Board of Directors

Andy Besser has been actively involved in the field of addiction treatment for the past 10 years. After retiring from a 25-year career as a medical malpractice litigation attorney, Andy went back to school to earn a certification as an addiction counselor. Andy founded and operates a nonprofit intensive outpatient treatment program, and has volunteered as an addiction counselor for a Los Angeles based nonprofit addiction treatment center. He also is the Chief Financial Officer of the Burstein Company, a management and production company that represents actors, writers and directors of film, television, theatre and new media. In addition, he serves as a volunteer case evaluator for the California State Bar’s Lawyers Assistance Program, and he was appointed to a four-year term on the program’s Executive Oversight Committee. After graduating with a B.S. degree in Animal Behavior from Bucknell University, Andy earned his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School. He also received a certification in Drug, Alcohol and Addiction Counseling from UCLA. Andy has been actively involved in Alcoholics Anonymous over the past two decades. He first learned about CLARE Foundation more than 15 years ago when he spoke on an Alcoholics Anonymous panel. He also serves on the board of Beit T’Shuvah, a nonprofit organization devoted to addiction treatment. Andy and his wife, Joannie, are parents of two children, Jordan and Carly.

James C. Birch is the Founder and Chief Strategic Officer of Cloud Cover Music, a streaming music service for business locations. He successfully navigated the maze of industry and Internet licensing regulations to create an innovative business model, delivering legal music to stores using a proprietary software platform. The company is considered the industry leader for cloud-based music, serving enterprise clients.

Prior to working in the music industry, James worked for 25 years as a video-based corporate communications specialist for advertising agencies and major corporations. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Occidental College and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School, specializing in Consumer Behavior.

James currently serves as Treasurer of the Board for CLARE|MATRIX. He and his wife, Gail, reside in Santa Monica Canyon.

Susan Burton is a leader in the criminal justice reform movement and is an outspoken voice to end mass incarceration.  Following the tragic accidental death of her five-year-old son, Susan’s world collapsed.  Her loss snapped the final tether of resilience burdened by a past of pain and trauma.  She descended into an emotional abyss of darkness and despair, and living in South Los Angeles, Susan didn’t have access to the resources she needed to heal.  Without support, she turned to drugs and alcohol, which led to nearly 20 years revolving in and out of prison.

Drawing on her personal experiences, Susan founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) in 1998, dedicating her life to helping other women break the cycle of incarceration. ANWOL provides resources such as housing, case management, employment, legal services, leadership development and community organizing on behalf of, and with, people who struggle to rebuild their lives after incarceration.

Susan has earned numerous awards and honors for her work. In 2010, she was named a CNN Top Ten Hero and received the prestigious Citizen Activist Award from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is a recipient of both the Encore Purpose Prize (2012) and the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award (2014). In 2015, on the 50th Anniversary of Selma and the Voting Rights Act, Susan Burton was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of 18 New Civil Rights Leaders in the nation.  Released in 2017, her memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton, received a 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in the category of Biography/Autobiography. Becoming Ms. Burton is also the recipient of the inaugural Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice.  Susan holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from California State University, Northridge.

Jay Carson was born in Macon, Georgia. He attended public schools through high school and graduated from Columbia University. He spent almost fifteen years in government and politics, having worked for Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Bill Bradley, Senator Tom Daschle, Governor Howard Dean, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and both of the Clintons. He was the Press Secretary for Senator Daschle in the United States Senate and for Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, in 2008. Jay served as the Communications Director for President Bill Clinton. He was also the Chief Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Jay’s last “real” job was running a city-based climate change organization for Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Carson began his transition to screenwriting as a consultant and Supervising Producer on Netflix’s first show, HOUSE OF CARDS, for which he was nominated for two Emmy Awards. He is the creator of Apple+’s first show, THE MORNING SHOW. Jay co-wrote the feature film, THE FRONT RUNNER, with Matt Bai and Jason Reitman; which starred Hugh Jackman. He has been a writer/producer on the Ryan Murphy American Crime Story series, KATRINA; he co-wrote (with Matt Bai) the FINDING CHANDRA limited series, which was developed at FX; he wrote and sold to HBO and then USA, the pilot for THE FALLING MAN television series; and he co-wrote (with Matt Bai) the feature STEVEN V. GOLIATH (produced by Scott-Free).

Jay lives in Topanga, California with his wife and four children.

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Debora Feinberg serves on the CLARE|MATRIX board with a personal connection to recovery and a passion for volunteerism. Her previous volunteer activities include working for a suicide hotline and leading grief groups for adults and children for a local grief support agency.

A Los Angeles native, Debora attended United States International University in San Diego and Mills College in Oakland. She went on to pursue a professional career in advertising, product development and commercial real estate.

