Tania Hughes spotlights lived-experience leadership in homelessness response

Influential Women is highlighting Tania Hughes, the Community Engagement Manager at ECHO in Austin, for using her personal experience with homelessness, addiction and recovery to reshape how systems respond to homelessness. Her work centers on giving people with lived expertise real decision-making power, not just a platform to tell their stories.

Why it matters: - Tania Hughes is pushing a shift from service delivery that talks about lived experience to systems that actually share power with people who have lived it. - Her work matters because homelessness responses are more likely to improve when the people most affected help design programs, policies and engagement strategies. - Hughes’ story also shows how lived experience, formal education and professional leadership can work together in community systems change.

What happened: - Influential Women is featuring Hughes for her leadership in homelessness response and community engagement. - Hughes serves as Community Engagement Manager at the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO, in Austin, Texas. - Her role brings together individuals with lived expertise, community organizations, health care providers, local government and system leaders. - The profile was published September 23, 2026. - A profile page is available through Tania Hughes' Influential Women profile.

The details: - Hughes’ leadership approach is shaped by personal experience with homelessness, addiction, mental health challenges and recovery. - She says people who have experienced a system should have a meaningful role in shaping it. - At ECHO, Hughes works to strengthen the homelessness response system while treating lived experience as essential expertise. - Her work includes facilitating community advisory councils, designing equitable engagement strategies and participating in system redesign efforts. - She has also presented nationally on lived experience leadership. - Hughes works with organizations across Texas and beyond on how to better engage people most affected by homelessness. - She recently completed a Master of Human Services degree from the University of Arizona Global Campus. - Hughes also holds a bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Science and certifications as a Peer Support Specialist and Qualified Mental Health Professional, or QMHP.

Between the lines: - Hughes frames leadership as reaching back to make the path easier for the next person, not climbing higher than everyone else. - Her message challenges a common nonprofit habit: asking people to share stories without giving them real authority. - She argues that lived expertise should inform policy, improve programs and shape sustainable systems change. - Hughes also describes authenticity as a leadership strength, especially for young women who feel pressure to appear polished or have all the answers. - Her advice, “Do it scared,” reflects a broader belief that confidence often comes after someone takes the first step. - She says the emotional weight of the work is real, especially when she sees people returning to tents, shelters or other places not intended for human habitation.

What's next: - Hughes will continue working to create pathways for people with lived expertise to become leaders, advocates, board members, presenters and decision-makers. - She is focused on helping organizations move beyond inclusion and toward genuine partnership. - Her broader goal is to leave every space better than she found it by building trust, challenging assumptions and expanding who gets a say in homelessness solutions.

The bottom line: - Hughes’ leadership message is simple: the people closest to a problem should help shape the solution, and communities work better when they share power.