Generation Housing Board

Peter Rumble serves as CEO of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber. Peter brings a breadth of experience in the public and private sectors to his leadership on critical issues such as housing, workforce development, advocacy, tourism promotion, and downtown revitalization. Peter’s team has expanded the organization’s career development programs in local schools, launched an employer-sponsored child care initiative, established an employers housing council to invest in workforce housing, and created new programs to support small business growth in Sonoma County.

Ali is responsible for the oversight of MidPen’s North Bay regional real estate development office. With over 15 years of experience in Affordable Housing, she has contributed to the development and rehabilitation of over 1,000 affordable homes for families and seniors in California. Ali supervises her team in all aspects of development including the entitlement process, financing, deal structuring, design, construction, and closeout. She works closely not only with her team at MidPen but also with stakeholders including financial partners, local jurisdictions and community members. Ali joined MidPen after 8 years with BRIDGE Housing Corporation, where she served most recently as Director of Development in Northern California. Ali helped launch the Emerging Leaders Peer Network, a network of affordable housing practitioners of all disciplines, and served on the Steering Committee for four years. Ali received a B.A. in Economics from Michigan State University.

Michael Allen was born and raised in Los Angeles by his Latina mother who immigrated to the United States after she married an American mining company attorney. When his mother was widowed when he was just 6 years old, Michael learned first-hand the value of hard work as his mother raised him on her own and worked as a seamstress to support them.

He began his career initially working at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles; then after moving to Northern California he worked as a psychiatric nurse for the Sonoma County Crisis Clinic. Michael later put himself through law school and joined the Sierra Club Legal Defense Team on the Warm Springs Dam initiative before ultimately finding his calling as a negotiator, mediator, and consensus builder at the Sonoma County Organization of Public Employees.

As Executive Director of the Service Employees International Union Local 707, Michael worked to resolve labor disputes, create local jobs, and protect working families. Michael is also a respected labor and employment law attorney and served nine terms as the President of the AFL-CIO North Bay Labor Council. In 2006, State Senator Patricia Wiggins asked Michael to accept the position of District Director for her five regional offices that serve over 880,000 constituents. Michael worked for the California State Senate resolving constituent and community issues in the greater North Bay area until 2010.

Michael’s work in the community is just as extensive as his professional work. In the 1980s, Michael helped establish the Sonoma County Day Care Center, which still serves the community today. In 1992, Michael negotiated an innovative and groundbreaking housing benefit for Sonoma County workers that helped hundreds of North Bay families to realize their housing dreams. Michael previously served on the Santa Rosa Planning Commission and as Chair of the SMART Train Citizens Oversight Committee, working to create a more sustainable economy through this groundbreaking transportation project.

Michael is also a founding member of Solar Sonoma, a coalition of community leaders and private sector organizations that promotes development of alternative energy sources and reductions in fossil fuel dependency and green house gas emissions. Allen continues to advocate for green job creation as a creative means to jumpstart California’s economy.

Elected to the State Assembly in November 2010, Michael was appointed to serve as the Assistant Majority Leader shortly thereafter. Since then, he has worked to improve safety at our state hospitals, help working families, and create local jobs. After serving in the Assembly he was appointed to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (CUIAB) by the Assembly Speaker Perez in January 2013. Governor Newsom reappointed Michael to CUIAB in July 2020.

Keith Rogal’s career has focused on the recycling of blighted, contaminated, or obsolete land and buildings into environmentally-responsible residential, mixed-use and community development projects. His projects have been widely recognized for their design and planning excellence, including receiving several National Honor Awards from American Institute of Architects as well as the Charter Award from Congress for the New Urbanism. His current works includes the redevelopment of a 160-acre brownfield into a large-scale urban village on the Napa River, now approved for a complete, walkable community of several thousand people, and planned mid-rise residential development in the core of Santa Rosa.

Harman Singh Dhillon was born and raised in Punjab, and migrated to the U.S with his dad at the age of 8. After settling, he grew up in Santa Rosa. Harman attended Cardinal Newman High school and got his bachelor’s in business accounting from the University of Francisco. After graduating, he quickly started taking leadership in their family business, and through that, he has found a passion for impacting people positively every day. Growing up in Sonoma County, Harman noticed the urgent need to support families in our city’s housing crisis. Being in local businessman, Harman knows how tough it is to find staffing. One the main reasons for that is, housing.

When Harman isn’t at work, you will likely find him playing basketball and spending time with the people he loves.

She has worked for more than 15 years in planning, health, and public policy implementation for federal government and local jurisdictions in Mexico and the United States, as well as international consultant and researcher. She loves good food, dancing, time with friends, time with her partner, Carson, and her cat, Nash. Beatriz is a proud Mexican woman, born and raised in Mexico City.

