Program Leadership

Gloria Simoneaux founded DrawBridge: An Arts Program for Homeless Children in 1989 and has served as its Executive Director since that time. Ms. Simoneaux began the first DrawBridge program at a San Francisco emergency shelter with one weekly art group of 40 children and a budget of $10,000. Under her leadership over the past 18 years, the demand for services has remained high and the program has expanded to serve the entire San Francisco Bay Area region, adding an average of two new groups annually. Prior to establishing DrawBridge, Ms. Simoneaux, a Registered Expressive Art Therapist, spent eight years developing expressive arts programs for pediatric cancer patients. She instituted programs at two leading San Francisco hospitals, California Pacific Medical Center and University of California San Francisco Medical Center.

In December 2007, Ms. Simoneaux will transition from the role of DrawBridge's Executive Director to focus full time on Harambee Arts: Let's Pull Together ^TM (previously known as DrawBridge International).