STAFF
David Van Der Velde
Executive Director
David got clean and sober when he was 19, close to death from his own struggles with addiction. Now 30 years clean and sober, he has been consistently active in his recovery community being mentored and mentoring others, served on recovery and youth related non-profit Boards such as LifeWorks and the West Hollywood Recovery Center, and served on panels at institutions speaking from his own experience about recovery.
Greg Gelber
Director Of Operations
Greg has been with Awakening Recovery from its inception in 2016 and helped develop our process having graduated from a similar recovery process over six years ago. Prior to coming to us, Greg worked in operations at an Intensive Outpatient Center for a year and half. Greg brings great leadership skills to our team both with staff and residents, being able to speak from his own experiences in our recovery community and his prior operational work in treatment.
Jason Goldstein
House Manager
Jason has been involved in our process since the beginning as a part of our alumni support community, worked for us part-time and is now our House Manager. Jason has worked in the the recovery treatment community for over 5 years and brings a sharp intuition to our recovery home management team. Jason has a deep ability to relate to our residents based on having graduated a similar recovery home 6 years ago.
Christopher Mataisz
Assistant / Weekend House Manager
Chris is a graduate of Awakening Recovery, has been our overnight coordinator and is now our new Assistant House Manager. His knowledge of our recovery home and unique ability to understand what our residents are going through helps make our residents feel safe as they progress through the house.
Elijah Lindsay
Overnight Coordinator
Eli is a graduate of Awakening Recovery and is now our live-in overnight coordinator. Eli’s having been a resident in this house makes him the perfect mentor during the overnight hours for resident issues that come up as he has the same lived experience.
Matt Hass
Administrative / Marketing Assistant
Matt is our part-time administrative assistant working on accounting, marketing and development for the non-profit. Matt has been in our community for years and has a close relationship with management and our residents. Matt is a dedicated employee who plays a big role in our process personally in addition to his employment at Awakening Recovery.
