Kevin Smullin Brown
Chair of the Board
Meredith A. Brown
Vice President and Secretary
Carina Aisha Uraiqat
Board Member
Ajay Kundaria
Board Designee for Investment Oversight
Former Directors
Carol Anne Smullin Brown
Director (1990 – 2016)
Patricia C. (Patsy) Smullin
Director (1990 – 2015)
Nikki C. Hatton
Director (2001 – 2016)
William B. Smullin
Director (1990 – 1995)
Susan Dawson
Director (2016-2023)
Staff
Laura A. Olson
Executive Director
Laura Olson joined the Patricia D. and William B. Smullin Foundation as Executive Director in January 2016. Prior to joining The Smullin Foundation, Olson worked for The California Endowment for seven years as Program Manager for Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Lands. Ms. Olson was a member of the Building Healthy Communities team working on The Endowment’s 10-year place-based initiative in the rural Northwestern California region. In the first year, Ms. Olson supported the local community through early planning and development of strategies for community engagement and youth leadership development. Through the early years of the initiative Ms. Olson worked with community residents and stakeholders to begin to address the policy and systems changes needed to improve health outcomes over the long term.
From 1999 to 2009, Ms. Olson was a Program Manager at the Humboldt Area Foundation where she provided oversight for discretionary grant-making and nonprofit capacity building, supported community development and helped build numerous community and funding partnerships. Ms. Olson served concurrently as the Executive Director of the Union Labor Health Foundation, a local hospital conversion foundation, whose mission is to improve the health and well-being of Humboldt County residents. In addition, Ms. Olson acted as Senior Advisor to The Trinity Trust, a community foundation affiliate serving Trinity County California. In 2005, Ms. Olson assisted in the development of the Wild Rivers Community Foundation, a regional affiliate of Humboldt Area Foundation serving Del Norte County California and Curry County Oregon, and acted as its first Executive Director.
Laura Olson currently participates on the Advisory Committee of Exponent Philanthropy, a national small staffed foundation affiliate group and on the planning committee for the National Rural Funders Group. Ms. Olson’s past community service includes active membership on the United Way of Humboldt Steering Committee, St. Joseph Health System Community Benefits Committee, Humboldt Methamphetamine Awareness Task Force, and serving as co-chair of the California Management Assistance Partnership.
Carol Anne Smullin Brown
Former Executive Director (1999 – 2015)
Carol Anne Smullin Brown is a daughter of the donor and founder of the Smullin Foundation.
She is a graduate of Stanford University. Until his death in 1995, she worked with her father in his broadcasting enterprises in Northern California and Southern Oregon.
She became a Director of the Foundation in 1990, President in 1995, and Executive Director in 1999. She retired as Executive Director at the end of 2015.