Sam Lupas learned the importance of caring for others as a young boy growing up in Pennsylvania, where his father was a doctor and his mother worked as a nurse.

“They were both always taking care of other people at work and at home,” Sam says. “My mom used to throw this party every Christmas Eve for anybody and everybody who didn’t have a place to go, and we often had foster kids in our house growing up.”

After graduating from the University of Vermont and working in Manhattan and Atlanta, Sam visited Western North Carolina and fell in love with the mountains. So in 1999 he moved to the Cashiers area, where he and his wife, Wendy, would eventually raise their three children.

As an investor, developer, broker, and founding partner of Landmark Realty Group, Sam has been instrumental in developing communities in the Lake Glenville and Cashiers areas. He’s also an active member of the community, having served on the board of trustees at the Summit Charter School, Cashiers Community Foundation, Village Conservancy, Village Council and the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital Board.

“Joining the Dogwood Health Trust Board means a lot to me as it is a way to honor my parents’ legacy of caring for others,” says Sam. “We want to have a generational impact on the citizens of Western North Carolina by addressing the root of what needs to change to improve people’s health. Dogwood has the opportunity to realize these types of impacts.”