The Salvation Army has selected Zachary Ginder as the new Director of Alegria. He will be replacing Paul Hebblethwaite effective November 7th 2011. Mr. Hebblethwaite will be relocating to the Washington DC area with his family after 4 years as Executive Director of The Salvation Army Alegria.

Zachary Ginder comes to the Salvation Army with over ten years experience in the health and human services field. Zachary began his professional career working in the field of chronic pain management and somatic psychology. After working in the medical field for six years, Zachary pursued his Masters in Social Work from the University of Southern California, with a concentration in organizational behavior and industrial social work.

While at USC, Zachary developed and implemented a University wide training program and E-learning module to reduce stress, increase productivity and ultimately mitigate the effects of a waning workforce.

While working on his MSW, Zachary began concurrently working with the homeless youth population of LA County through the Los Angeles Youth Network. Beginning as a clinical intern and ending his career at LAYN as Director of Residential and Shelter Services. In addition to LAYN, Zachary is part-time faculty at California State University, Northridge in the graduate School of Social Work and guest lectures on topics of social justice, homeless services and human development throughout Los Angeles County.