Barbara Sasser, PhD

Honorary Director
Galveston, Texas

Dr. Sasser is the daughter of Harris Kempner Weston and the granddaughter of Sara Kempner Weston. She was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, received her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston TX where she currently resides. She and her husband Dominick have 3 children, the eldest, Emily Sasser Bray is also a board member of the Kempner Fund.

Barbara is involved in Community Service in Galveston, having served as president of Congregation B’nai Israel, as a board member of the Sasser Family Foundation and the David and Sara Weston Fund, and as Chairman of the Galveston County Recovery Fund which raised and distributed over $3 million in private funds after Hurricane Ike hit the area in 2008.

Without previous experience in film making, she established Frieder Films in 2011 to make “Rescue in the Philippines: Refuge from the Holocaust”, a documentary film which tells the story of the successful rescue of Jews from Nazi-occupied territory and their resettlement in the Philippines. This was a joint effort of her maternal grandfather and his brothers, working with the President of the Philippines, Manuel Quezon, and the American High Commissioner, Paul McNutt. These men were Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant, respectively, but worked together nonetheless.

Her grandson Samuel was diagnosed with the rare genetic disorder Monoamine Oxidase Deficiency A/B in 2021. Symptoms include severe developmental delays, intellectual disability, and autism. As with most rare diseases, there is no FDA-approved treatment, so she established the Monoamine Oxidase Deficiency Foundation to fund research and raise awareness for this disorder.