Laura Kallus is CEO of the Caridad Center, Inc., the largest free healthcare clinic in the state of Florida. Caridad Center’s mission is to upgrade the health, education and living standards of underserved children and families. We serve the uninsured, working poor of Palm Beach County. Over 5,000 people a year rely on Caridad Center for medical and dental treatment provided by over 400 volunteer medical providers. The Center also provides mental health counseling, crisis intervention services, emergency assistance, baby supplies, backpacks to students, health education, college scholarships, and food for the holidays.
Laura has long been a champion of the most marginalized among us. For nearly 15 years she worked with gang members in both Washington DC and Miami. Prior to joining Caridad, Ms. Kallus was Executive Director of the PanZOu Project in Miami, which provides gang prevention, intervention and re-entry programs to Haitian gang-involved youth and young adults. She started a social enterprise, PanZOu Productions, which is a screen printing and embroidery shop that hires and trains gang members and ex-offenders. She also served as the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice’s Director of the North Miami Beach Gang Reduction Program. As Vice President for Research and Evaluation at The Thurston Group, Ms. Kallus managed the evaluation of over 50 youth crime prevention programs throughout Dade County.
Ms. Kallus received her BA in Cultural Anthropology from Appalachian State University, Magna Cum Laude, and her Master of Arts in Anthropology with a concentration in Development from George Washington University. She is the author of four papers on youth gangs and has presented nationally and internationally.
