Who We Are

Story of the Foundation

The Maryam Parman Foundation for Children is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation providing customized medical aid to children without resources. Through her work as a personal injury attorney, our Founder sees that oftentimes catastrophically injured children do not receive the compensation they need to cover their medical expenses and necessary future medical care. When MPFC first started accepting applications, our Executive Director found that there were many more children in need of our services beyond those who were injured by auto and sports accidents. We found that children who were victims of abuse, and born with illnesses such as, cerebral palsy, autism, and rare genetic disorders, struggled to afford the care they needed as well. We learned that too often, health insurance does not cover the type of therapy and other services that these children can hugely benefit from.

Due to this discovery, we expanded our vision and created a broader scope of children that the foundation helps. MPFC accepts applications for children with a wide variety of medical issues and treats each child on a case-by-case basis. This sets our foundation apart as we are in a unique position to be able to help more than one issue and provide aid in various ways by accessing each child and their needs. The heart of helping children recover from life altering medical diagnosis remains the same as Maryam’s original vision. MPFC is dedicated to changing the lives of children and their families.

Story of Our Founder

Maryam Parman is a quiet philanthropist who currently serves as a board member for various nonprofit organizations and primarily gives to organizations that help children and their families. She is the managing partner of a personal injury law firm in Southern California that solely focuses on injury and death cases resulting from automobile accidents, premise liability, and products liability. Throughout her career she has represented thousands of injured children pro bono and long dreamed of starting her own foundation that will uniquely help catastrophically injured children heal from their injuries.

She serves as the President of the Foundation and is devoted to helping as many children as possible. She believes that the Maryam Parman Foundation For Children will change the lives of America’s most important and treasured asset, our children.

Our Executive Team

Taylor Smith

Executive Director

Taylor Smith is the Executive Director of MPFC and oversees the day-to-day activities of the organization. As the main point of contact for our Board of Directors and our children’s families, she ensures that our foundation is running smoothly.

Taylor received her Bachelor’s Degree from University of California, Irvine. She worked in personal injury law for four years before attending Whittier Law School to study law. While in law school, Taylor received a Certificate in Children and Family Law and spent two semesters working in the Special Education Clinic advocating for children with special needs. She led the nonprofit organization, Whittier Law School’s Public Interest Law Foundation, for two years and realized her determination to work for a nonprofit. She earned her Juris Doctorate and is a member of the Bar in the state of California. Before working in nonprofit, Taylor worked in civil litigation for a law firm that represented public entities. Taylor enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and animals. She also loves to play soccer, snowboard, and travel as much as she can.

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ashley

Ashley Roberts

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND FUNDRAISING

Ashley Roberts is the Director of Marketing and Fundraising. She is the brains behind our newsletters, blogs, emails, and social media. She also helps create fundraising campaigns and collaborates with our Executive Director to coordinate our annual events. 

Ashley received her Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduation, she worked as a case manager for a personal injury law firm. It was there that she saw firsthand the hardships that families go through after suffering serious injuries from accidents. She continued her career at a tech company in Irvine where she acquired marketing and social media knowledge. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, hiking, working out, and spending time with her family and friends.

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The Foundation Board

Maryam Parman

President

Maryam Parman is the President of our Board of Directors. She also serves as the Chairperson of the Board and is the founder of our organization. 

By the time Maryam entered law school at Western University, she knew what she wanted to do once she got her Juris Doctor. As an undergraduate studying pre-med at the University of California, Irvine, she’d developed an awareness of human injury and knew that she wanted to help people who have been physically harmed, especially children. She decided she would be able to help children by becoming a lawyer. Since launching her career in 1998, Maryam has done just that by focusing her practice solely on assisting injured people in recovering from these terrible injuries.

Maryam’s own practice continues to focus solely on injury and death cases resulting from automobile accidents, premises liability, products liability, elder abuse, police brutality, animal attacks, and construction-site accidents. She has achieved numerous significant results for her clients. In her spare time, Maryam enjoys spending time with her young son, exercising, and reading about new legal developments in personal injury.

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Pam Algorri

TREASURER

Pam Algorri is the Secretary of our Board of Directors. Pam uses her years of fundraising experience to help the foundation.

 

Pam Algorri was born and raised in Southern California and now divides her time between Pasadena and Newport Beach…the best of both worlds! Mark, her husband of 36 years, is a trial lawyer at the firm he co-founded in 1979, DeWitt Algorri & Algorri. They share 3 children and 2 grandchildren together who are all the light of their lives. Family is absolutely everything to them and being grandparents makes their lives so much more rewarding. Pam has been involved in annual fundraising and charity events since she was young. She has been on the chair of large galas and helped raise funds to finance numerous projects inside and outside of children’s classrooms. She was also involved with the National Charity League with her daughter. It has always been important to Pam to pitch in and get involved in her community. She is excited to be a part of the Maryam Parman Foundation For Children where she hopes to add her experience to the organization. 

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Elmira Najafi

secretary

Elmira Najafi is a Director on the Board of MPFC. She, along with the Board, oversees the management of the foundation and is integral in planning our annual events. 

Elmira J. Najafi is a dynamic woman who is passionate about life and her many ventures. Born in Iran, her family immigrated to Montreal, Canada at a young age and eventually settled in California at the age of 14.

She and her husband, Dr. Ali Najafi have been married for 18 years and have three rambunctious boys Mateen, Darian and Camden who keep them quite busy.

Recognizing her appreciation for all things beautiful and having an eye for style, she has been designing jewelry for Malakan Diamond Company Inc. for the last 10 years. Her own custom fine jewelry line “Elle Bespoke Jewels & Fine Stones” was born when she found her love of customizing each piece for her clients. She is the CFO of Neurosurgical Associates Medical Group Inc., a successful Neurosurgery practice in Central California, which she and her husband built. Together they have several businesses in which she remains involved, including Najafi Enterprises llc. ,a real estate holding company and Terra Bella Ranch LLC. , which holds several ranches, producing & exporting nuts.

One of Elmira’s biggest passions is her love for fitness. She holds several fitness certifications and is an ambassador for Carbon 38, an athleisure company. Philanthropy is near and dear to Elmira’s heart as well. She is involved in several nonprofit organizations, most of which benefit children.

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Gerald Klein

director

Gerald Klein serves as our Secretary of our Board of Directors. Gerald is responsible for overseeing the management of the foundation and dedicates his time and expertise to our mission.

Mr. Klein founded Klein & Wilson, one of the most prominent law firms in Orange County.  Before his retirement, Mr. Klein was a successful trial lawyer for over 40 years.  His peers named him trial lawyer of the year on three separate occasions and he was the California state chair of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the most prestigious trial bar group in the country.  Mr. Klein founded the Small Angels Foundation and Endowment over 30 years ago.  That foundation has provided life changing gifts to recipients in need.

                                   Contact Gerald

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