Care for the Homeless logo
Thursday
October 23, 2025
Bohemian National Hall
321 East 73rd Street
New York City

Join us to commemorate 40 years of service

  • Network with business and community leaders, dignitaries, dedicated supporters, and passionate advocates.
  • Celebrate excellence with awards and recognitions honoring the individuals and partners who have shaped our mission and propelled our progress.
  • Engage in an inspiring fireside chat, “The Past, Present, and Future: How CFH is Leading the Fight Against Homelessness,” exploring the evolution of homelessness in New York City and CFH’s transformative role in providing care and shelter to those who need it most.

Program

  • 8:00am – Registration, networking, and morning bites
  • 9:00am – Chef-inspired breakfast and savory & sweet petite treats
  • Program Kick-Off – Dynamic discussions, moving recognitions, and powerful live readings that bring our mission to life
  • 10:30am – Program concludes

Our Program

We are proud to honor extraordinary leaders who have made lasting contributions to our mission, and to host a dynamic panel of thought leaders, experts, and those with lived experience who will share critical insights into the past, present, and future of addressing homelessness. We not only reflect on the progress we've made, but touch on insights into advancing innovative, person-centered solutions that will shape a future where homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring.

2025 Honorees

Katie Devine

Founder & Managing Principal, Prospect Housing Partners

Principal, Rockabill Consulting

Katie Devine is a leader in affordable and supportive housing development, with a career dedicated to expanding access to safe, stable homes for vulnerable populations. As Founder and Managing Principal of Prospect Housing Partners and Principal at Rockabill Consulting, she has guided the creation and financing of transformative housing projects across New York. Her expertise in housing finance and her commitment to building sustainable, mission-driven communities have made her a trusted partner and advocate in the effort to end homelessness.

Katie Devine is a trusted adviser throughout the housing community, committed to helping nonprofit and for-profit clients and partners increase the quality and supply of affordable, supportive, and transitional housing for vulnerable New Yorkers.

Katie has led the development and preservation of over 5,500 units of affordable housing and shelter across several states. She is known for her expertise and creative use of partnership structures and financing tools, including hotel-to-housing conversions, zoning variances, tax incentives, and city-backed financing for the development of nonprofit-owned homeless shelters.

Katie has been recognized for her work by City & State and New York Nonprofit Media, and has been an invited speaker at several conferences and events. She is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and an active member of the Supportive Housing Network of NY, NYSAFAH, and the Women’s Affordable Housing Network. Katie is also the Founder of Prospect Housing Partners.

Bobby Watts, MPH, CPH, MS

Chief Executive Officer

National Health Care for the Homeless Council

Bobby Watts is a nationally recognized leader in the fight to end homelessness and expand access to quality health care for people experiencing housing instability. As Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, he champions policies and programs that advance health equity, dignity, and human rights. With decades of experience in public health and homeless services, Bobby has been a powerful advocate at both the local and national level, working to ensure that every individual has the opportunity to thrive.

Bobby Watts is the chief executive officer of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, which supports the 300 federally funded Health Care For the Homeless programs and 100 Medical Respite providers with training, technical assistance, sharing of best practices, research, publications, and an active policy and advocacy program working to eliminate homelessness.

Bobby has 30 years of experience in administration, direct service, and implementation of homeless health services, beginning as a live-in counselor at the New York City Rescue Mission. He spent most of his career prior to joining the Council at Care for the Homeless, which operates clinics, shelters, and conducts policy analysis and advocacy in New York City, beginning as an intern, and serving as the executive director from 2005-2017. Under his tenure, the Federally Qualified Health Center agency tripled in size, adding major programs and initiatives –including constructing and operating a shelter for 200 mentally ill and medically frail women –and becoming licensed as a Diagnostic and Treatment Center in New York State.

He has served on numerous boards, government-appointed task forces, and workgroups including serving as the finance officer for the NYC HIV Health and Human Services Planning Council, on the NYS DOH Medicaid Redesign Team’s Affordable Housing Workgroup and Value-Based Payment Workgroup on CBOs and Social Determinants of Health, and as an inaugural member of the NYS Interagency Council on Homelessness, where he co-chaired its Health Committee.

In February 2021, he was appointed as a member of the Biden-Harris Administration’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.

He is a graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, from which he holds a master of public health degree in health administration and a master of science degree in epidemiology. He also earned a Certificate of Theological Studies from Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, NY.

Panel: The Past, Present and Future of our Mission

Moderated by Emmy® Award-winning journalist, Michael Gargiulo, Anchor, NBC 4 New York, our panel will bring together expert voices to explore the impact Care For the Homeless has made over the past four decades. The discussion will examine the past and current state of homelessness, the challenges ahead, and how our mission continues to drive meaningful change as we look toward a future where everyone has access to health care, shelter, and the opportunity to thrive.

This timely conversation will bring together diverse voices to explore homelessness through a multi-dimensional lens:

  • The Past: Understanding the systemic and historical drivers.

  • The Present: Examining current realities and challenges.

  • The Future: Envisioning solutions, policies, and innovations.

