The California Community Foundation Appoints Two New Program Officers

Los Angeles — The California Community Foundation announced today that it has appointed two new program officers in the areas of health care and neighborhood revitalization.

New Program Officer Vera deVera will lead the community foundation’s neighborhood revitalization efforts, including its discretionary grantmaking and other special initiatives in this area. Most recently, Ms. deVera was senior director of regional initiatives for the Fannie Mae Foundation, where she worked to develop solutions to the nation’s affordable housing challenges.

Ms. deVera holds a J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law, and an M.A. in Urban Planning and a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA. Ms. deVera currently serves on the boards of Visual Communications and Southern California Grantmakers and on the local advisory committees of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas.

New Program Officer Laurel Fowler will be responsible for managing the foundation’s discretionary grantmaking in health as well as a variety of special initiatives involving health care. Ms. Fowler comes to the community foundation with more than 14 years of experience in the health care field, most recently as registry coordinator for the Los Angeles-Orange Immunization Network (LINK), the web-based immunization tracking system being implemented throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

Ms. Fowler also has extensive experience in community mental health, working for a nonprofit organization serving people with developmental disabilities, and overseeing quality improvement efforts for a managed behavioral health care company. Ms. Fowler received her M.P.H. degree from UCLA, with a concentration in community health sciences and an emphasis on program planning, implementation and evaluation.

Established in 1915, the California Community Foundation is one of the largest and most active philanthropic organizations in Southern California, with assets of more than $750 million.