Staff Bios
Linda Dunphy, MSW, Executive Director - has served since 2003 as the Executive Director of Doorways for Women and Families.
In 2008 she was awarded the Gelman, Rosenberg and Freedman 2008 Excel Award for outstanding leadership in service to our community as a result of her exceptional leadership at Doorways. This award
reflected her ability to lead Doorways from a crisis plagued and stagnant agency to a professional thriving and excellently managed non-profit meeting its mission more fully than ever. In 2008 Doorways
received a 4 Star Rating on Charity Navigator and was selected as “one of the great charities” in the December 2008 Washingtonian magazine. She has a strategic and ambitious vision
for what is possible in terms of helping our clients to build better lives and building a thriving agency to carry out that mission. She balances this vision with a strong appreciation of and knack for
the nuts and bolts of management.
Among her leadership highlights over six years include: successfully changing the agency name; abundantly fulfilling the agency’s mission resulting in enhanced and impressive outcomes for clients; a successful $7.2 million Campaign to Do More that included a $2.5 million rebuild of the Family Home; a well-honed infrastructure including a vibrant and highly successful fundraising program reflecting a strong agency community reputation; spearheaded and co-lead the effort to establish the Arlington County best practice coordinated community response system for family and intimate partner violence called Project Peace; provided leadership to develop and launch a 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness; co-founded the Arlington Non-Profit Network.
Linda has 20+ years experience serving the related causes of family violence and homelessness, child abuse prevention, parenting support and family self-sufficiency. Before joining Doorways in 2003, she created and led for 12 years the Early Childhood Division of Northern Virginia Family Service Program. Her $4.5 million division evolved over 12 years from one employee to 110 providing intensive home-based services to over 1,200 families annually, and creating two new Early Head Start infant toddler childcare centers. Her keen skills in leadership, strategic planning, program development, quality assurance, advocacy, fundraising and fiscal management aptly serve to further Doorways’ mission.
Caroline Jones, MSW, Client Services Director – joined Doorways as the Transitional Housing Program (now HomeStart) Director in August 2003. In 2005, Ms. Jones was promoted to Doorways Client Service Director where she has since directed and enhanced all Doorways client service programs. Under her leadership, Doorways transformed client service delivery to provide comprehensive, family-centered and strength-based supports for women and families. Ms. Jones has led the development and implementation of Doorways Children’s Services, Financial Independence Track, Child Mental Health Services, and expansion in our Family Home and HomeStart programs. Ms. Jones offers 18+ years of service to at-risk children and families along with a Master’s in Social Work, with emphasis on child welfare and clinical intervention. She has extensive experience in direct client services, mutual competency models of supervision, advocacy, program development and evaluation and community partnerships.
Scott Perkins, MA, Development Director – joined Doorways in December 2007 and is responsible for creating and implementing all agency fundraising strategies and campaigns as well as overseeing the agency’s communication efforts. Mr. Perkins has over ten years experience providing vision and leadership for non profits with an emphasis on homelessness, housing and child and family welfare issues. He has worked for both local and international organizations and is skilled in all areas of fundraising, strategic planning, design and implementation of performance measures, writing and editing, and creative problem solving. Mr. Perkins received a MA in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Language from Naropa University prior to his work in the human services. He and his spouse have enjoyed living in the Washington, DC Metro area since 1995. When not working his favorite thing to do is spend time in a log cabin on the top of a mountain in W.V.
Lila Reinold, Finance and Administration Director – began her employment with the agency twenty years ago as a part-time employee working in the agency’s Safehouse Shelter. In that twenty years her jobs and responsibilities have changed and expanded; she has done everything from learn how to use the organization’s first computer to opening and managing the organization’s charity thrift store. She is currently responsible for all the financial reporting of the organization, processing the accounts payable and managing the benefits package for the agency.
Melanie Gray, MSW, Director of Quality Assurance and Human Resources – joined Doorways in May 2008. Ms. Gray has 11 years experience working in the field of child abuse and neglect prevention. She has supervised teams of staff and provided technical assistance and quality assurance to multiple programs. Her work has helped programs strengthen child abuse and neglect prevention services offered in 13 communities in Virginia with an emphasis on improving the lives of participant families. Her work is self-directed and includes extensive reporting requirement, the ability to develop effective quality improvement plans with and on-going technical assistance and training to strengthen programs.
Triina Tennelo, MPP, Family Home Director – joined Doorways in May 2005. Ms. Tennelo brings experience in early childhood programs, homeless programs, residential family services, and social policy to Doorways. During the Family Home reconstruction, she successfully served 11 families in the HomeStart Supportive Housing expansion program. As Director of Doorways’ Freddie Mac Foundation Family Home for homeless families, she oversees the delivery of program and services for up to 21 residents.
Marielle Filholm, MA, Domestic Violence Program Director – joined Doorways in August 2004. With a master’s degree in Forensic Psychology, she has over ten years of experience working in programs for victim services, child development and welfare, therapeutic housing programs for families, and law enforcement. Ms. Filholm is responsible for directing all aspects the domestic violence programming, including the 24-hour hotline, Court Advocacy and Companionship Program, and the Safehouse. Ms. Filholm is responsible for supervising all staff in the program and overseeing all operational and client services.
Julie Faden-Shifrin, MSW, LCSW, HomeStart Program Director – joined Doorways in 2005 as the HomeStart Family Resource Specialist and was promoted to HomeStart Program Coordinator in 2008. In addition to supervisory and program management duties, Ms. Faden also provides direct service to a caseload of HomeStart clients. Ms. Faden obtained her Master’s of Social Work degree from Smith College, where she focused on domestic violence and at-risk populations. She has ten years of experience working with persons impacted by trauma, mental health and substance abuse challenges, disabilities, and homelessness.
Cara Panzarella-Tarr, BSS, Financial Program Coordinator- joined Doorways for Women and Families in 1999 as a volunteer Shelter Advocate. Ms. Panzarella-Tarr comes with business experience from having been a business owner for 12 years. During her initial work at Doorways serving women at the Safehouse who were fleeing domestic violence, it became evident that clients were returning to their abusers due to a lack of financial knowledge and tools. From this experience, Ms. Panzarella-Tarr began to focus on educating clients on their finances, which led to the development of Doorways financial literacy program, later named FIT (Financial Independence Track). The FIT Program currently serves Doorways three core programs (Safehouse, Family Home and HomeStart), addressing a myriad of financial issues to empower clients to become self-sufficient. In addition to supervisory and program management duties, Ms. Panzarella-Tarr also provides direct service to a caseload of clients.
Amity Kim, MSW, Children’s Program Coordinator - joined Doorways in 2005. Mrs. Kim oversees the implementation of the children’s program, with children being more than half of the population Doorways serves. As well as supervising the children’s team, Mrs. Kim works with parents and children in the Home Start Supportive Housing Program. With a Master’s Degree in Social Work, she also brings experience in working with families impacted by incarceration, survivors of torture and trauma, and early education and intervention settings.
Candice Lopez, BA, Education and Outreach Director – joined Doorways in the spring of 2005 as a part-time Case Aide and became the full-time Education and Outreach Director in January 2007. She has been working in the field of anti-violence education for the past eight years and her experience ranges from coordinating peer education programs around sexual assault, IPV and stalking education at the University of Colorado (CU), to being a mentor for teen social justice and anti-violence programs, to researching best practice modules for Judges trainings on how to respond to sexual assault cases with NOW, to organizing women’s rights groups on college campuses with the Feminist Majority Foundation. In addition, Candice has undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Women’s’ Studies from CU and is currently pursuing her Masters in Public Administration- Non-Profit Management at George Mason University.