Frank A. Lalle

Program Director

By Adriana Godoy Leiss

Early in his career as a supervising attorney for the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, it became evident to Frank Lalle that health was critical to quality of life. During his 15-year tenure with the Society, he represented low-income families, older adults and children with disabilities in individual and class-action lawsuits in the areas of health care and public benefits.

Now as a program director for TCWF, addressing the health needs of the underserved continues to be a pivotal theme in his career.

“There are so many barriers to optimal health and wellness in the legal and health systems,” said Lalle. “Working to lower those barriers on an individual level and on a foundation level has been really rewarding.”

Lalle, who joined TCWF in April 2008, is assigned to special projects grantmaking, which responds to opportunities that fit the Foundation’s mission but are outside its eight health issues prioritized for funding.

“I am really focused on organizations that are part of the health care safety net: community health clinics and free clinics,” Lalle said.

He also oversees grants to organizations that target underserved ethnic populations to help them understand and navigate the health care system; grants to family resource centers that deliver health care services, including those in remote and isolated rural areas; and grants to organizations that help address the health needs of California/Mexico border populations. His responsibilities include reviewing letters of interest and grant proposals, and making funding recommendations.

In 1994, while still at the Legal Aid Society, his interest in philanthropy was sparked. Lalle worked with a local community foundation to protect the rights of clients who were close to losing their health benefits as a result of federal welfare reform.

“I was interested in how philanthropy addressed that urgent situation and how it pulled together a group of nonprofits to focus on a common goal,” said Lalle. “It seemed to me that being in philanthropy, I would be able to continue the work I was doing on a larger scale.”

Following his career as a lawyer, he worked at the Peninsula Community Foundation in San Mateo, where he was a senior program officer responsible for grantmaking on the issues of supporting families and health and wellness. Before joining TCWF, he was a grantmaking director at Silicon Valley Community Foundation in Mountain View, managing health care and human services discretionary grantmaking through the foundation’s community endowment and services to corporate donor-advised funds.

Lalle currently serves on the community health investment committee of the Peninsula Healthcare District and is a trustee of the Bernard A. Newcomb Foundation. A member of the State Bar of California, he earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Beloit College in Wisconsin and his law degree from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.

An avid chef and gardener, Lalle lives in San Francisco with his wife Susan and their daughter.