Born in 1958, Poppe earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from William Woods College in Fulton, Missouri, in 1981. She added a Master of Science degree in epidemiology from the University of Cincinnati in 1987. In 1983, she co-founded Bethany House, a program to help homeless women and children in Cincinnati. She was a field instructor in the Department of Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati from 1988 to 1990.

 

From June 1990 to September 1995, Poppe was executive director of Friends of the Homeless, Inc. She served as the principal investigator for two federal demonstration grants. The first, from the U.S. Department of Labor, studied the provision of job training for the homeless. The second was a chemical dependency treatment demonstration grant from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

 

Poppe held the position of executive director of the Columbus, Ohio-based Community Shelter Board (CSB) from October 1995 to November 2009. CSB invests in programs to end homelessness in Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio. Poppe was responsible for strategic planning and collaborative efforts, private sector fundraising, resource development, effective governmental systems and private sector relationships.

 

She has served as a board member and advisory group member of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Independent Housing Committee of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and the national organizing committee of the Corporation for Supportive Housing. She was appointed by Governor Ted Strickland to the Ohio Interagency Council on Homelessness and Affordable Housing. 

 

Poppe and her husband, fellow homeless and housing advocate Bill Faith, married in 1993. They have a daughter, Elise (from her previous marriage), and a son, Ben.

 

Biography - Barbara Poppe (Interagency Council on Homelessness)

Keynote Speech at National Health Care for the Homeless Conference (pdf)