The California Wellness Foundation Sabbatical Program was created to improve the long-term effectiveness of health service nonprofits by providing their executives with the rest they need to continue to direct their organizations' missions. The program provides $30,000 grants to eight organizations to cover the leaders' salaries for three- to six-month sabbaticals.

Shannon Rose Chavez

Shannon Rose Chavez has served as the executive director of the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center in Lompoc since 1983. Located in North Santa Barbara County, the organization provides immediate intervention and support services for survivors of sexual assault or child abuse and their significant others, in addition to education and prevention services.

Shirley J. Cole

Shirley J. Cole has been the executive director of North County Lifeline, Inc. in Vista for more than 20 years. Founded in 1969, North County Lifeline, Inc. is a nonprofit human services organization that offers a wide range of services to residents of North San Diego County, including family development and transitional housing, counseling and mental health, dispute resolution and legal advice, youth delinquency prevention and after-school programs, and transportation for ADA-certified individuals

Cherry L. Houston

Cherry L. Houston founded Critical Learning Systems, Inc. in 1990 to help prevent disease and improve health and the quality of life in communities of color, specifically African American communities. Seven years ago, the organization moved from Los Angeles to Alta Loma, to increase the quality, availability and effectiveness of community-based health education programs in the Inland Empire.

Camille Schraeder

Camille Schraeder is the founder and executive director of Redwood Children's Services, Inc. in Ukiah. Founded in 1995, the nonprofit and nonsectarian agency provides specialized care and programs for foster children and their families in Mendocino and Lake Counties. Services include support systems for foster parents, group homes for severely emotionally disturbed foster youth, transitional housing placement and children's therapeutic services.

April Y. Silas

April Y. Silas is a longtime advocate for at-risk children, youth and families. For the past 12 years, she has been executive director of Homeless Children's Network in San Francisco. The nonprofit mental health agency is San Francisco's largest citywide collaborative of homeless service providers. Silas brings to this work strong leadership and clinical skills, coupled with a passion for people and social justice. She is a visionary, a community leader and a dynamic speaker on issues related to poverty, homelessness, race and spirituality.

Diane Sommers

Diane Sommers has worked with Suicide Prevention of Yolo County for nearly 20 years. She has served as executive director since 1990. The organization provides crisis intervention, prevention and education services to the residents of Yolo County, including an unduplicated 24-hour suicide prevention crisis line that has been in operation for 40 years.

Lue N. Yang

Lue N. Yang has served as executive director of Fresno Center for New Americans since 1993. It was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1991, to respond to the growing needs of Southeast Asians in Fresno County. Services, including beginning English classes, cultural orientation, family strengthening and health access education, are now also offered to refugees from other parts of the world, including the former Soviet Union.

Richard Zaldivar

Richard Zaldivar is executive director of The Wall*Las Memorias Project, an HIV/AIDS prevention organization based in Northeast Los Angeles. He founded the organization in 1993 to construct a monument to those who have died from AIDS as a way of addressing the cultural denial, guilt and shame that contribute to HIV/AIDS. The Wall*Las Memorias is the first publicly funded AIDS monument in the nation.