Lourdes Sanchez, a former educator in Miami-Dade County, earned her bachelor’s degree and a Master’s in Education degree from the University of Miami. Lourdes is a single parent of an adult son with Down’s Syndrome. She and her late husband, Ralph, were one of the founding families of The Miami Learning Experience School (MLE), a private non-profit school established in 1978 for children and adults with mild to moderate intellectual and developmental disabilities, where their son Ralph has attended since birth and is currently enrolled in the adult day program. Since her husband’s death in 2013, Lourdes has continued the work they began together, advocating on behalf of children with special needs to improve educational opportunities and organizing community-wide fundraising events to benefit MLE. She was also a parent board member for many years.

Lourdes has established deep roots in the community and has been active in supporting other important organizations, including the Miami Heart Association, the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Burn Center, Miami Center for AIDS Research (check), and Florida International University. She has also served on the boards of Barry University and Camillus House.

Lourdes joined the Board of Casa Familia in 2016 and currently serves as Secretary and acts as Chair of the Advocacy Committee. She is also President of Commercial Douglas LLC, a real estate development company founded by her late husband. She has generously supported Casa Familia by providing office space at the company’s location in Coral Gables and using her vast community contacts and expertise in real estate development to assist Casa Familia in acquiring a 9-acre tract of county-owned land in Kendall which will become the future site of The Village of Casa Familia.