Heidi Schultheis is Heartland Alliance’s Senior Project Manager for Field-Building and is one of the newest members of the Research & Policy team. Her passion for her work derives from her experiences with working with families who are unstably housed and her desire to end the systems that perpetuate poverty, homelessness and racism. She is foodie, politico, and native Californian and we are so excited to have her on our team. Meet Heidi!
Share a Little About Yourself!
I grew up in Southern California, which is where I developed a love of the beach and Mexican food. I’ve been living in Washington, D.C. for almost 15 years, which is several lifetimes by D.C. standards! Before coming to Heartland Alliance, I was a Senior Policy Analyst at Center for American Progress, where I was on the poverty policy team, which worked on everything from housing and Medicaid to SNAP and tax credits; it was an incredible learning experience for me. Several years prior to that, I worked at a local D.C. nonprofit homeless services provider called Community of Hope, where I worked directly with families experiencing homelessness during the Great Recession. That experience, and those families, left a strong impression on me that will always inform my work.
What brought you to Heartland Alliance?
I was looking for a way to bridge the divide between two experiences I had at opposite ends of the public policy spectrum: at one point I had worked directly with families experiencing homelessness, and later I worked on national-level policy at a progressive think-tank. I liked both of those very different types of work, but I hoped I could find something in between the two. When I saw the National Initiatives job posting for a position in field-building with the National Center on Employment and Homelessness, it seemed like a great in-between. Providing technical assistance around systems collaboration and coordination efforts directly in communities all across the country seemed like a uniquely fulfilling way to draw on my direct services experience in homelessness while also understanding how the work that happens in localities can and should shape national policies. Plus, my friends from Chicago couldn’t say enough good things about Heartland Alliance, so I knew I should pursue this opportunity.
What was the driving force behind going into public policy work? Why is that part of non-profit work so important?
In 2009 I accepted a position with a local D.C. nonprofit homeless services provider. My job was to meet and talk with families living in shelters and transitional housing programs, to see if a housing intervention called rapid re-housing would meet their needs. The sense of urgency and fear among these families was exacerbated by the crumbling economy of the Great Recession. My work with these families, followed by my studies in graduate school and my more recent work at a think tank, all reinforce that homelessness is primarily caused by economic forces, structural racism, and failed systems. Working at a think tank helped me become familiar with policy proposals that would reduce and ultimately end homelessness. I think this is why public policy work is so important to me: we know what it would take to end homelessness – spoiler alert: a huge part of the solution is housing and especially a lot more affordable homes. Too often, homelessness is described as either a result of failure of personal responsibility, or just an intractable problem. It is neither, and the research proves it. We have to build political will around proven solutions, and localities are often a great place to do the really important work that will help build that buy-in.
When did you know that you were in the place you needed to be?
There wasn’t one specific point in time that I knew this. Instead, there have been lots of little moments and I think there will be a lot more of them in the months and years to come. But I do know that the National Initiatives team is outstanding and I’m very, very fortunate to be a part of it. I love that my team, and the entire Research and Policy department, is always striving to do better – working on things like improving team culture and becoming more inclusive and anti-racist. I also love that there is a lot of variety in the work we do and the communities we work with – it keeps us on our toes!
What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
I love cooking and trying new foods, watching documentaries, and I consume a lot of political news because I’m a politics junkie and for a long time I thought I would have a career in journalism. I also try to make it back to Southern California, where my family is, as often as possible.
Who Inspires You?
Lots of people inspire me, but there is one person who I really strive to be more like, and that is my friend Jessie who I met when we both worked at a newspaper in Southern California. She is deeply committed to her work in human rights and international justice, including work on criminal justice reform and human trafficking. She also teaches undergraduate students and she is a lifelong academic, always seeking out new learning opportunities. She really lives her values in a way I admire, but never forces her ideas or opinions on other people. Plus, she’s got a killer sense of style and a great sense of humor.
