Dedicated Professionals
The Father McKenna Center has a lead staff team of dedicated professionals. Each member of our team has a deep commitment to our guests and our community, and considers their work an act of prayer and service. While each person has a defined area of responsibility, we are a highly collaborative, cross-functional team, helping out wherever necessary to ensure the Center functions well.
Our team is supplemented by dozens of regular volunteers – many of them giving multiple hours of their time every week – and hundreds of visiting volunteers over the course of the year. We could not operate without them, and are grateful for their generosity.
Dennis Dee
Executive Director
Dennis comes to the McKenna Center from the Haymarket Center, the largest and most comprehensive provider of treatment for substance use and mental health disorders in Chicago, where he served as a certified addiction counselor for the past seven years. Dennis has also worked as an attorney and investment banker and is a graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center.
In August of 2014, Dennis walked through the doors of the McKenna Center for the first time at the lowest point of his life. Due to alcoholism, he had lost everything – his job, home, family, friends, and colleagues. Dennis describes the McKenna Center as a “sacred place” and credits the “kindness and support” of the McKenna Center staff and volunteers for nurturing his healing process which began with reconnecting with his children and sisters and rediscovering God.
Dennis has experience as both a recipient of the McKenna Center’s services and as an employee. “On my first day at the McKenna Center I took to heart director of services Cortez McDaniel’s advice that recovery would be the fight of my life,” said Dennis. Then executive director Kimberly Cox saw Dennis’ steadfast commitment to sobriety as an inspiration to McKenna Center staff, volunteers, and guests and hired him. Over nearly two years, Dennis assisted food pantry shoppers, picked up food donations and orders, greeted guests at the reception desk, staffed the Hypothermia Transition Program, and became an assistant case manager.
Cortez McDaniel
Director of Services
Cortez has provided leadership for direct services to men struggling with homelessness for the past thirteen years. He was trained as an addictions counselor at Second Genesis and has written a manual on Recidivism Prevention. His street sense and commitment to the men makes him the right choice to lead the program here. Much of his credibility comes from life experience. He has successfully reclaimed his life and dedicated himself to helping others who struggle with homelessness.
Cortez is a co-founder of the DC Homecomers Academy, an organization that serves men recently released from prison, and is a co-founder of the DC Peace Team, a group that works with youth and adults to offer non-violent approaches to ending confrontational situations in society.
He currently serves on the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee. Cortez is delighted to work at the Center. “It is a chance for my ministry and work to intersect. I get to serve God every day when I am at the Center.”
Meet the Team
Russell Byrd
Kitchen ManagerRussell joined the Father McKenna Center team in 2017. He is a former guest at the Center, having struggled with addiction and homelessness. Born in Louisville, KY, Russell came to DC and worked for DC Government. Russell credits the Clean and Sober program and The Father McKenna Center for helping him reclaim his life over the past five years. Russell loves to cook and when the Kitchen Manager position at the Father McKenna Center became available he applied because he wants to give back, and help others who now walk the path he has walked. Russell comes to work early each morning because he finds peace here at the Center. “The McKenna Center is filled with loving people,’ he says. “I’ve never worked in an environment like this where my Christian values are supported. I am uplifted when one of the guests graduates from our Program and moves to a better life.”
Fr. Harry Geib, SJ
Jesuit LiaisonFr. Harry Geib, SJ was born in Philadelphia, PA and attended St. Joseph’s University where he majored in biology and sociology. He pursued graduate studies in sociology and gerontology at Duke University. He joined the Jesuits in 1981.
During Jesuit formation he taught science at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and worked with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Thailand (with refugees from Cambodia). Following his time in Thailand, he earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California and was ordained in 1992. He then continued his time with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Malaysia (with refugees from Vietnam) and Uganda (with refugees from Sudan).
On his return to the US, he pursued a Master’s in Social Work from Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. He has served as the Health Care Coordinator for the Maryland Province Jesuits and was Director of Manresa Hall (a Jesuit health care center). He then served in Campus Ministry and as a member of the Residence Life staff at Wheeling Jesuit University.
Fr. Geib served as Jesuit superior of the Colombiere Jesuit Community in Baltimore and is currently the Jesuit superior of the St. Aloysius Gonzaga Jesuit Community in Washington, D.C., and assists with vocation promotion for the Jesuits.
Ben Hoffschneider
Development AssociateBen joined the McKenna Center as a Development Associate in January of 2024, helping with development operations and managing the Center's social media. A Gonzaga '16 Grad, Ben has been involved with the center for the past 12 years, both through volunteering and through working at the center as a Hypothermia Monitor and Operations Assistant in the fall of 2016 and during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic from 2020-2021.
Ben graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of the District of Columbia with a degree in Political Science and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management. A former Government Affairs Associate,
Ben is excited to be back at the Center, using his skills to support his community and help to care for the chronically poor and homeless. When he's not at the McKenna Center, Ben coaches Water Polo for Capital Water Polo Club and the USAWP Northeast Zone Development Team.
James Jones
Staff AssistantA DC native, and proud to be one, James Jones is a story of the power of the Center to change lives. James spent 16 ½ years in prison, and when he was released, he was required to establish residency in the District. He had no place to go, but someone suggested that he visit The Father McKenna Center. Cortez McDaniel invited him into the Hypothermia / Transition Program in January 2020. When COVID shut many things down, James remained at the Center, working on projects around the Center. He was offered a job in June at a local apartment complex as part of their janitorial team. He saw it as a good opportunity to rebuild a life, so he took that offer. But he found that many of those with whom he worked took advantage of his willingness to work hard. In September 2020 Cortez called James with a job offer that offered better salary and shorter hours. “I like working here because the team helps me stay focused and I like helping others who come to the Center in need.”
Mathew Querfeld
VolunteerMatthew is joining the Father McKenna Center for a service year through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. He is a graduate of Fordham University where he studied business administration and philosophy and was active in campus ministry. Father McKenna's legacy is inspiring, and Matthew feels blessed to work with the McKenna Center team this year.
Sydney Simmons
Case ManagerSydney is a recent MSW graduate and is thankful to have been given the opportunity to join the FMC team. She is looking forward to building/strengthening connections with staff, volunteers, and guests that she serves as a Case Manager
Robert Starkenburg
Intake AssociateRobert is from Silver Spring, MD, and graduated from Gonzaga College High School in 2014. During his time at Gonzaga, Robert first discovered the Father McKenna Center and volunteered a few times by serving lunch. He then attended the University of Maryland in College Park, where he majored in psychology and minored in neuroscience, graduating in 2019. After graduation, Robert took a gap year as a Jesuit Volunteer in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, serving at Friends of the Poor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Upon returning, he worked as a research technician in the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland.
Robert returned to the McKenna Center in September 2022, volunteering at the food pantry. He later began working there part-time in May 2024. Robert shares, “Serving others in need is a strong passion of mine, and being able to encounter Christ in the poor here every day is incredibly meaningful to me. Working here allows me to continue my mission to be a man for others in all those I meet.”
Adam Vogt
Operations DirectorAdam started volunteering at the McKenna Center in 1987 as a junior at Gonzaga High School. That experience led him on a path of service that he continued as a student at Georgetown University and later in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Seattle. After a decade out west, Adam returned to DC to work in Congress and later in the federal government. Adam began volunteering at the center a second time in December 2023. Adam joined the staff full-time in February 2024 and is thrilled to be contributing to Father McKenna’s legacy of serving DC’s poor. “The McKenna Center is where I first learned what it means to be a man for others,” says Adam. “I’m grateful to be a part of this important DC institution and eager to help fulfill its mission for years to come.”