Elizabeth Benson Forer is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Venice Family Clinic. She joined the Clinic in 1994. Under her leadership, Board, staff, and volunteers have doubled the Clinic's capacity and capabilities. The budget has gone from $5 million to $14 million and additional sites have been added including, most recently, a teen clinic on the campus of Culver City High School and a primary care facility located at Mar Vista Gardens, a public housing project. The Venice Family Clinic is the largest free clinic in the nation providing services to 18,500 people in 95,000 patient visits.

Ms. Forer holds masters' degrees in social work and public health from Columbia University. Prior to coming to Venice Family Clinic, she served for five years as executive director of Settlement Health and Medical Services, a nonprofit community health center in East Harlem, New York. She also directed a department at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City where her mission was to make the hospital more accessible to local residents. As Venice Family Clinic CEO and Executive Director, she reports to the Board of Directors, which guides the development of services and fundraising. She is also responsible for the administration of the Clinic's 220 member staff and 1,900 volunteers.

Ms. Forer is currently a Board member of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, and the Secretary and founding Board member of the National Association of Free Clinics. Through these organizations and her direct advocacy work, Ms. Forer is involved at the local, state, and national level in developing health care legislation and policy initiatives that will help people with low incomes and no health insurance.

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Dr. Flores is Senior Program Officer for The California Endowment, Disparities in Health Program. His work focuses on strategic program development and grant-making aimed at improving community health through policy and systems change. Dr. Flores guides the Endowment's Healthy Eating, Active Communities initiative to prevent childhood obesity, and projects to strengthen public health systems.

Dr. Flores is a member of the Institute of Medicine committee that published, "Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in The Balance," and "The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century." A former public health official in the counties of San Diego, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara, Dr. Flores also directed Project HOPE activities in Guatemala, has held leadership positions in local, state, and national organizations, and is a founder of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California. A native of Los Angeles, Dr. Flores now lives and works in the San Francisco area. He is an alumnus of the University of Utah College of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health.

Learn more about The California Endowment