Recognizing Mary Anne Chern on Her Decades of Service to Adventist Health White Memorial and to the Healthcare Fundraising Industry

Floor Speech

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Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Madam Speaker, today I recognize my good friend Mary Anne Chern, ACFRE, FAHP, a highly regarded healthcare fundraiser who has retired from Adventist Health White Memorial in Los Angeles after 24 years of dedicated service. White Memorial is the region's leading faith-based, nonprofit hospital and is located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles. For years, Mary Anne served as president of the Adventist Health White Memorial Charitable Foundation and as a member of the hospital's Executive Team. I thank Mary Anne for her years of friendship and counsel and her unrelenting dedication to the healthcare fundraising profession.

Over the course of her 40-year career, Mary Anne has raised over $500 million for healthcare institutions in principal and major gifts, private grants, and government funding. She is highly respected by her peers and is a friend and mentor to healthcare development professionals across the nation and worldwide. Mary Anne is one of only seven fundraising professionals in the world to have achieved both the Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive (ACFRE) and the Fellow of Association of Healthcare Philanthropy (FAHP) certifications. She is also a Si Seymour Award winner for ``career excellence and outstanding leadership.'' The Si Seymour Award is the highest international recognition in healthcare fundraising and has only been given to a total of 41 fundraising professionals since 1970.

In 2010, Mary Anne was elected to be the international chair of the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) by its over 5,000 members. The AHP is the leading authority on healthcare philanthropy and it represents development professionals at more than 2,000 nonprofit hospitals, medical centers, health systems and related facilities throughout North America and abroad.

Mary Anne has extensive experience teaching fundraising best practices and she served on the two boards that certify professional fundraisers internationally: the CFRE Board of Directors and the AHP Board of Certification, the latter of which she chaired. She also served on the national board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and its greater Los Angeles chapter, as well as the boards of CFRE International, which credentials fundraising professionals; the Milton Murray Foundation for Philanthropy, which develops the expertise of nonprofit leaders; and the Southern California Association for Healthcare Development (SCAHD).

Mary Anne is the co-author of a book and the author of numerous articles on fundraising. She won the AHP Journal Award in 2009 for her article, ``Hispanic Fundraising: Myths and Realities.'' She has a special interest in social determinants of both individual and population health, and she currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Los Angeles County Community Health Assessment and Action Partnership.

Madam Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in recognizing Mary Anne's immense contributions to the healthcare fundraising industry and her outstanding leadership and commitment to providing quality and accessible health services to the greater Eastside Los Angeles community through Adventist White Memorial. Thanks to her years of service, my constituents have been able to access high-quality care in a modern and technologically advanced facility. Mary Anne's ability to make others feel special and welcome in the Adventist Health White Memorial community is something we will all miss. I thank her for her warmth and her dedication to ensuring that the healthcare industry has the funding it needs to implement the highest possible care for Angelenos, Americans, and patients around the world.

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