Ethan Makulec – Executive Director. I graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a neuroscience concentration, where much of my academic interests focused on the ways drugs can and have worked to affect our minds and social culture. I moved to Humboldt in 2021 for an AmeriCorps position working with the Yurok Tribe Wellness Coalition to provide overdose prevention education and resources through community Naloxone trainings. After starting as a volunteer with HACHR in October ’22, I joined the staff as an outreach worker in February ’23, became SSP coordinator in September ’23 and began my role as Executive Director in November ’23. To me, harm reduction is a historically and scientifically informed practice of care and mutual aid for people who use drugs that stands opposed to the commonplace and deadly stigmatization of drug use fostered by the moralizing, punitive, and carceral ideology of the war on drugs. I am forever grateful to have found an organization staffed by and in service to some of the most caring and beautiful people I’ve ever known.

Jasmine Guerra – Harm Reduction Specialist & former Executive Director graduated from Humboldt State University with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology in 2020. Her first introduction to HACHR was when Jessica Smith (prior HACHR ED) presented in one of her classes at HSU, where she later volunteered as part of a Service Learning Project. What she realized is that harm reduction fit into her values and philosophy before ever having the term for it. Many of her family members are active or former drug users, and currently or formerly incarcerated. Before finding harm reduction life was difficult to navigate. She witnessed how the system treated people who use drugs and formerly incarcerated people first hand. In the midst of the War on Drugs, painful stigmas and old-school expectations of what “recovery” looks like, harm reduction has given her a chance to fight for the rights and dignity of people who use drugs through compassion, healing, education and research.

Jamme Holmes – Director of Outreach Services was born and raised in East San Diego County before relocating to Humboldt County. She is a community advocate, activist and mother with years of experience, both formally and informally, in harm reduction. In her tenure at HACHR, Jamme has made it her priority to further deepen our ties with the communities we serve, acting as an essential link between HACHR’s services and those whose struggles often go unseen by other institutions.

Tiffany Laffoon – Director of Case Management – I graduated from Humboldt State University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. I have a long-standing passion for housing justice, which has manifested itself in my activism and my years as an outreach worker, housing navigator, and case manager for the unhoused. I too have fallen into houselessness a number of times over my 14-year residency in Humboldt due to the County’s poorly managed housing crisis. I have now found a natural and comfortable home in the harm reduction movement, in part for its overlap with housing justice, but also for my deeply held belief that people deserve the freedom to do what they wish with their own bodies and not be deprived of their rights.

Kenny (aka “Sidetrack”) – Community Clean Up Liaison is a dynamic, determined individual and a model staff. He is a Navy Veteran and obtained employment with Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction (HACHR) in early 2018 after moving through the peer leadership program.  He is now responsible for keeping our community clean, often responding to calls from individuals and businesses. Beyond clean-up, Kenny is responsible for building bridges between HACHR and other businesses and community members; he is well known and respected around town. Kenny is a leader in the Harm Reduction Movement in Humboldt County and a valuable member of HACHR.