Board of Directors

Michael Byrd, Board President

Michael Byrd, a licensed real estate broker and owner of SLO HomeStore, serves California’s Central Coast as an exclusive buyer’s representative. A resident of Arroyo Grande, he serves on the San Luis Obispo County Latino Outreach Council, and has served on both the Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach chambers of commerce boards. He is a past president of the Grover Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Pismo Coast Association of Realtors, the Scenic Coast Association of Realtors and the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents.

Larry Vernon, Board Secretary

Larry Vernon is a retired Santa Maria Police Department sergeant who has lived with his family in Grover Beach for more than 40 years. His three children and six grandchildren were all born in the San Luis Obispo area. He has a bachelor of science degree in organizational leadership, and was a board member of Good Samaritan Shelter in Santa Maria from 1989 until 2017. He also served on the board of Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley from 2006 to 2010. He is committed to seeing the needs of his neighbors and helping them succeed as productive community members.

Ken Dalebout, Board Treasurer

Ken Dalebout has served as Chief Administrative Officer for Arroyo Grande Community Hospital and the Dignity Health Central Coast Service Area Vice President since 2011. In these positions, Ken has has responsibility for all services at Arroyo Grande Community Hospital. Ken has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. His background encompasses operations, business development and governance relations in both not-for-profit and for profit health care organizations.

Ken is the past Chair of the Arroyo Grande Grover Beach Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Ken is married to his wife, Angela, and has four children; two are Arroyo Grande High School graduates with two more on track.

Linda Pierce, Vice President

Linda is a resident of Arroyo Grande. She works with Lucia Mar Unified School District as the current Director of Student Services. Previously Linda worked as a teacher, district homeless and foster care liaison, and after school district program coordinator. In addition to Linda’s leadership with Lucia Mar Unified School District, Linda serves our community as a volunteer with several agencies. Linda has previously been recognized as Teacher of the Year. She is a graduate of San Diego State University and Cal Poly Masters in Education Administration.

Anna Miller, Vice President

As the Director of Property Management for Peoples’ Self Help Housing, Anna is responsible for oversight of property management, maintenance, compliance, and accounting operations. Anna holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Her experience in the low-income and multi-family housing industry spans over two decades. Anna’s strength is in providing leadership in policy development, process improvements, and knowledge about HUD, RD, and Tax Credit programs. She is experienced with families, seniors, people living with disabilities, homeless, mixed use properties and extensive rehabs.

A transplant from the Seattle area, Anna is now a resident of the city of Grover Beach. She is married to her husband, Tori, and has two children. Anna has served on a number of non-profit boards. In addition to 5CHC, she is currently serving as Treasurer to the Grover Beach Community Library. She volunteers her time with ECO SLO, Your Children’s Trees and other conservation groups.

Nancy Allison

Nancy graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where she majored in Journalism and was a member of the tennis team. After graduation Nancy returned to her native Southern California where she earned national recognition in sales performance for Fortune 500 companies. In 1990 she relocated to the Central Coast and worked in broadcast radio and television sales management.

Nancy has been a top performing local Realtor for the past 17 years, working for Taylor Hoving Realty Group in Arroyo Grande. She also volunteers as a counselor to seniors through Wilshire Community Services and as a mental health advocacy speaker with THMA. She cares deeply about those living on the fringe of society, struggling with addictions and mental health issues, and would like to help make a difference.

An avid tennis player and yoga enthusiast, Nancy loves living in Grover Beach with her husband Steve Lieberman, and two dogs Coco and Betty. Their two young adult aged children live in Morro Bay.

Peggy Coon

Peggy Coon holds a bachelor of arts degree in sociology. As a former sales and marketing executive, she brings a 33-year professional background in health care and employee benefits to the Coalition. She participates in a variety of community enhancement projects, and has represented California State Parks Oceano District for the past 10 years as a docent chairperson, currently leading community outreach and education programs. Peggy and her husband David have lived in Arroyo Grande for 10 years.

Pat Cusack

Pat Cusack and his family are longtime residents of the area. A local businessman, Pat is involved in several business ventures, including Toyota of Santa Maria and Honda of Santa Maria.

Pat is very active with his church and several other community efforts especially focused on youth including youth sports and the development and restoration of Camp Arroyo Grande.

Judith Higgins

Judith Higgins was born and grew up in Colorado. After completing an Associate’s Degree in Art she joined United Airlines as a flight attendant and moved out to Los Angeles. She married her husband during this period (45 years ago) and had two children. The family moved to Georgia where she became an entrepreneur (owning an import leather business and a botanicals business), went back to college studying Art & Sociology, and volunteered 8 years for CASA as a special advocate for children. She worked in business for over 15 years, first recruiting management level employees for manufacturing and distribution and then owning her own business (GMD Group USA) introducing beauty products Made in America to distributors in Asia. This business lead her to become a speaker in the beauty industry and travel around the globe to speak at beauty conferences. Hobbies are: biking, hiking, dancing, and writing short stories. She retired in 2015 and began a search for her next journey. After moving to the central coast 13 years ago and observing the growth of the homeless population, she decided to join a team of professionals in the field and help them in Marketing and Sales.

Pastor David Hutsko

David Hutsko currently serves as Lead Pastor at New Life Community Church in Pismo Beach, CA. Originally from the Midwest, he now resides in Arroyo Grande with his wife, Dana, and their four children. David is passionate about serving his community in ways that not only help those who are under-resourced but seeks to maintain and restore dignity in their lives. Throughout his ministry David has worked with people of various religious and non-religious backgrounds in order to find ways to love our neighbors in greater ways.

Paul Jarvis

Paul is a retired teacher and principal of Dana Elementary School. He has served our community in many capacities including as a volunteer with several social service and youth sports organizations and through his church. Throughout his career and retirement, Paul has worked to help solve many community challenges, ranging from gang involvement to health and welfare issues.

Chief Jake Miller

Chief Miller is a 25 year veteran of the Pismo Beach Police Department, and assumed the responsibilities as Chief of Police in 2014. During his career, Jake has also served as an instructor at Allan Hancock College Law Enforcement Academy.

Jake earned his bachelor’s degree at Cal Poly and a certificate in criminal justice from the University of Virginia. He’s also a graduate of the Sherman Block Leadership Institute and the 249th Session of the FBI National Academy.

Amy Taylor

Amy Taylor is a native of the Central Coast, recently returning here after nearly 20 years in Southern California where she worked with special education students. Amy is an insurance broker focusing on Health plans. Amy has a passion for helping those less fortunate and an empathy and understanding for those in times of hardship. In addition to her service with 5CHC, Amy also volunteers serving the homeless with her church.

Richard Van Houten

Richard Van Houten, a resident of Nipomo, brings to the 5CHC Board of Directors an understanding of the needs of those who are homeless and marginalized. A retired information technology director, he has served for more than 20 years as a shelter and food service volunteer at Prado Day Center and the Maxine Lewis Shelter in SLO, and on various committees with SLO United Methodist Church. He was a BSA scoutmaster from 1992 to 2000.

Brad Wilbert

Brad Wilbert is a retired Kern County Sheriff’s Department Commander and has lived in Arroyo Grande since retiring in 2005. He and his wife, Linda, have been married for 42 years, have four children, and eight grandchildren. Brad holds a bachelor of arts degree in Public Policy and Administration from Cal State Bakersfield, and brings to the 5CHC a strong interest in working with others to provide hope, support, and resources to those experiencing or facing homelessness.