Vivian Wan
Chief Executive Officer, Abode Services
As chief executive officer of Abode Services, Vivian has taken the reins of the organization’s leadership, continuing her nearly two decades of dedicated experience helping Abode fulfill its mission to end homelessness. Vivian has been a leader at Abode for 17 years, transforming Abode Services from a small nonprofit serving close to 1,000 people experiencing homelessness every year to an industry leader now serving more than 15,000 people a year through sustainable housing solutions. Her commitment to excellence, growth of evidence-based practices, and authentic partnerships have helped expand Abode’s impact throughout seven Bay Area counties. Vivian’s passion for ending homelessness, strategic vision, and deep understanding of its complex and impactful operations have made her uniquely qualified to lead Abode Services.
Vivian's work remains focused on ending homelessness by embracing data and robust evaluation to ensure that Abode is pursuing the most impactful strategies, seizing opportunities to leverage private and philanthropic resources to maximize the reach of public funding, and continually expanding our reach by piloting new and promising interventions, serving new communities and areas, and doing more of what works whenever possible. Her role relies heavily upon partnerships and collaborations with a range of stakeholders, including local government representatives, State and Federal policymakers, community-based organizations and service providers, advocates, and people with lived experience of homelessness – partnerships that help ensure that Abode’s programs are truly reflective of the diverse perspectives, priorities, and needs of the communities that we serve.
Vivian has been with Abode since 2006, starting as a program coordinator tasked with assessing health impacts associated with our housing programs. She became the Director of Housing shortly thereafter in 2008, was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2012, and was named Abode Services’ new CEO in January of 2024. Prior to Abode, she worked both as a volunteer coordinator and direct service provider for other nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on assisting homeless and at-risk families, foster parents and children, and other vulnerable populations. In addition, she was a volunteer for the United States Peace Corps.
Vivian holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of California, Davis, in Sociology, Comparative Studies, and World Development; and a Master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in Social Welfare, Management, and Planning.