Staff & Leadership

Mary’s professional passion is creating great places to work for employees and helping companies thrive.  For 20 years she has held leadership roles in People Operations (HR) at Marriott, Google, Ellie Mae and Zymergen. Her personal passions are her family: her husband and 3 children ages 15, 13 and 11 years old.  She also serves on the board of directors for BACT (Bay Area Children’s Theatre) and is a Pleasanton Parks and Recreation Commissioner.

Elaine has spent her career supporting nonprofits advance equity in the community.  Serving as a strategic partner, she makes finance concepts accessible and actionable, so that teams can have the greatest impact possible. As a parent to three young kids, Elaine believes children deserve every opportunity to succeed and is committed to providing supportive and healthy environments for their early childhood years and beyond.  Elaine graduated from Gordon College in Wenham, MA and lives in the Bay Area with her three kids.  She enjoys spending time with family and working out at the Bar Method Walnut Creek where she is also an instructor.

Mona Attia-Shirk is the Chief Program Officer where she leads CalWORKs and Subsidy program teams and is responsible for ensuring the CalWORKs and Subsidy programs are implemented in accordance with CDSS and Hively’s mission. In this role, Mona also leads case management operations, utilizes data to enhance operational functions and assures regulations and performance standards are met. Mona has worked in the non-profit field for 15 years. She has vast knowledge and experience with programs and services that promote education, collaboration and accuracy.

Mona has experience training, mentoring, and inspiring staff and also has strong connections to the families and community we serve. In Mona’s free time, she enjoys traveling with her family, as well as songwriting and singing.

Maria O. Alvarez is a social entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience designing and building mission-driven programs. An expert in social impact initiatives, content development, audience engagement, communications and marketing, she has dedicated a good part of her career to giving a voice to underserved communities not only in California, but nationwide. She’s passionate about the well-being of families and children, especially young kids. 

In her most recent position, as Vice-President, Mrs. Alvarez created two programs at Common Sense Media, the nation’s leading non-profit offering resources for families, educators and policy makers on how to navigate media and tech safely and responsibly. First, she designed the Common Sense Latino program to respond to the tech and media needs of Latino/x families in the US. Starting from scratch, Common Sense Latino grew in 5+ years to serve 4M+ through its website, an online community of over 100K people over different channels and had a 5M+ reach via syndication partnerships with media outlets. Second, Maria designed the Family and Community Engagement program that built off the learnings of Common Sense Latino to reach and serve other underserved communities.

A proud immigrant from Venezuela, fully bilingual in English and Spanish, Maria believes in the power of storytelling to change the world. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband, two bilingual and bicultural boys, and her mini-Schnauzer, Daisy.

Liz Coyle is the VP of New Ventures at Hively, where she leads the organization’s Innovation Incubator. The Incubator designs and launches creative and meaningful solutions to support families across Alameda County.

Before joining Hively, Liz was the founder and CEO of a social enterprise focused on bringing together support networks. She has more than a decade of experience in consulting and project management, having advised public sector clients on strategy, information system procurements and implementations, and organizational improvement. Before that, she worked in international development, where she specialized in microfinance.

Liz holds degrees from Middlebury College and the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Liz and her husband are currently raising two young sons, a slew of backyard chickens and two colonies of honeybees.

As the Senior Director of People & Culture, Jaci Senczyszyn leads People Operations (HR) and Recruiting. Before starting at Hively, she built out the People and Talent function at a high-growth technology startup for five years, and prior to that was designing amazing experiences for guests and employees at a luxury resort in San Diego. She is passionate about all things People & Talent and strives to create inclusive workplace environments where employees can thrive. As a leader, Jaci values curiosity, transparency, and teamwork. Outside of work, Jaci enjoys traveling, photography and trying new foods!

Sue Denny has been a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) since 2002 and a clinical supervisor and program manager since 2005. She loves working with clients, providing support and supervision to clinicians and other caring professionals, and developing programs that increase access to mental health services.

Sue has worked with a wide variety of clients including teens, couples, school-age mothers, and court-mandated juveniles and adults. She has worked primarily with San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits with some private practice clients.

When she is not working, Sue loves to read and spend time with her husband and their cats. She volunteers with cat rescue groups doing TNR (Trap Neuter and Return) which helps feral cats lead healthier lives. She has recently developed an interest in gardening but needs to stick with plants that are described as “indestructible” – at least for now.

As Director of Clinical Operations, Tricia oversees the administrative functions and operational strategy of our mental health department. She is a strategic thinker who brings nearly a decade of leadership experience in the nonprofit and behavioral health sectors, with a strong background in building robust administrative operations, as well as program development, project management, and fundraising.

She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Colorado and a Master’s in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco. Tricia has extensive experience managing government contracts and navigating the Medi-Cal system of care, with particular expertise in operations and systems-building.

Driven by a commitment to innovation and a growth mindset, she is passionate about expanding access to relevant client-centered mental health services for all. In her spare time, Tricia enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, reading, and discovering new places through travel.