Our People

Laura Bent serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Samaritan House. She previously served as the Chief Operations Officer for Samaritan House. She is a retired executive of the YMCA movement and currently working on a Master’s in Business Administration with a specialized focus on Non Profit Administration. She has a 28 year career as a Non Profit Professional and has been volunteering in a variety of levels for over 20 years. She currently serves as the Treasurer on the Board of the San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce; is a founding board member of The EDGE (Economic Development and Growth Enterprise) for the City of San Mateo; Immediate Past President of Leadership San Mateo, Foster City, Burlingame and Foster City; Current Co-Vice President of Fund Development for the Highlands Elementary School in San Mateo. She is a Former Board Member and 12 year Rotarian with the San Mateo Rotary Club; a Former Board member of THRIVE (the non-profit Alliance of San Mateo County). In addition, she also volunteers her time to support various community events at both the County and local City levels as well as with the San Mateo Little League. She currently resides in San Mateo with her husband and two sons and lives by the philosophy that each person should “Be the Change they wish to see in this world.”

Jolie Bou leads the Finance/Accounting team at Samaritan House and has been Chief Financial Officer since September 2005. She’s passionate about having positive synergy between finance and developments departments. Her responsibilities also include Information Technology and risk management. Prior to joining the Samaritan House team, she was the Executive Director for the Women’s Recovery Association in Burlingame and was previously their Director of Finance for 10 years.

Jolie’s career began in accounting and her nonprofit work goes back more than 35 years with experience and expertise in wide range of key areas including finance, accounting, strategy, development, human resources and capacity building. In addition, Jolie has participated in several distinct national and local organizational learning collaboratives such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s national collaborative, “Paths to Recovery”. These initiatives focused on process improvement, infrastructure capacity, outcomes, and learning from peer organizations.

Connie Gershaneck, PHR is Director of Human Resources at Samaritan House. Connie has been with the organization since 2011. Prior to joining Samaritan House, she served as Administrative Services Director at the Peninsula Family YMCA (YMCA of San Francisco) for 14 years. Connie attended San Francisco State University with studies in Industrial Psychology.

Connie takes pride in working for an organization whose mission is to provide hope and opportunity for the underserved. As a Certified Professional in Human Resources since 2009, it’s her goal to ensure supportive working environments for the Samaritan House team. Connie has been a coastal resident with her husband for over 30 years and is an ardent fan of all things Hawaii and Christmas.

Jessica Mitchell has been with Samaritan House since 2014 and is currently its Director of Development & Communications. She is passionate about Samaritan House’s mission and connecting people with meaningful opportunities to help our neighbors in need.

Jessica’s career in Development and Communications spans 13 years and includes fundraising on behalf of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco and the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York City. A retired dancer herself, performances are now limited to her living room where she boogies with her husband and toddler, as their lazy pit bull passes judgment from the sofa.

Jessica graduated summa cum laude from Kent State University where she earned a BA in Organizational Communication and minored in Sociology and Dance.

Dr. Baldeep Singh, MD is a Clinical Professor and the former Clinical Chief for Internal Medicine in the division of Primary Care and Population Health, at Stanford. He is a local kid from the South Bay, who attended Stanford as an undergraduate, and Northwestern for medical school. Following residency at UCLA, he spent two years in the National Health Service Corps in the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Northeast Valley Health Corp., primarily serving the working poor and homeless populations, before returning to UCLA to join the faculty. At UCLA, he served as Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Program, medical director of one of the faculty practices, and also led the resident combined ambulatory continuity clinic for UCLA and Venice Family Clinic, which is one of the largest Free Clinics in the country. In 2009, he moved to be closer to family. Until recently, he led the Stanford Internal Medicine faculty practice as well as the Internal Medicine resident outpatient continuity clinic. He was recently a Board member at MayView Health Center in Mountain View, and has been the Co-Director of the Pacific Free Clinic at Stanford since 2010. His career has focused on underserved care, global health (Ecuador and Kenya), health care delivery, and medical education.
He is married with two adult sons, and loves travel, crosswords, and guitar.

Attorney at GCA Law Partners LLP – San Mateo, CA

Vice President, Cornerstrone Research- San Francisco, CA

Formerly Chief Financial Officer at The Hewlett Foundation

Director at Generosity in Action – Hillsborough, CA

Retired Educator, Consultant – San Mateo, CA

Hillsborough Councilmember – Hillsborough, CA

Community Progs. Specialist II – San Mateo, CA

Chief Executive Officer at Woodmont Real Estate Services – San Carlos, CA

Psychotherapist – East Palo Alto, CA

Executive Coach and CEO Peer Group Chair at Vistage Worldwide, Inc. – San Mateo, CA

MD Nephrologist, Former Faculty Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco Medical School – Portola Valley, CA

Executive Director at San Mateo Foster City Education Foundation – San Mateo, CA

Retired Director, San Mateo Health Department – San Mateo, CA

Financial Advisor, Ting & Associates at Merrill Lynch – San Mateo, CA

Commercial Banking – Redwood City, CA