May 12, 2025
The heart of communities: Our award-winning volunteers
The 2024 David Lawrence Community Service Awards honor Kaiser Permanente employees who give back. Their efforts reflect our core values.
The 2024 award recognizes 11 individuals and 2 teams of employees who make a difference in communities locally and globally.
Our employees are dedicated to making communities healthier. And for many of our employees, that dedication goes far beyond their regular work hours.
They volunteer their time and use their skills to help people and communities in need.
Each year, we give the David Lawrence Community Service Award to employees who are dedicated to volunteering and improving their communities.
Named after David M. Lawrence, MD, a former chair and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, the award celebrates his lifelong dedication to improving health.
Each winner receives a $10,000 charitable contribution from Kaiser Permanente to donate to a nonprofit of their choice.
Meet the winners of the 2024 David Lawrence Community Service Award.
After her son died by suicide, Yodit Benalfew, MD, discovered that many other young East African immigrants also had anxiety or depression.
The parents of these young people are often reluctant to talk about mental health or seek help for their children.
To promote understanding and support for mental health treatment, Dr. Benalfew co-founded Kidus Legacy Family Wellness in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2019.
Krystal Edwards
Principal IT Business Operations Consultant
Outside of her role at Kaiser Permanente, Krystal Edwards is president of the executive board of directors of Koinonia Family Services in Loomis, California.
The agency provides foster care and adoption services as well as short-term residential treatment programs and other social services for youth. When Edwards was young and in foster care, the agency helped her.
As a volunteer, Edwards has mentored youth, organized trips and activities, spoken at events, and helped with fundraising.
Stanley Garcia
Senior Sales Support Associate
Stanley Garcia’s passion for comics, literacy, and helping kids drives his volunteer work.
Garcia founded the Landmark Comic Book Club at his daughter’s school in Commerce City, Colorado, in 2014. The club promotes literacy and pop culture education.
The Landmark Comic Book Club helps kids feel seen and included.
Sandra Jackson Dent, MD
Family Practice Physician
In 2020, Sandra Jackson Dent, MD, started a nonprofit in Atlanta called Totally Well Inc.
The organization offers programs for people of all ages to improve their physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Totally Well uses art, guided reflections, and journaling to help people become stronger and more resilient.
Smiles International Foundation Volunteer Team
Nicholas Pollard, MD, Anesthesiologist, Claudia Hammi, DO, Anesthesiologist, Dionne Bonifacio, Registered Nurse, Jodie Greger, Registered Nurse, Katie Leitch, Registered Nurse, Kamalehua Keohokapu, Certified Surgical Technologist, Alexis Jackson, Certified Nursing Assistant
Since 2009, this group of doctors, nurses, and other clinicians in Southern California has volunteered for the Smiles International Foundation.
The organization provides surgeries at no cost — primarily in Mexico and Costa Rica — for children in need with cleft lips, cleft palates, and other craniofacial disorders.
The group has assisted in performing over 300 surgeries.
Wanessa Lawrence
Certified Dental Assistant
Wanessa Lawrence is on the board of directors of the Unity Center in Vancouver, Washington. The Unity Center is a nonprofit that helps kids and families by providing support and mentorship. She recently decided to work only part time at Kaiser Permanente so she can volunteer 30 to 40 hours a week.
She also leads a Bible study and prayer group at Fernhill Rehabilitation Center for people recovering from addiction.
Lahaina Clinic Staff
When wildfires burned through west Maui in 2023, our Lahaina Clinic staff quickly provided medical care in temporary locations like shelters and parks.
Doctors, nurses, and other staff members worked around the clock to help more than 5,000 patients.
They also reunited families, connected people to resources, and gave advice on health care and disaster relief.
Nancy Kaplan
Social Worker
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Nancy Kaplan and her son, Liem, worried about homeless people.
So, together with friends and neighbors in Sammamish, Washington, they assembled hygiene kits and made sandwiches for people without housing.
This effort grew into a nonprofit called the GivingHope Project. Its work has expanded to help women exiting homelessness and people affected by domestic violence and human trafficking. The organization also helps the families of children with disabilities.
Noushin Maktabi
Pharmacy Manager
In 2014, Noushin Maktabi, who holds a doctor of pharmacy degree, began volunteering with the Seattle King County Clinic in Seattle. The clinic offers no-cost care and community resources to thousands of people.
Dr. Maktabi started as a pharmacy volunteer and now leads the clinic’s dental and medical pharmacies.
She and her team work hard to make sure patients get the right prescriptions and know how to use them.
Claudia Rodriguez-Zinn
Registered Nurse
In 2013, Claudia Rodriguez-Zinn started volunteering with Advocates for Language Learning, an organization that supports a dual language immersion program for native and non-native Spanish speakers in Lake Forest, Aliso Viejo, and Laguna Hills, California.
She has been on the executive board of Advocates for Language Learning for over 10 years and is currently the vice president of operations.
As part of her role, Rodriguez-Zinn coordinates various cultural events including the Day of the Dead Festival and the Children’s Day Festival.
These events allow young people to engage with traditions from various Spanish-speaking cultures. The events are also a way to share information on community resources, such as legal services, literacy programs, mental health services, and housing programs.
Deborah Tucker
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Assistant
Deborah Tucker has been volunteering and advocating for the preservation of Native American culture in Yosemite National Park for over 20 years.
She’s helping create a spiritual and educational center called Wahhoga in Yosemite Valley, California. Visitors will learn about the history and struggles of Native Americans in Yosemite Valley since the 1850s.
Tucker is also the board secretary for Native Solutions Family Guidance Center, which runs 4 sober-living homes.
Jacob Varghese, MD
Adult Medicine Physician
Jacob Varghese, MD, is the leader of a group of Kaiser Permanente doctors and other clinicians who volunteer at community clinics in the greater Atlanta area.
Since 2015, Dr. Varghese has worked with 5 community clinics to offer no-cost primary care, select specialty care, and lab services.
He spends most of his volunteer time at Grace Village Medical Clinic in Clarkston, Georgia. The clinic helps many migrants and refugees.
Matthew Woodburn
Sales Manager
Matthew Woodburn has spent over 27 years volunteering.
Since 2013, he’s devoted his time to the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, for which he currently serves on the board of directors.
Founded in 1980, the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus uses art to show that everyone is valuable.
Woodburn is also committed to the Alcoholics Anonymous program and supporting safe spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals to stay sober.
