Doreen Thomann-Howe

Chief Executive Officer

Doreen brings more than two decades of nonprofit leadership to YAI, spanning social services, public administration, and healthcare operations. Across her career, she has worked directly with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and has piloted and scaled interventions for similar populations within large systems.

Most recently, she served as Chief Executive Officer of the American Red Cross Greater New York Region, directing the organization’s largest and most complex regional footprint in the country. Before that, she was Chief Operating Officer at Project Renewal, where she oversaw daily operations across Federally Qualified Health Centers, supportive housing, and shelter networks, and moved the agency to a performance-based model that made it the highest-performing provider for shelter exits among 35 agencies in the New York City shelter system. Doreen also spent seven years with the New York City Department of Homeless Services, where, as Deputy Commissioner of Family Services, she directed the world’s largest shelter system for families with children. At the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, she co-led a citywide initiative to help people with serious mental illness stay in care. Earlier in her career, she held clinical and programming leadership roles at Vocational Instruction Project Community Services and Harlem United.

Doreen is a licensed clinical social worker. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the City College of New York and a Master of Social Work from New York University.