Steve Werlin is the Executive Director of Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, Inc. (DESK), a New Haven-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to serve people experiencing homelessness and living in poverty by providing food assistance and services that promote health, community, and equity. Since joining DESK in early 2017, Steve has worked closely with Board members and staff to expand the organization's program offerings and broaden the strategy so as to serve each individual more wholly. He and his staff have embraced a variety of best-practice approaches in social services, and continually forged new partnerships with local service providers and government agencies, with the ultimate goal of helping those DESK serves to move beyond homelessness and poverty and toward a greater sense of wellbeing and stability. To ensure DESK's long-term success, Steve has overseen a threefold revenue increase, the expansion and professionalization of staff, and, at the end of 2020, the purchase of a Downtown property to serve as DESK's permanent home.Steve grew up outside Boston. He earned his bachelors degree from Tufts University, and holds an MA and PhD in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2016, he completed a graduate work in Nonprofit Management through the University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy. Steve previously served as the Grant Writer at Columbus House, Inc., and is the Past-President of the Board of Directors for FISH of Greater New Haven.