  • Lived Experience: Centering the voices of those who know the journey first-hand.

Michael Gargiulo

Anchor

NBC 4 New York

Panel Moderator

We are honored to have Michael Gargiulo, Anchor, NBC 4 New York as moderator of this year’s panel discussion. As a trusted journalist, Michael has spent decades reporting on the issues that shape our city and its people. His deep commitment to community storytelling and his ability to engage in thoughtful, impactful conversations make him the perfect guide for this important discussion.

Michael Gargiulo, Anchor, NBC 4 New York, is an Emmy® Award-winning journalist.

A native of Manhattan, New York, Gargiulo grew up just blocks away from WNBC’s studios at Rockefeller Center. He began his career at WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia then moved to WYOU in Scranton, WLKY in Louisville, KSTP in Minneapolis, Hearst Argyle Washington Bureau, and WTTG in Washington before coming home to New York at WNBC in 2006.

Gargiulo has covered many of Tri-State’s most memorable stories including Breezy Point and Queens after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. He has a special interest in military affairs, he reported on the Ukrainian/Polish border in the effort to aid refugees after the Russian invasion. He previously earned an Emmy® Award for his reporting from Iraq and Kuwait and was one of the last reporters to be embedded with a U.S. military unit in Afghanistan before the end of combat operations.

Gargiulo’s anchoring was a key component of NBC 4 New York’s award-winning COVID-19 coverage, honored in January 2021 with the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for “creat(ing) a 360 view in real time of the coronavirus pandemic, with courageous and thorough reporting on the virus’s explosion in New York City.” The duPont has long been recognized as the broadcast, documentary, and on-line equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, also awarded by Columbia University.

Gargiulo is a proud graduate of New York University and Xavier High School and enjoys mentoring young journalists throughout the region. He also leads the New York chapter of the RIAS Berlin Commission; an international journalist exchange program.

Gargiulo lives in Westchester with his wife and two children.

George Nashak

President and CEO

Care For the Homeless

Panelist

George Nashak joined Care For the Homeless (CFH) as President & CEO in October of 2017. He came to CFH from HELP USA, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer over the organization’s $100 million portfolio of housing and supportive services for people experiencing homelessness. Before joining HELP USA in 2012, George spent 8 years at the NYC Department of Homeless Services. He began as the Assistant Commissioner for Housing and Program Planning and worked on the New York/New York III Agreement. Later, as Deputy Commissioner for Adult Services, he oversaw the single adult shelter system, street homelessness programs, and the re-housing of homeless adults’ services. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.

Bobby Watts, MPH, CPH, MS

Chief Executive Officer

National Health Care for the Homeless Council

Panelist

Bobby Watts is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, which supports more than 300 federally funded Health Care for the Homeless programs and over 100 medical respite providers nationwide. He brings more than 30 years of experience in homeless health care, beginning as a live-in counselor and later serving as Executive Director of Care For the Homeless in New York City, where he led the organization’s major growth and innovation for over a decade. A respected national advocate, Bobby has served on numerous boards, government task forces, and advisory councils, including the Biden-Harris Administration’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. He holds degrees from Cornell University and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, as well as a Certificate of Theological Studies from Alliance Theological Seminary.

Jonathan Santos-Ramos

Chief Program Officer

Care For the Homeless

Panelist

Mr. Santos-Ramos brings decades of experience working with and delivering services to those who are homeless or living on the streets. Before joining Care For the Homelesss, he served as interim executive director at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, a global leader in LGBTQ health care. Prior to that, he served in several other senior roles, including senior director, organizational planning and sustainability, and director of community engagement and strategic initiatives. He has also held management positions at Community Healthcare Network and the New York City Department of Health.

Meet your Emcee

Adriana Trigiani

New York Times

Bestselling Author

Emcee

We are thrilled to welcome Adriana Trigiani as the event Emcee. A beloved storyteller and New York Times bestselling author, Adriana’s novels have been cherished by readers worldwide for their warmth, wit, and humanity. In addition to her literary success, she is a celebrated playwright, filmmaker, and passionate advocate for community causes. Adriana will bring her signature energy and heart to guiding us through this unforgettable event.

Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Good Left Undone, The Shoemaker's Wife and Lucia, Lucia. Her work has been published in thirty-eight languages around the world. An award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker, Trigiani wrote and directed the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, adapted her novel, Very Valentine, for television, and directed the award-winning documentary, Queens of the Big Time, among others. Adriana hosts the hit podcast, You Are What You Read, where she interviews authors and luminaries about the books that built their souls. In 2023, Adriana was named Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia by President Sergio Mattarella of Italy, and in 2024, the Library of Virginia awarded her the Patron of Letters degree, their highest honor. She also holds honorary degrees from Saint Mary’s College and the University of New Haven. Adriana is co-founder of the Origin Project, a year-round, in-school writing program that has served over 25,000 students since its inception in 2014. Trigiani is honored to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family.

Thank You to Our Community Partner

Mastercard is a proud sponsor of Care For the Homeless.