Penny returned to MLK Community Health Foundation as Manager, Donor Relations and Stewardship in September 2022. She is responsible for creating and managing a comprehensive donor relations and stewardship program to engage and recognize donors at all levels. She previously led the foundation’s donor engagement efforts from 2015-2018.

Penny brings with her more than 20 years of experience managing events, volunteer coordination, donor engagement, and marketing with more than 15 of those years at University of California, Los Angeles.

For more than a decade, Penny was director of special events at the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation at UCLA where she provided leadership and direction for both its comprehensive special events fundraising program and its online communication platforms. During her tenure, the events program raised more than $10 million for UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Penny holds a bachelor’s degree in history with a Latin American studies concentration from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a native of South Los Angeles. Her family lived and operated a grocery store for nearly a century less than half a mile from the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital.