After an intensive talent search, the Alameda Point Collaborative (APC) announced it has appointed Andrea Urton as its new Executive Director, effective December 3. Urton succeeds retiring Executive Director Doug Biggs.
“Andrea has just the right talents and skills needed to build on the success Doug achieved over the last two decades,” said APC Board Chair Keith McCoy.
Urton earned a master’s degree in clinical psychology from San Jose State University in 2001. She began her career working in behavioral health services with marginalized and at-risk families where she partnered with social service providers, FIRST5, and other organizations to create culturally relevant services. Following that success, Urton spent the next 20 years in nonprofit leadership positions and served as an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University.
In 2019 Urton was honored with the Business Journal’s Woman of Influence award. In 2021 she was granted a full scholarship to Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Leadership program and is also an American Leadership Senior Fellow (Class XXXVII).
Urton’s experience in growth management will help guide APC through its expansion of services, made possible through several capital projects currently underway. These projects will almost double the amount of permanent supportive housing in Alameda.
“I am thrilled to be invited to lead APC into this next era,” Urton said. “I am passionate about APC’s mission to end homelessness by providing housing and services to create communities where formerly homeless families and individuals can flourish. I look forward to working together with our residents and community to achieve that mission with the addition of these new facilities.”
About Alameda Point Collaborative
Alameda Point Collaborative, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, is a permanent supportive housing program created out of the closure of Alameda Naval Air Station in 1999. APC serves 500 formerly homeless residents with safe housing and an array of services to overcome the trauma of homelessness and become self-sufficient.
APC currently has three projects under construction that will dramatically increase the number of unhoused individuals and families receiving its services. The McKay Avenue project will be an innovative medical respite facility that will serve 400 homeless individuals who require medical care after being discharged from hospitals each year, as well as providing 100 units of permanent supportive housing for elders with medical needs. Estuary housing is a 90-unit permanent supportive housing project being constructed in collaboration with Building Futures and the Alameda Housing Authority. The RESHAP project at Alameda Point has broken ground on the replacement and expansion of all permanent supportive housing at Alameda Point, increasing the permanent supportive unit count from 200 to over 330 units, while also expanding APC’s service facilities.
