Bonnie Bean is a licensed Social Worker with a Masters from Columbia University. She has spent 50 years in New York City addressing the needs of the homeless, the mentally ill and the elderly with special needs. In her career she was a grant writer specializing in funding housing programs for people with special needs. This included people with HIV/AIDS, psychiatric disabilities, and older New Yorkers with additional needs. Currently she is a board member at the SSB and Co-Chair of a Housing program developing and providing housing for low/moderate income persons on the West Side of Manhattan.