MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation has elected six board members to support the organization’s goal to spark learning through interactive experiences.
The new board members are Lily Hahn, Stephen Leider, Kirsten McLaughlin, Deji Olukotun, Amber Kaplan Sprague and Casey Summar. And incumbent board member Alixe Mattingly has been elected the new chair.
Ms. Hahn is a founding donor of the museum and has been on the committee for the museum’s annual fundraiser, MOXI@Night, for the past two years. Ms. Hahn was raised in Santa Barbara and North Carolina, and she and her son frequently travel between here and Tyron, N.C.
Mr. Leider is a partner at Lee & Associates firm with more than 30 years of experience as a real estate broker. He has served on a number of boards, including the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, the board of the Santa Barbara Zoo, the board of Santa Barbara Middle School and CALM.
Ms. McLaughlin is market vice president of Cox Communications, where she oversees local operations and acts as the chief market spokesperson. She has been an active participant on boards in the past, with positions at the Santa Barbara Family YMCA, the California Cable and Telecommunications Association and the Bussiness Giving Roundtable.
Later this year, she is set to take over as board chair for the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. Ms. McLaughlin holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and mass communications from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in public policy from UCLA.
Mr. Olukoton is the director of policy and corporate social responsibility at Sonos, where he manages corporate social responsibility initiatives and leads the company’s policy and government relations. He is also an attorney where he has worked with organizations dedicated to social justice, digital rights and free expression.
A published fictional writer, his novel “After the Flare” won awards after its publication, and he has had other work featured in the Guardian, NPR and the Washington Post.
Ms. Sprague is an immunologist and serves as a senior advisory board member at NKMax America Inc., a biotechnology company developing unique natural killer cell therapies for solid tumors.
Ms. Sprague volunteers for causes supporting women in health care and women in STEM throughout various regions in Southern California. She holds a doctorate in immunology from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a bachelor’s in biology and from the College of Creative Studies at UCSB.
Ms. Summar is a partner at The Law Firm for Non-Profits, where she specializes in advising nonprofits of various types and sizes. She is also an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Vanderbilt University Law School. Prior to moving to Santa Barbara, Ms. Summar was founder and executive director of the Tennessee Volunteer Lawyers for Arts, which became Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. Her interest in art led her to serve in Santa Barbara as chair of the board of the Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center last year and secretary of the board of the Common Table Foundation.
Ms. Mattingly, the new chair, was elected to the board in 2012 and joined the executive committee in 2017. During her time at MOXI, she served as interim-CEO for six months and co-chaired a $25 million capital campaign. Ms. Mattingly has more than 33 years in public affairs, strategic communications and media relations experience in both organizational and government settings.
Before moving to Santa Barbara in 1999, Ms. Mattingly served in the White House as deputy press secretary for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and as assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
email: mhirneisen@newspress.com
