Member Spotlight: Specialty Family Foundation

In preparation for the 2017 Annual Membership Meeting in Santa Monica, we will feature FADICA’s Southern California members serving on the Host Committee.

“As a professor of medicine at UCLA for many years my Dad and my Mom, a homemaker, worked hard and sacrificed to keep their 7 children enrolled in Catholic grammar schools, high schools and universities. This gave them a commitment to and understanding of the tremendous sacrifices parents in the inner city make to provide their children with these same opportunities.” – Deborah A. Estes, current Chair and President

Specialty Family Foundation was established by Dr. James B. and Joan C. Peter in 2006. Their Catholic faith, passion and values combined with Dr. Peter’s driven, evidence based, innovative approach in laboratory medicine is imbued in the Foundation’s philanthropy and work to help alleviate the conditions that lead to persistent poverty. Deeply committed to urban Catholic education in the Los Angeles area, in 2014, the Foundation started the Catholic Schools Collaborative, a capacity building initiative to support collaboration and partnerships that foster and strengthen the sharing of innovative strategies and systemic change in urban Catholic schools in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The Foundation is also a strong believer in and supporter of effective prevention and treatment of substance abuse, particularly inter-generational abuse, through programming which empowers families with the education and skills to travel the recovery road and break the cycle of poverty. Ensuring basic human rights and the dignity of all persons is supported by the Foundation through investments in poverty and community support interventions. The Foundation is geographically focused on the Los Angeles area. Dr. & Mrs. Peter’s legacy is carried on by 6 surviving children, one grandchild and 4 trusted independent advisors who make up the Board of Directors.