Calia Kammer
Calia Kammer has spent a number of years working with people experiencing homelessness, including directly in encampments, in maternal health, and in transitional homes for families. She has lived in Catholic Worker houses of hospitality in San Jose and Jalisco, Mexico. She currently lives in Santa Cruz, where she enjoys riding bikes, making soup to share, and planting unsolicited gardens.
Mel Defe
Mel Defe currently serves as the secretary for the Board of SCBR. She has lived in Northern/Central California since the 1960's, and has worked in several leadership positions in high tech companies and higher education. She and her business partner were early adopters of starting and managing farmers' markets in the South Bay. Her belief that everyone deserves to eat fresh picked, organic produce directly from the source led to 25 years of operating markets. One of her favorite career opportunities was the position as director of a Santa Cruz maternity home for unhoused pregnant women. She believes that all people regardless of circumstance deserve a safe, nurturing space to call home.
David Decosse
David DeCosse, the Treasurer of Bread and Roses Catholic Worker House, has lived in Santa Cruz since 2008 and is a parishioner at Holy Cross Church. He has been a friend of the Catholic Worker movement for years. In particular, since 2014 he has spent substantial time living and working with the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community and at their residence in Boyle Heights and at their soup kitchen (known as the Hippie Kitchen) on Skid Row. Since 2002 he has worked at Santa Clara University, where he is on the staff of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and teaches in the Religious Studies Department. He has written and edited numerous works on Catholic social thought. When he's not hanging out with Calia and Jo and the Bread and Roses team, he loves swimming and bicycling and jazz and the Golden State Warriors.
Interested in joining the community?
Contact us for a chat! We have needs for one-time, temporary, and permanent Movement Workers.