About Rick Pendery
Rick Pendery has been a highly successful businessman, as the owner and operator of a business consulting company, Pendery Consulting. In addition he owned and operated a construction and real estate development company, Pendery Construction, which built single-family homes as well as multi-family, inner-city redevelopment and affordable housing in Los Angeles and San Diego. His innovative redevelopment strategies helped to clean up and revitalize 2 of the most run-down and violent areas of San Diego.
Regardless of his successful careers in various business ventures, Mr. Pendery’s concern for our society has led him to be actively involved in fighting substance abuse and criminality in our cities. After studying Engineering at Texas Tech University and Psychology at the University of Texas, he began to follow his passion for helping others. In the 1970’s, after thorough research, he began working with Narconon, one of the most successful drug rehabilitation programs in the world.
After extensive training, Mr. Pendery was appointed as the Director of Narconon Texas as well as the Director of the local Narconon in El Paso, Texas, which had approximately 150 clients at any given time. During his tenure, he put on a series of events which were proclaimed by the Governor of Texas as “Narconon Week”. These events were co-sponsored by the Girl Scouts of America and the Austin Kiwanis Club. They included participants from the Texas Supreme Court, the Texas State Prosecutors and the Texas Legislature. During that time, he was also jointly responsible for events with the NAACP, the National Association of Christians and Jews, and the Catholic Church. After running the Narconon in El Paso for 2 years, he was selected to lead Narconon for the U.S., as their Executive Director. He held this position for more than two years.
When he retired from his consulting business, in 1995, he returned to his passion for rehabilitation. He then founded Second Chance Program, Inc, a non-profit corporation that rehabilitates offenders in the criminal justice system. He is currently the Executive Director of this organization. Second Chance Program has operated prison-based rehabilitation programs in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United States and has been responsible for the rehabilitation of approximately 6000 individuals suffering from substance addictions. The majority were addicted to heroin and methamphetamine. These former inmates leave incarceration and go on to lead drug-free and crime-free lives as contributing members of society.
Additionally, Rick co-founded the L.I.V.E. (Learning Integrity and Values through Education) Program. This highly successful crime prevention program targets school aged children and provides them with values training that is often missing in today’s society. To date more than 50,000 children have had the benefit of completing L.I.V.E., resulting in a documented diminished drop out rate in the schools where it was delivered.
In 2001 Rick was asked to be the Private Sector Co-Chair of the Crime, Justice, Terrorism, and Substance Abuse Committee Policy Committee with the National Foundation for Women Legislators, and he continues to serve the foundation in this capacity. As such, he has helped structure and implement national initiatives with 1) the Drug Enforcement Administration – drug education on Ecstasy and Club Drugs that dramatically reduced their use, 2) Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice – programs to help reduce human trafficking, and 3) the National Guard – a national drug education program in middle schools.
From this position, Pendery helped produce 5 national events, with approximately 2000 state legislators. The events included speakers such as Asa Hutchinson (while he was the Administrator of the DEA), Bill Bennet (previous Drug Czar), Senator Joe Biden, Charles Currie (Administrator of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – SAMHSA), Tommy Thompson (Secretary of Health and Human Services), Scott Burn (Deputy Drug Czar), ex-CIA Director Charles Woosley and Janet Hale (Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security) as speakers.
Rick has extensive experience in fund-raising, having raised over $1.25 Million in government and private grants, $2 Million in philanthropic donations, and more than $2.5 Million in government contracts and funding in New Mexico, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
In 2000 Rick Pendery was awarded the prestigious Freedom Medal, in England, for his contributions, internationally, to human rights and humanitarian work.
In November of 2003, he became a fully Credited Chemical Dependency Counselor via the National Board of Addiction Examiners.