lisa Diaz Nash at our “Cheers to 50 Years!” event, May 12th, 2022.

Showcasing and exploring different creative solutions and opportunities.

Yes, exactly! There are so many different ideas that I’m sure we haven’t started thinking about.

And I think it’s also really important, and HIP housing is so good at this, to be able to show people what you’ve done with their money… If I’m going to tell my friends that I donated to HIP Housing, whether it’s $10 or $10,000, if I can tell them, “this is the program my money helped to create or support,” I’m gonna feel much better about telling people.

What are some of the unique challenges around housing you see facing San Mateo county?

You’ll get me going for the next 20 hours! Be careful, what you ask for. You know, a crisis of great opportunity is how I like to put it, because we have so much abundance here. And so much economic opportunity, and educational opportunity. We have Stanford, the College of San Mateo, and a huge community college effort… Silicon Valley, as they say, was born, not just because the weather’s nice, but because the educational system was there to support entrepreneurs going out and trying new ideas, and launching new companies. And it’s brought tremendous riches to San Mateo County!

But the downside is that it’s created incredible income inequality. The bigger and bigger these companies get, and the more money these individuals make, the more they spend on housing. The result? Housing prices rise. And on top of it all, this is where it gets very economic, the peninsula is finite. A lot of the land is restricted, and the parts that aren’t, well… it just keeps getting more expensive and more expensive and more expensive. And so it all becomes luxury housing!

I think a lot of people are starting to recognize, to have a really healthy, sustainable community, you have to have the entire community have access to it… It’s a holistic, integrated problem. And the solutions have to be holistic and integrated.

How do you see HIP Housing addressing these challenges? And what are some positive societal outcomes of this work?

HIP has recognized that there are lots of different solutions and lots of different partners. HIP works with everyone. Our programs offer many people a safe, affordable place to live, but sometimes the work involves referring people to another service or organization that can help them in some other way—be it a health care service, financial education, whatever. That’s something HIP Housing does that I’m really enthusiastic about.

I’m not the first person to say this, but I believe that housing is the most powerful medicine society has. Water is the most essential, you cannot exist without water. But once you have water, and maybe a little food to keep you going, housing is the most critical medicine… When you have that stability, you can start to think about all the other needs in your life. Mental health challenges, addiction, education, once you have a roof over your head and you’re not worrying about where you’re going to spend the night, you can focus on these other areas of your life and grow as an individual.

And it works both ways! It’s not just, “We need to give people affordable housing because they need it”. No, affordable housing is necessary to everyone, because we all need it. We all benefit from it… If we’re going to continue to grow and develop as a community, as a society, everybody needs to be thinking about how to make their lives better, and how to make their community better. We need everyone to be working together.

Any recommendations for resources of methods of staying in the loop in regards to affordable housing and other local issues in San Mateo County?

I always tell people, the best way to learn is to do and to see. So, going out and visiting an affordable housing complex. Check out Rotary Haciendas, find out what it’s like. Call up HIP Housing, get involved, volunteer! I think one of the great things about San Mateo County is that we believe in working together. We have housing councils. We have people who come together from all across the county. And if you have an idea, or a suggestion, don’t stay quiet. Say something!

Well thank you for your time Lisa, and thanks for keeping us company Dolce!

She’s very protective and as you can see, relaxing. She enjoys the good life. But when she wants something, she makes sure that she doesn’t just complain. She comes to me with a solution, “Okay, more food please. Put it in my bowl”.

She talks to you!

Oh she does, she does. I’ve learned. She’s almost 14 years old. I think I’m relatively fluent in Dolce. She’s taught me well!