New Orleans Staff |

Daryl Kiesow – Executive Director

Upon his arrival in December of 2005, Daryl knew he wanted to dedicate his life to rebuilding New Orleans. He worked as a volunteer for Hands On New Orleans for two years before starting the United Saints Recovery Project. His ten years of roofing and construction experience along with the first hand experience of the operations of Hands On New Orleans gave him the knowledge he needed to start the United Saints in September 2007. Since its first project in January of 2008, the United Saints Recovery Project has completed well over 100 home rehab projects.

Contact Daryl: daryl@unitedsaints.org 504.383.5554

Kone – Outreach & Public Relations Coordinator

Born of Creole heritage and raised in Louisiana, Sakura Kone has a rich knowledge of the history and culture of New Orleans. After living in California for 28 years, he relocated to New Orleans right after hurricane Katrina, as a volunteer organizer with several grassroots organizations involved in providing assistance, relief and advocacy on behalf of disenfranchised residents. Before joining the United Saints staff, Kone was involved in the campaign to save, restore and transform the historic 140 year old former Wesley United Methodist Church into a multipurpose community center, located in the heart of Central City. He has contributed to the United Saints since 2009 working on various projects and giving social justice community tours of the city to our volunteers.

Contact Kone: kone@unitedsaints.org 504.533.4498

Chris Schottland – Director of Community Development

One day Chris, a previously sane and responsible person, got bored of office work and hitched a ride from Nashville to New Orleans. In December of 2008, he knocked on the door of United Saints to volunteer for a couple of months. Since then he has fabricated a number of questionable job titles for himself, mostly nebulous in nature and wholly invented according to his latest whim. His various job descriptions (which he writes for his own entertainment) might all be entirely replaced by the simple interrogative, “What do I feel like doing?” Although the mysterious reason Daryl continues to tolerate this sketchy character remains the subject of much speculation, it is ardently believed by Twiggy that he knows a dark secret about Daryl’s past which he will only reveal in the event of his often-hoped-for departure. One anonymous source maintains that Daryl keeps Chris around purely to torture Tim. Much evidence supports this hypothesis.

*Created by the one and only, Chris.

Contact Chris: chris@unitedsaints.org 504.233.3354

Tim Gear – Operations Manager

Contact Tim: operations@unitedsaints.org 504.895.2922 ext. 109

Jennifer Inberg – Volunteer Coordinator

Jennifer comes to us from South Florida, where she was an avid volunteer and crew leader for Habitat for Humanity –NRI Project. She was drawn to New Orleans after seeing the destruction that Hurricane Katrina caused as well as a more recent Hurricane Isaac. She is inspired everyday by the selfless giving staff at United Saints. Jennifer sees New Orleans as a shining example of resilience, kindness and unrelenting optimism. She looks forward to contributing and learning from everything that this rich city has to offer. “This is a city that you fall in love with!”

Contact Jennifer: volunteer@unitedsaints.org 504.233.8883

Frank Lemann - Community Art Program Director

Frank was born and raised in New Orleans. He received a degree in Art History from Tulane University. He spent twenty years in New York City where he had a career in the art business as an art consultant and advisor for Barbara Guggenheim Associates, as well as the director of an art gallery, Barbara Toll Fine Art, in SoHo. He also was engaged in the real estate business for over a decade, as a townhouse specialist and associate broker with Douglas Elliman. Throughout the years he remained in contact with his home, New Orleans, through family and friends.

After Katrina, Frank made continuous trips back home which ultimately lead to his return to New Orleans permanently in 2006. While searching for volunteer opportunities, he was thrilled to make the connection with United Saints Recovery Project and has joined their team as the new Director of their Community Art Program. Contact Frank: frank@unitedsaints.org

Matt Beben – Site Supervisor

Matt hails from the small-town of Washington, New Jersey. He attended college at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. While in college he went on a mission trip to San Jose, Costa Rica. He had been considering a year of service following college and that experience helped make the final decision an easy one. After graduating in May of 2012 he came down to New Orleans to work for the United Saints for a year through the Notre Dame Mission Volunteers Americorps program.

“Twiggy” Frey – Site Supervisor

While a many can say they were raised by wolves, Twiggy is one of the few that can say he was born from wolves. Scottish fighting wolves, scientific name Celticus Combatist Lupis, to be specific. Now with such an unorthodox upbringing, it was only natural that the trend would fallow into his teen years where he was kidnapped by gypsies, and forced to stay as a cook until Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Longing for something more he pulled a great escape to the land of freedom, New Orleans. Now, in his sixth year of freedom and servitude to the city of New Orleans he has finally found the one place that can accept his wolfish, gypsy mannerisms, and plans to stay until the next group comes to take him away.

*Created by Twiggy himself with creative liberties of course

Dave Suydam – Site Supervisor

Dave Suydam is a Site Supervisor for the United Saints. Dave is from Adrian a small town in South Eastern Michigan. He attended college at Siena Heights University. After college, he worked as a Construction Crew Leader for Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and then for Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, CA. After gaining some experience in construction and working with volunteers, Dave decided to move to New Orleans to work with the United Saints.