Karen Carlton

After spending a good part of her career as an advocate for people with disabilities, Karen is thrilled to be working for Laughing Gull Foundation on the philanthropy side of the nonprofit arena, supporting other 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 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. After spending 8 years commuting to Durham from Raleigh, Karen realized that Durham is “home” and moved there in 2015. She and her dog love it! In her spare time, Karen loves watching her 11 nieces and nephews and 2 great nieces grow into excellent young adults and seeing where life takes them. She also spends time with a young man with Down Syndrome, who crawled into her heart almost 30 years ago.