A Q&A with Shelley Pavela, HIP Housing Board President

 January 2022

HIP Housing is extraordinarily fortunate to have Shelley Pavela as the President of our Board of Directors.  Shelley sat down with us recently for a chat about her Board experience, her thoughts on our work and affordable housing, and some great book and podcast recommendations!

Shelley Pavela, President of HIP Housing’s Board of Directors.

Can you tell us a bit about you – your work life, your family life, what you do for fun?

I’ve worked at Kaiser Permanente for the past four years, where I’m part of the Information Technology team.  My job is to manage the performance of our outsourced vendors.  I also participate in several Kaiser community health efforts as a volunteer, including a recent effort to reduce housing instability.

I’ve been married to Tom Pavela for 35 years and I have two twenty-something daughters, both of whom recently got engaged! When I’m not working on projects for Kaiser Permanente or HIP Housing, I love to be outdoors as much as possible.  I hike, swim, ride horses, run, and hang out with family and friends.

You joined HIP Housing’s Board of Directors in September 2012.  What does it mean to you, personally and professionally, to serve on the Board?

My deep involvement with HIP Housing over the last ten years has been one of the highlights of my life.  I feel that working with the agency to improve the lives of our neediest community members has benefited me as much as it has helped our clients! Although I have learned a lot of sad truths about the inequity within our community and society, it’s been tremendously rewarding to participate in HIP Housing’s activities and see firsthand what a helping hand can accomplish.

In addition to serving on the Board of Directors, how do you participate at HIP Housing?

I’ve been able to take many of the professional skills and experiences I gained in the high technology world, where I worked for over 25 years, and apply them to activities like enhancing the agency’s social media presence, creating our first marketing plan, and helping to guide marketing campaigns and programs.  I’ve introduced a number of marketing experts to HIP Housing, and those contacts have either volunteered their expertise or provided excellent services to the agency at a very low nonprofit rate.  Being on HIP Housing’s Board of Directors has also reconnected me with my social work roots, where I started my career.

What excites you most about affordable housing and your role in it?

Housing is an essential need and, as we all say at HIP Housing, we all need a place to call home.  Housing is critical to mental and physical health and, working at Kaiser, I see firsthand how housing and health are intertwined.  In fact, Kaiser helped to transform our Self Sufficiency Program into a trauma-informed program with grant funding.

I currently work on a volunteer project called Kaiser’s “Housing as Health” Initiative, which involves a medical-legal partnership to help keep Kaiser members from being evicted from their homes.  Our research shows that those with stable housing have fewer medical emergencies.  It’s so great to see how both of my worlds relate to health and housing!

What do you see as HIP Housing’s biggest opportunities and challenges in the next couple of years?

The lack of housing for low-income, and even middle-income, individuals and families is only getting worse.  We need to continue to find creative housing solutions and do what we do best: working with community and private partners to repurpose existing housing, and providing our clients with impactful social services so they can maintain housing stability.

From left to right: Virginia Taylor, former HIP Housing Board President; Kate Comfort Harr, HIP Housing Executive Director; Don McVey, former HIP Housing Board Treasurer; Shelley Pavela, HIP Housing Board President.

HIP Housing has grown tremendously over the last ten years and our infrastructure – our systems and processes – also needed to grow in order to support expanded services.  I’m very proud of the systems and tools that have been put in place over the last few years – these will enable the agency to increase social service programs to meet clients’ needs and focus on potential new housing projects.

Having a strong staff and an amazing, diverse Board of Directors have also been critical to our success.

Where do you predict housing will be in five years?

This is both a challenge and an opportunity.  More and more cities are passing laws limiting single-family homes, and there is an increase in the building of accessory dwelling units and multiple-family homes.  These changes aren’t easy for many community members to handle.  I hope people will act in the best interest of all community members and adapt to a smaller yard or having multiple families in a dwelling in their neighborhood.  In our county, there is so much restricted land that we need to utilize existing housing.  There are many different ways to live and, in the future, there may be less home ownership…and that’s okay! I also hope that, with these housing solutions, we can help seniors with the isolation they face when living alone.

In short, what home means may begin to look different.

Complete this sentence: Without HIP Housing, I would…

… not have achieved my potential as a community member and leader.  I feel like I have gone back to my roots in social work and discovered a deep connection to my community.  This has been truly gratifying.

What books are you currently reading? Are there any podcasts you’re listening to?

I love to read and I have a huge stack of books on my bedside table.  I enjoy biographies (I’m reading Katie Couric’s now) and mysteries (I just finished Robert Galbraith’s Troubled Blood).  When I need sweetness and light, I read books by Fredrik Backman (I recently read Anxious People) and Elizabeth Berg – a favorite was The Story of Arthur Truluv.

And I listen to lots of podcasts! Some of my favorites are Hidden Brain, This American Life, and Imagined Life.