Debora and her husband reside in Pacific Palisades, where they reared their three sons.

Mark Freund is a Southern California native who graduated from UC San Diego, where he studied film and earned a B.A. degree in Communications. His love for science fiction movies and books led him to work as a visual effects artist and supervisor in the motion picture industry. He has worked on such films as Star Wars, The Matrix Reloaded, X-Men: The Last Stand, and nearly 100 other notable feature films. He is a member of the Visual Effects Society and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Now retired, Mark enjoys traveling by bicycle and giving back in meaningful ways. He has a longstanding involvement with Deaf West Theatre, and he continues working with the hearing impaired in recovery. He also regularly reads to children at local libraries.

Mark and his wife, Trice, are longtime supporters of CLARE Foundation. Mark has served on CLARE Foundation’s board committees since 2012, and he also spent more than a decade working as a volunteer for the Matrix Institute on Addictions.

Since its merger, CLARE|MATRIX has enabled Mark to continue his enthusiastic service for an organization with a mission of saving lives through recovery.

Dr. Christine Grella is Professor-in-Residence for the Semel Institute/Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, and she also is the Director of the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs. She received her doctorate in Social Psychology from UC Santa Cruz and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA.

Christine has more than 30 years of experience conducting research on substance use among youth and adults. Her research has examined service access, utilization and outcomes of participation in multiple service delivery systems, including substance use disorder treatment, mental health, child welfare, health services and criminal justice. She has led several longitudinal cohort studies, conducted more than a dozen evaluation studies of treatment interventions for individuals with substance use and/or mental health disorders, and conducted epidemiological studies using national survey data on treatment need and utilization.

Christine’s research has made significant contributions to the understanding of gender differences in treatment utilization and outcomes and the longitudinal trajectories and health outcomes of individuals with substance use disorders, particularly those with opioid use disorders. Christine is a reviewer for the National Institute of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse, and she serves on several advisory boards for community organizations and foundations.

Van Hohman was born and raised on the westside of Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s. An alumnus of SciARC, he began practicing architecture in 1987 and became a partner at FBH Architects in Santa Monica, specializing in custom homes and affordable housing. After the recession, he wanted to make his services available to all and started the business, “The Architect Next Door” in 2010 where clients, including those unable to pay, could benefit from his services.  After completing his own program at the former Matrix Institute on Addictions, Van began his journey as an alumnus of our program as a peer support assistant for the next 8 years, volunteering once a week to sit in on Relapse Prevention Meetings to offer clients hope as they navigated their own paths to recovery. He insists that the combination of the Matrix Model and his involvement in 12 step recovery is why he enjoys a life of sobriety with his wife of 28 years, Susan, a partner at Deloitte and their two children Nathan, a professional musician and music teacher, and Olivia, a junior at Arete Preparatory Academy in West Los Angeles. Van’s journey as an alumnus of one of our programs to sitting on the Board of Directors truly embodies our mission to strengthen individuals and communities through the work we do.

Stanley Janowiak is the Senior Vice President at Morgan Stanley & Co. He joined their team in November 2008 and is a partner with the Monroe Harbor Group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Before his tenure at Morgan Stanley, he served in the Global Private Client Group of Merrill Lynch since 1995.

Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, he was an Account Executive for Rodman & Renshaw Capital Group in Chicago. Over the past 25 years, he has worked in investment consulting and private banking services.

Stanley holds a B.S. in Business Administration from DePaul University. He and his wife, Jennifer have two children.

Carl Lisberger is a land use associate at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.  There, he advises clients on financing, development potential and zoning, as well as the entitlements process for hotel, housing, educational and renewable energy projects.

Carl was born and raised in Santa Monica and attended Santa Monica public schools.  He is also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Law School

Melissa Sandoval is in-house counsel at SoCalGas. She joined the SoCalGas team in September 2020, and is Senior Counsel with the litigation group. Prior to joining SoCalGas, she served as in-house trial counsel for Union Pacific Railroad. Before joining Union Pacific Railroad, Melissa was an Associate Attorney for Randolph, Cregger & Chalfant, LLP, a Sacramento-based defense firm representing railroads and public entities.

Law is a second career for Melissa. She began her professional work as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in New York City and Northern California, where she provided school-based and in-home services to families and children. She worked full-time as Clinical Supervisor at Victor Community Support Services (VCSS) while attending law school, and finished her clinical career as Assistant Director of Business and Program Development and HIPAA Compliance and Privacy Officer at VCSS.

Melissa holds a B.S. in Family Studies from University of Arizona, a M.S.W. from New York University, and a J.D. from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in California and Nevada. She is a die-hard college basketball fan, and enjoys running and biking in her spare time.