New chief executive of Laguna Beach-based Friendship Shelter named

Friendship Shelter, a Laguna Beach-based homeless services agency, has named Nishtha Mohendra as its incoming chief executive.

Mohendra, who has served since 2021 as chief program officer of Families Forward in Irvine, will begin leading the organization on March 1, taking over the position from Dawn Price, who served in the same role for the past 17 years.

“Friendship Shelter has always been on my radar, and that’s because it has this unique quality of garnering trust and community support and doing it so quietly in a way that just takes time,” Mohendra said. “It’s this rare combination of credibility and consistency and community trust.

“By the virtue of being part of this community and housing service provider world for the last 10 years, I could always tell — both from a distance and having partnered with Friendship Shelter in the past around permanent supportive housing projects — that Laguna Beach and the community have been such a huge supporter. I can see that they find value in the compassionate and effective solutions that Friendship Shelter has been putting forward for decades now.”

Price announced her retirement plans last year, and the local nonprofit group began a national search for her successor. In Mohendra, the organization will continue to be headed by an individual who has familiarity with the region.

“Nishtha is a proven leader who understands both the complexity of homelessness systems and the urgency of delivering results,” Michael Gamerl, board president of Friendship Shelter, said in a statement. “Throughout her career, Nishtha has led complex systems-change efforts, scaled high-impact housing and prevention programs, and secured transformative public and philanthropic investments — always centering dignity, data and long-term community wellbeing.”

Price was encouraged by the board’s decision to move forward with Mohendra, noting previous collaborative experiences.

“To find that person here in Orange County, who’s already been doing work alongside Friendship Shelter for almost the entire time I’ve been here, is just a fantastic result,” Price said. “She will know our communities and know our partners, and that’s a fast track to keeping Friendship Shelter moving forward.”

Mohendra has spent the past decade in Orange County, the last five with Families Forward, where she will remain through February. As chief program officer, she oversaw a $10-million program portfolio and $29 million in housing assets.

After she arrived in Orange County from Toronto, Mohendra began working with survivors of domestic violence as a case management program supervisor for Human Options, Inc. in Irvine in January 2016.

In September 2017, she became the director of programs for Pathways of Hope in Fullerton, helping provide access to food and housing for those experiencing hunger and homelessness in North Orange County.

Earlier in her career, Mohendra worked on issues of domestic violence and homelessness in Toronto. She also contributed to India’s HIV prevention strategy while working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mohendra earned a master’s degree in social work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from Lady Shriram College for Women in Delhi.

“In my belief, this work requires steady leadership,” Mohendra said. “We have to be especially responsible of the resources, limited as they can be, especially in this ever-changing environment, and really keeping our focus on what actually helps the people move forward. I think that’s what Friendship Shelter is good at, and that’s what I intend on continuing to hone — helping people move from that stage of crisis into stability.”

“We can demonstrate those results. In 2025, Friendship Shelter was instrumental in serving [more than] 900 individuals, and 104 of them were successfully helped and navigated from living off the streets into permanent housing.”

Friendship Shelter noted in its 2025 impact report that 944 individuals were served by its programs in the past year.

As for her time with Friendship Shelter, Price said she walked into a “great situation,” with community support that had been built up over 20 years before her arrival. Friendship Shelter, founded in 1988, provides outreach, shelter, housing navigation, financial assistance and housing with supportive services.

“The growth that we’ve had has been organic and has been fueled by the same things that created the organization to start with,” Price said. “Understanding, seeing a problem and seeking to find the best way to solve it. By doing that without fail, and by doing that in a people-first, loving way, we’ve been able to demonstrate our effectiveness, and then opportunities come our way as a result of that.”