About Us

Deputy Director Charlie Barba-Cook (she/her)

Throughout her life, “chosen family” has always been a major relationship focal point for Charlie. Having spent much of her adolescence couch-hopping, many of her closest caring and consistent relationships came through informal hosting arrangements. Because she knows first hand the toll houselessness can take on both a youth and their hosts, Charlie is passionate about the mission of CloseKnit: to change system narratives that are currently preventing investment in chosen family arrangements in a way that alleviates racial disparities in housing throughout the process. 

Charlie’s passion for uplifting underserved and underrepresented communities spans many fields. For nearly 20 years, Charlie worked in the field of disability. She has also been a community organizer for decades and across many cities. Some of her projects include founding multiple organizations, coordinating safety planning, organizing protests, vigils, and other community events in LGBTQ communities and in collaboration with community mutual aid groups focused on uplifting the Black Lives Matter movement. She is also the co-founder and owner of the Minnesota Minx women’s football team which aims to elevate women’s sports and increase accessibility to female and minority gender athletes.

Charlie can be reached at cbc@closeknit.us. She’d also be happy to share with you her love of playing football, cooking spicy dishes, and adventuring in the winter!

Director of Operations and Development Michael Giovanis (he/him)

Michael has lived experience as an opportunity youth who has dealt with housing instability and has navigated many different cultural and socioeconomic contexts as a result. He has a passion for changing the way our direct service and government agencies address youth homelessness–particularly opportunity youth who are facing housing instability. He believes that chosen family arrangements, wraparound services, and working to end systemic racism are vital to ending youth homelessness.

Michael has managerial and administrative experience in the logistics industry and a record of success in getting initiatives off the ground and flourishing. As Head of Operations, he is focused on creating a culture and operational infrastructure that enables the CloseKnit team to engage in our vital system change work.

Michael can be reached at mg@closeknit.us for any operational matters. He’d also be happy to share with you his love of cooking, jazz, and volunteering.

Cresston Gackle (he/him)
Principal, Cresston Law LLC and Assistant Public Defender

Cresston Gackle (he/him/his) is a youth advocate in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Through his public defense and solo practice work, Cresston advocates as an attorney for youths and their families in child protection and delinquency court cases. Cresston is originally from Iowa and moved to Minnesota to pursue undergraduate and legal education at the University of Minnesota. Cresston is an active member of the bar association (association of lawyers in Minnesota) advocating for youths, racial justice, and reform. In his free time, Cresston enjoys reading about youth law, playing modern board games with friends, and going to the many fairs and festivals held during Minnesota summers.

Beau RaRa (they/them), Board Chair
Youth Restorative Justice Initiative Lead, Legal Rights Center

Equal parts learner and educator, Beau believes that youth are the experts of their own lives and feels immense reverence for the various roles they have gotten to play in the lives of youth. Their background is in positive youth development in after school programs. Beau spent their first two years as a lawyer at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid and the Disability Law Center representing unhoused youth and youth with disabilities on cases ranging from eviction to emancipation to disability-related proceedings in schools or related to county benefits. As an advocate for systems change, Beau could not be more thrilled about their role as Youth Restorative Justice Initiative Lead at the Legal Rights Center.

Aliya White (she/her)
Impact Director, Education, The Frey Foundation

Aliya was drawn to the work at CloseKnit because of its mission.  She is committed to thinking differently to address inequities for basic rights for people of color.  While acknowledging the power and honoring the resourcefulness of disenfranchised communities, she found a cohort of like-minded activists on the Board of CloseKnit.

Her professional background in business, consumer research and currently, nonprofit funding, contributed to her ability to dig into issues from multiple stakeholder perspectives, format hypothesis, plan strategically and implement actions that make a difference for organizations.

She is a cheerful paper crafter, an avid reader and a serious movie preview watcher.

Helina Haile (she/her)
Founding Director of Chosen Family Justice for CloseKnit

Through her immigration journey from Ethiopia to Minnesota, Helina learned that home is not a place but found in the relationships with loved ones, whether blood or chosen. As a peace builder, she views law and policy as a transformative tool for individual and communal healing especially for BIPOC communities.

Her professional path has been informed by her Peace Corps service in Rwanda and her domestic work in racial equity, legal health advocacy, and trauma healing. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies and an M.A in Global Affairs with a concentration in International Peace Studies. Helina brings her experience, both personal and professional, to the work of developing tools and policies to bolster natural supports and chosen family arrangements.

Brenda Pritchard (she/her)
Chosen Family Hosting Coach

Brenda Pritchard helped develop CloseKnit’s chosen family hosting model as a case coach at two Minnesota drop-in centers for youth facing homelessness, HOPE 4 Youth in Anoka and Open Doors for Youth in Elk River. Previously, she worked for 18 years as a child protection social worker. She has two grown children and lives with her husband in the small town of Big Lake, where she breeds English golden retrievers and makes crafts to sell at craft shows.