In this episode of Doing What Works: Innovations in Homeless Services, host Ashanti Blaze Hopkins speaks with Dr. Nancy Greenstein, a long-serving board trustee at Santa Monica College and a passionate advocate for marginalized communities. Dr. Greenstein shares how her education and social work background, including early experiences teaching in a Navajo Nation community, shaped her perspective on social disparities and inspired her lifelong commitment to social justice.

The conversation focuses on the launch of Santa Monica College's new Homeless Services Program, launched in Fall 2024. Dr. Greenstein explains how the program emerged from years of discussions with industry professionals and highlights its goal to provide standardized training and career advancement opportunities for those working in the homeless services sector. She emphasizes the program’s potential to fill workforce gaps, improve service delivery, and create career pathways for students.

Dr. Greenstein also expresses excitement about the program’s first cohort, emphasizing the diversity of its students and the program’s long-term goals of expanding to other community colleges. The episode concludes with her vision for the program's future, including potential expansions into degrees in social work and collaborations with municipalities and agencies to address homelessness at a larger scale.