Psychologist Heather Berberet sees the lack of housing for the disadvantaged as a puzzle to solve. “I get really passionate about needs that are unmet and the problem-solving process,” says the 36-year-old director of mental health services for Walden Family Services. “When I am presented with a problem, I like to solve it.”

Walden is a nonprofit agency that certifies foster families to care for abused or neglected children or those with conditions like autism or cerebral palsy. During her three years there, Berberet developed a children’s mental health clinic and a pilot project focused on multidimensional-treatment foster care.

Prior to joining Walden, Berberet was director of education and support services for the organization now known as the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Community Center. Berberet was instrumental in creating the center’s Hillcrest Youth Center, a LGBTQ (for questioning) drop-in facility that close at 10 p.m. Berberet was concerned because many clients lived on the streets or “couch surfed.” She tackled the problem by bringing together organizations including the LGBT Center, Walden, the YMCA, Metropolitan Community Church and Children’s Hospital. Like pieces of a puzzle, representatives of those groups fit together to form a solution — affordable housing for LGBTQ and HIV-positive people between the ages of 18 and 24.

Berberet sees herself as the “visionkeeper” for the problem she set out to solve three years ago. The 24-unit housing project, one of the first in the nation for this demographic, opens this fall and will be operated by the LGBT Center.

While it’s intellectually rewarding to solve the problem, Berberet says she is involved in social service because, “I look in the mirror and know I’m helping people.”