The Parker Foundation, a private foundation focused on the city of Lowell Massachusetts and its residents, highlights its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The Theodore Edson Parker Foundation is pleased to announce Chaletta Huertas as its new Lead Program Officer. For several years Ms. Huertas has provided staff support to the foundation alongside the former Lead Program Officer and GMA Foundations Director Philip Hall.

A graduate of Cornell University, Chaletta Huertas has been a program officer at GMA Foundations since 2008. Ms. Huertas has helped foundation clients through all stages of their development–from setting up a new grantmaking program to crafting a legacy plan when a foundation sunsets. Along the way, she has guided foundation trustees in creating and fine-tuning their impact measurement systems and exploring innovative program designs.

The Parker Foundation is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in its grantmaking in Lowell and in its governance. The trustees have recently revised the foundation’s guidelines and grant application to highlight this commitment. Additional related initiatives are in the planning stages.

The Parker Foundation was established in 1944 under the will of Theodore Edson Parker, of Lowell, Massachusetts. Since the late 1980’s, the foundation has focused its grantmaking in Lowell, which is home to the second largest Cambodian-American population in the United States.

In 2017, the foundation made grant payments of $1,115,500 in charitable contributions. Click here for the 2017 grants list.

The Parker Foundation board includes Newell Flather (president), Karen H. Carpenter (vice president), David W. Donahue, Jr. (treasurer), Sophy Theam (clerk), and Luis M. Pedroso. Limited by Mr. Parker’s instrument to a board of five, two of the current trustees are women-Karen Carpenter and Sophy Theam- and two are immigrants-Luis M. Pedroso and, again, Sophy Theam.

Chaletta Huertas is joined in staffing the foundation by Philip Hall and Liz Drewry, her colleagues at GMA. Chaletta can be reached at chuertas@gmafoundations.com