Frank J

Frank J. DeSantis, CAE

(Retired) Past President, LA BioMed, (Research and Education Institute)0

Awards Received May 6, 2005

Research and Education Institute (REI) Past President, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Frank J. DeSantis was born in Easton, Pennsylvania and grew up in New Jersey. He was graduated from John Marshall High School in Los Angeles and is a decorated Korean War Veteran. He received both a BS and MS in Business from California State University Los Angeles.

Frank’s distinguished management career began with the County of Los Angeles in 1957 as an administrative trainee in the Civil Service Commission. He served as the first professional Personnel Director at Harbor General Hospital from 1959-1963. Frank was given the responsibility for “operation transition”, the re-training and orientation of employees to their new work environment when the new hospital was completed in February 1963, an assignment which prepared him well for his new position when he was hired by Luigi Mastroianni Jr. to manage the research programs in October, 1962. He simultaneously worked as Hospital personnel director and as the part time research administrator until after the relocation in February 1963 remaining behind in the old unit, where he felt like a captain on a ship that had been abandoned.

He then assumed the position of full time Research Administrator of the state’s fastest growing and largest independent non-profit medical research facility. In this capacity while administrating the grants for PI’s he developed a master plan for utilization of the hospital barracks converting them to the Research Labs and support facilities. As the first CEO of the newly named Research and Education Institute, Frank was soon promoted to president.

During his 35 year tenure as president he oversaw the growth of the research program from 6 employees to over 1,000 with a professional faculty, fellows and research associates. The job demanded innovative policies and procedures to meet the requirements of the various granting agencies. Annual income and expenditures for research programs increased from $55,000 in 1962 to more than $50 million by the time he retired in 1997. Prior to his retirement he established the present Research Park area, designating sites for new buildings.

Frank and his staff oversaw a diverse range of over 600 research and education grants and contracts, established new research buildings to supplement the original barracks and built a solid reputation in the research, education and medical community.

During this period he worked closely with and was guided by the attending physicians from the communities of Long Beach, Inglewood, Gardena, Torrance and surrounding areas. These medical leaders served the hospital and university faculty coordinating the research activities; serving as officers and committee chairmen and members of Board of Directors, the research, the space, finance, human subjects and animal care committees. These committees were important for the support of the fledgling dynamics and fast moving new research organization as new faculty continued to arrive eager to carry out their academic careers.

The administrative organization Frank and his staff developed met the daily challenges and requirements of the faculty and granting agencies. Independence and total responsibility for its own operation was soon achieved by REI. In addition the REI staff provided valuable support to many of the hospital operations including the Hospital Medical Group (now MFI), the Hospital Library and Child Life Center.

Frank also shared his newly gained knowledge with a number of worthy community endeavors. He was instrumental in the founding of the Charles R. Drew Post Graduate Medical School’s administration organization, an achievement for which he was honored.

The Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, St. Mary’s and Memorial Hospital of Long Beach and the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte also called on Frank as well as the many of the Los Angeles Counties Hospitals for specialized assistance in their grant programs. Frank served and headed various advisory boards and taught classes at California State University Los Angeles. For his many contributions and leadership on behalf of the University he was given the Outstanding Alumnus and Distinguished Alumnus Awards. He has been a member of the Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fraternity since 1956. He was named a “Silver Knight of Management” by the National Management Association in 1971 and a “Gold Knight of Management” in 1982 and in June, 2004 was awarded a Lifetime Membership by the National Management Association. After a course of study and exam provided by the American Society of Association Executives, he earned the distinction of Certified Association Executive (CAE). His credentials earned him a lifelong designation that he still maintains. In 1985 he was given the Vic Hartley Memorial Award as outstanding association executive of the year by the Southern California Society of Association Executives and the Grand Award by the National ASAE. Since 1965 he has also served as Executive Director of the Western Section American Urological Association, a non-profit physician organization, at the request of a Harbor-UCLA Board member.

Frank held active leadership positions in numerous community and humanitarian organizations too numerous to list and has received recognition for his services from the State of California and State Assembly, the City of Los Angeles, the County of Orange, and the County of Los Angeles. He is a past president of the Dominguez-Carson Rotary Club and has chaired numerous fund raisers for charitable and humanitarian causes. He has raised more than $2 million for numerous projects including an Italian language chair at California State University, Long Beach, and the birth defects libraries at the University of California campuses in Loma Linda, Fresno, Irvine and Harbor-UCLA, the Sons of Italy Foundation, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Arts in Santa Ana, California and Chapman University in Orange.

When Frank became a member of the Orders Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) his strong leadership abilities garnered him much attention throughout the United States as well as in California. His election to President of the State’s Grand Lodge of California in 1989 led to a two-year term as the National President in 1997 where Frank effectively led the 500,000 member OSIA to become a more viable and visible organization. Always the innovator, he generated and expanded the focus of American Italians in Orange County by co-founding the prestigious Orange County American Italian Renaissance Foundation in 1981. The Foundation seeks to promote and carry out Italian heritage and cultural programs. Frank successfully opened the first Italian Cultural Center in 2003 to house these activities. For his outstanding efforts on behalf of the Italian community Frank was presented with the Order of Merit of Cavalieri by the Italian government and the Order of Merit of Commendatore, one of the highest awards given to an American of Italian ancestry by the Italian government.

Currently he is still active in the Order Sons of Italy and serves as president of the Orange County American Italian Renaissance Foundation, and is a member of the Board of Governor’s of the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana where he serves on numerous committees.

On the occasion of his retirement in 1997 Frank was recognized for his many contributions and achievements by the REI.

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