As vice president of industry relations for the Napa Valley Vintners, Rex Stults oversees the association’s work on wine industry issues, from protecting the Napa Valley name worldwide to furthering the region’s commitment to the preservation of agriculture.

Rex was CEO of the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce before joining the NVV in 2006. He is highly active in the community, including serving on the City of Napa Parks and Recreation Commission and the boards of Free the Grapes! and Friends of the Napa River.

Rex is a graduate of Washington State University.

The Diaz family of Sonoma County traces its roots to the small town of Santa Gertrudis, in  the state of Oaxaca. Mexico. Octavio Diaz. The oldest of the seven siblings, moved from Oaxaca to Rohnert Park at age thirteen to live with aunt and uncle to study English. With a love for cooking instilled by his mother, his job in Rohnert Park hotel restaurant helped him find his passion for the food & beverage business and the culinary arts.

Today, the family enterprises now include 6 food-related businesses including the Two Agaves one in Healdsburg and second in Oakland Agave Uptown, El Gallo Negro in Windsor, Casa De Mole in Healdsburg and Mitote Food Park in the heart of Roseland in Santa Rosa.

Many of Octavio Diaz immediate family members have also immigrated to Sonoma County, making their success a family affair. Between the market and the five restaurants, the Diaz family employs more the 150 people in Sonoma County and 42 people in Oakland.
This family has provided a powerful example of success though hard work, family solidarity, and outreach to the community. The family maintains a continuing connection with Santa Gertrudis, a community with high levels of poverty and illiteracy. The Diaz family finds meaningful ways to give back to both of its communities: Sonoma County. Oakland and their hometown of Santa Gertrudis in Mexico.

The opportunity to open a second location of Notre Mere Inc, DBA: Mitote Food Park 2, is to serve a diversity of clientele, a multi-purpose community hub and outdoor dinning experience for social impact provides the Diaz family with the opportunity to continue to build their tradition of combining culinary innovation, building bridges of the community by donating food to community events, backing local fundraising effort, and creating incentives for its customers to engage with Mitote Food Park in the support of community for social impact.

The Diaz family has lived in Sonoma County for three decades operating for successful businesses: Agave Healdsburg, Agave Uptown Oakland, Casa De Mole, Healdsburg, El Gallo Negro, Windsor, El Falorito in Healdsburg, Mitote Food Park in Roseland. Each of these operations is on sound financial footing and operating successfully in the black.

The Diaz family will apply the same business acumen and “can-do” spirit to scale up the success of Mitote Food Park 2 at pier 30-32 in San Francisco.

Mitote means two things the place where you talk BS or the place where ideas are created to make them reality. The Nahuatl people in Mexico danced around fires to sing and dance in a circle to come up with better ideas or share best practices.

Lauren joined Burbank Housing in 2017 as the Director of Resident Services and was charged with developing a now thriving department. In this role she leads a resident services team responsible for the delivery of programs and services that support the housing stability and wellbeing of Burbank Housing’s 3500+ residents.

Lauren’s past experience developing and evaluating programs as well as the strong working relationships she has with many of our County’s leading service agencies, has been in an invaluable contribution to the organization. Her knowledge and awareness of theories including Social Determinants of Health and Equity Gaps combined with a passion for improving systems at the upstream level has deepened the understanding of the importance of the resident services department as well as led to a deeper impact among those served. Most recently, Lauren has taken a leadership role in equipping Burbank Housing, and the broader community, with how to best implement Housing First practices within the complexities of operationalizing Permanent Supportive Housing.

At Burbank Housing, Lauren chairs the Board of Directors sub-committee focusing on Community Engagement & Advocacy. Externally, Lauren is on the Non-Profit Housing “Best Practices in Permanent Supportive Housing” coalition, and was recently appointed to the Sonoma County Coordinated Entry Advisory Committee as well as the Sonoma County Coordinated Entry’s (CE) Assessment and Prioritization Redesign Working Group. Locally, she is a graduate of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber’s Leadership Santa Rosa Program. She is a Sonoma County native who earned her BA in Human Services from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Currently, she is pursuing a Graduate Degree in Organizational Leadership with a focus on Innovation and Change from the University of Pacific. Most significantly, Lauren brings a passion for making Sonoma County a thriving community for all of its residents.

Joti is deeply rooted in the Sonoma County community and has served on several nonprofit boards, including four years on the Wednesday Night Market Board of Directors. He was also the recipient of the Under Forty Award in 2017. When Joti is not working, he is biking or spending time with his children.