Cathleen’s passion is serving and advocating for individuals reentering the community after incarceration, as well as the homeless and under-served population. Cathleen has worked in law and advocacy throughout the past 35 years. In 2014, she became the Director of the Partners Reentry Center, a community-based walk-in reentry center in Anchorage, Alaska that provided timely pre- and post-release reentry services to vulnerable individuals who would otherwise release to homelessness. The Partners Reentry Center served over 8,400 reentrants with the goal of providing cost-effective reentrant-centered services in a respectful and positive way.

Cathleen’s experiences at Partners Reentry Center inspired her to open Restorative and Reentry Services, LLC (“RRS”) in 2016, which was created to provide guidance to communities around the United States that seek to create their own community-based reentry programs.

In April of 2020 during the COVID pandemic, RRS was hired to manage the emergency homeless shelter at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage for the operator, Beans Cafe. For a time during the height of the pandemic, it was the largest congregate shelter in the United States with over 400 residents. During that time, Cathleen initiated the “Shelter to Success” program (among others) to incentivize clients to earn their way out of the shelter and into progressively higher-level housing, together with accountability elements to make sure the program was not abused. At its peak, the Sullivan Arena emergency shelter and the Shelter to Success room program housed about 700 clients.

In March of 2023, RRS was hired by the Municipality of Anchorage to provide oversight of the Sullivan Arena emergency shelter and two hotels providing rooms for overflow in preparation for their expected closing. RRS is also advising about homeless policy going forward after closure of the Sullivan Arena and the two remaining hotels currently housing otherwise homeless individuals.

Cathleen received both her law degree and her MBA from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in History/Political Science from the University of Montana.

Dr. Gross has more than 20 years of experience as a practicing physician. More recently she works on projects involving system strategy and innovation, community collaboration, and program development, implementation and evaluation, particularly for individuals experiencing homelessness. Monica believes passionately that “solving homelessness” requires simultaneously balancing service and advocacy for individuals in real time with effecting system change that is informed by this real time action and continuous learning. She joined Cathleen at Restorative and Reentry Services, LLC in 2023.

Dr. Gross received a medical degree from the University of Washington Medical School, completed her pediatric residency at the University of Michigan and has a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles.