Laura Samberg, co-director of the Samberg Family Foundation and a former project manager at a health-services-research firm, is the only one of the group with professional experience outside philanthropy. The others involved themselves in charity work shortly after marrying their husbands, though Marilyn Simons, president of the Simons Foundation, earned a Ph.D. in economics before turning her focus to educational nonprofits. Joan Weill, president of the Weill Family Foundation, and Helen Schwab, president of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, have long been active in the arts. Penelope Stamps has been the driving force behind the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation’s funding of scholarships to her alma mater, the University of Michigan. And aside from serving as executive director of the Klarman Family Foundation, Beth Klarman established the Boston Jewish Community Women’s Fund.