Helping Hand
Erica Mangham loves to help others-professionally and personally.
Written by Nancy Sokoler Steiner | Photographed by Vincent Rios
When she was interviewed in November, Erica Mangham was once again looking forward to volunteering at Torrance Memorial Medical Center’s Holiday Festival. She previously helped with setting up and greeting guests, while this year her assignment involved security for the trees. She recently worked on the Boys & Girls Clubs food drive, bundling donated food into Thanksgiving packages for needy families.
Volunteering comes naturally to Mangham. The Rancho Palos Verdes wife and mother of three has been doing so since she was a high school student living in Upland. She admits her start as a volunteer stemmed from mixed motivations. She saw it as her ticket out of the house when she was grounded and could not go to parties.
“I was a social kid,” she says. “Wednesday nights I’d join other students feeding the homeless at a church in Pomona. Then I started going with friends to distribute cookies at holiday time to the local group home.”
She found the experiences extremely rewarding. “I’m adopted, and I have an affinity for other adopted kids and kids in foster care. There’s something about it that makes you different,” she says. Her parents encouraged and supported her endeavors.
In high school and college, Mangham planned to become a high-powered attorney. She began to dabble in politics while majoring in political science at Cal Poly Pomona.
“It wasn’t as rewarding as I thought it would be,” she explains. She wanted to help people more directly and began volunteering at various organizations to get familiar with how nonprofits worked. She also earned a nonprofit management certificate from UCLA to learn all facets of the field.
Mangham went on to work with Best Buddies International, Lupus Research Alliance and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. She served as executive director at Variety – the Children’s Charity, overseeing 44 global offices.
Recently, Mangham served as executive director for Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times. “It’s a great organization, and I love working with kids,” she says. “The camp hosts children who have been impacted by cancer and their siblings. These kids have gone through something major and couldn’t be like other children. This program allows them to be kids again.”
Mangham recently stepped down from her position at Camp Ronald McDonald to care for her ill mother. However, she still makes time to volunteer for a variety of organizations in addition to Torrance Memorial.
She is president of the National Charity League’s Palos Verdes chapter. The group promotes philanthropy, leadership and culture by inviting girls in grades 7–12 to volunteer with their mothers at community nonprofits such as food pantries, children’s agencies and hospitals. Mangham joined the program with her older daughter in 2018 and assumed her leadership position in 2023. Similarly, her son belongs to the National League of Young Men, a volunteer organization for mothers and sons.
Mangham adopted her daughter, who is now 13 years old and has disabilities, at the age of 5. “I’m slowly getting her into volunteer activities too,” she says.
“I’m drawn to children in tough situations that aren’t their fault. It brings me joy to be able to help,” Mangham happily admits. “If I can help make the world or my community a better place, why not try?”
