Karen Carlton

Karen has been with the Laughing Gull Foundation for over a decade. She loves working on the philanthropy side of the nonprofit arena (where she spent a majority of her career), supporting issue areas that she is passionate about. Karen’s work with First In Families of North Carolina and Community Partnerships provided a good foundation for her work with LGF, and Karen has increasingly focused her work on grants management, operations, and “all things data.” Karen also loves getting to know LGF grantees. Karen has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology from Meredith College. In 2025, Karen welcomed a young man with Down Syndrome into her home after the tragic death of his mother. Karen loves having Joey live with her; a recent bright spot was celebrating Joey’s 35^th birthday with most of his favorite people in the world and “dancing the night away!”