Like father, like son. Like father, like daughter.
Westside business leaders Donald Goodman and Susan Gabriel Potter are following in their fathers’ large footsteps – and carrying on their legacies – by serving on the Board of Advisors at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center.
Goodman, who is founder and president of Don Lee Farms, a food products company based in Inglewood, began donating his time and expertise to the hospital’s advisory board in 2005. That followed about two decades of board service by his late father, Lawrence, who had founded his own food company after World War II.
Lawrence Goodman served on Santa Monica Hospital’s Board of Trustees from the early 1980s until mid-1995, when the board was a governing body with fiduciary responsibilities. After UCLA Health acquired the hospital in August 1995, the board became an advisory body and the elder Goodman continued serving up until his death in 2003.
His son became philanthropically involved with the hospital in gratitude for the care provided to his dad, then joined the board after being asked by former board member and UCLA benefactor Meyer Luskin.
“I like the personal touch you get at UCLA Santa Monica,” Goodman said, “and appreciate that its services are enhanced by the vast research and resources of the entire health system.”
A broad philanthropic reach
Goodman’s philanthropic support extends beyond the Santa Monica campus. He and wife, Andrea, partnered with Meyer and Renee Luskin as benefactors of the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center in Westwood, which studies the gut microbiome and its effect on disease prevention and immunity.
His sister-in-law, Vicky Goodman, is founder and president of the UCLA Friends of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people with mental illness.
Like his father, Goodman also supports the Los Angeles Food Bank. During the pandemic, when food insecurity was amplified, his company provided meals to a national network of food banks.
Living her parents’ legacies
Gabriel Potter, who is president of Bob Gabriel Insurance in Santa Monica, joined the board in 2014 after her father, Robert Gabriel, a legendary Santa Monica businessman, former city councilman and philanthropist, died in 2007.
Robert Gabriel was first a member of the hospital’s board of trustees, then became an advisory board member after the hospital became part of UCLA Health. Both he and the elder Goodman were involved in discussions about Santa Monica Hospital’s future following the Northridge earthquake and supported its eventual transition to UCLA.
However, Gabriel Potter is actually following in both her parents’ footsteps, as her mother, Louise, also was actively involved in supporting the hospital. Louise Gabriel was a former president of the Santa Monica Hospital Auxiliary, which served as a support group for the hospital, and accumulated more than 450 volunteer hours of service.
“I remember her being very competitive with the other ladies about their volunteer hours,” Gabriel Potter recalled.
She shares something else in common with her community-minded parents. Like them, she was awarded the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce’s Roy E. Naylor Award for community service. It occupies a special place in her home – and heart.
Gabriel Potter considers it an honor to serve on the board and values the opportunity to support the hospital’s and health system’s mission, including initiatives such as Operation Mend. “It’s a cause close to my heart,” she said. The program provides post-9/11 military veterans and their family members with comprehensive care for the physical and psychological wounds of war.
Louise and Robert Gabriel also founded the Santa Monica History Museum, with Louise serving as its president until her death in 2017. Gabriel Potter now serves in that role for the museum, located in an annex of the main Santa Monica Public Library.
“I’m living my parents’ legacies,” Gabriel Potter joked. “But I would not have wanted it any other way.”
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