Each member of our Board of Directors has a deep personal commitment to Los Alamos. Together, they lead the Los Alamos Community Foundation using their expertise, their knowledge of our community, and their passionate belief in the power of philanthropy to change lives.
The Board establishes policy, sets priorities and makes final decisions to authorize grants. All Directors are volunteers who serve without pay for three-year terms. Liz Martineau, our Executive Director, has operational responsibilities and works to implement Board policy.
Chair
Linda Daly moved to Los Alamos in 1992 when she joined the University of New Mexico Los Alamos as its Community Education director. In 1999, she was hired by The Family YMCA Board of Directors as its Chief Executive Officer. After nearly 20 years, Linda retired from the Y in October 2018.
Prior her to CEO position, Linda served on The Family YMCA Board of Directors. She is a past president of the UNM-LA Advisory Board where she served for two terms. She is a graduate of Leadership Los Alamos and Leadership New Mexico. Linda chaired the New Mexico Alliance of YMCAs for over 12 years. Additionally, she served on the national Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Council for the YMCA of the USA and is past President of the national Asian Pacific Islander Leadership Network for YUSA.
Linda graduated from the University of Hawaii where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and in Communications.
Vice Chair
Elizabeth Allen is an experienced attorney and judge with a broad legal background. She earned her law degree from Pepperdine School of Law and has practiced in Idaho and New Mexico as a prosecutor, defense attorney, and solo practitioner. Her areas of practice included special education law, real estate, estate planning, business formation, child protection, appeals, and criminal defense.
Elected Los Alamos Municipal Judge in 2019, Elizabeth also teaches Business Law at UNM–Los Alamos and volunteers with the Juvenile Justice Advisory Board and several youth sports organizations. She mentors judges throughout New Mexico and frequently speaks at judicial conferences. Elizabeth is a mother of three (ages 15, 12, and 9) and enjoys playing string bass in the Los Alamos Symphony.
Secretary
Diana Martinez located to Los Alamos with her family in 1991 from Springfield, Il., following her husband’s four-year stint with the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety. Having young children, she worked at home as a freelance writer placing articles, short pieces, and poems in Family Circle, Christian Parenting Today, New Mexico Magazine, New Frontiers of New Mexico and local periodicals. In 1998, she began a 25-year career with The Family YMCA eventually serving as a Senior Program Director and Development Director with a focus on grant writing.
She served on the Los Alamos County and LAPS Schools Trinity property development advisory committee for the two years prior to the 2014 Smith’s Food and Drug Store opening. She was a 2006 graduate of Leadership Los Alamos, and a recipient of their 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award. Diana placed second in the Southwest Writers Workshop Juvenile Novel contest in 1994, has taught writing classes at UNM-LA, and served on grant review committees. Now retired, she is dabbling once again in writing and historical family research. Diana has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri.
Treasurer
Steve Lynne moved to New Mexico in 1994 and then to Los Alamos in 1996. He holds a Master’s Degree in Accounting. Prior to coming to Los Alamos County, Steve worked with public accounting firms in Florida and New Mexico, with an emphasis in auditing local government clients.
Since joining Los Alamos County in February 1996, Steve spent the first 14 years with the County’s Finance division rising to Chief Financial Officer in 2000. In 2010, he was promoted to Administrative Services Director/Chief Financial Officer responsible for the performance of the Information Technology, Finance, Procurement and Materials Management, and Risk Management divisions. In February 2011 he was appointed to one of two Acting Assistant County Administrator positions to assist in the operational oversight of all departments and overall coordination of several of the County’s major projects. Steve later was promoted to Deputy Manager, and in that position, Steve had oversight of the Administrative Services Department, as well as the Community Services Department. In July 2021, Steve was appointed as County Manager.
Steve and his wife Suzanne raised their kids here in Los Alamos. Steve recently retired after 28 years of service to Los Alamos County. He and Suzanne love Los Alamos, have no plans to leave, and are looking forward to being retired together here.
Board Member
Vivien Chen grew up in Hong Kong and came to the United States for graduate studies where she earned a PhD in epidemiology at the University of Oklahoma. She spent her career as a professor at medical centers of Tulane and Louisiana State University in New Orleans.
Vivien has conducted significant research in cancer epidemiology, including the landmark study which associated secondhand smoking with an increased risk of lung cancer among non-smoking women that led to smoking policy changes nationwide and globally. She taught and mentored countless graduate students; published widely; and won many awards for her work.
Vivien served on numerous boards. She was the president of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries and the representative from America to the International Association of Cancer Registries. Vivien was appointed to the National Cancer Policy Board of the National Academy of Medicine where she worked on ensuring quality of cancer care. She also served on the National Quality Forum Steering Committee on Quality Cancer Care Measure and the local J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee.
Vivien and her late husband, Richard Swenson, chose Los Alamos for their retirement because of the beautiful nature and the intellectual environment. What attracted them most was a strong sense of community support and caring, which Vivien would like to contribute as a member of the Board.
Board Member
Matt Jackson brings over 20 years of expertise at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), where he currently serves as the Division Leader for the Materials Science and Technology
Division. His prior leadership roles include Group Leader for the Nuclear Materials Science Group and various positions within the Associate Directorate for Weapons Production. A mechanical engineer by training, Matt has 17 years of hands-on experience in research, development, and manufacturing at LANL’s Chemistry and Metallurgy Research and TA-55 Plutonium Facilities.
Matt has extensive experience leading multidisciplinary teams of varied sizes and compositions, fostering collaboration across diverse technical fields to achieve complex goals. Recognized as an expert in molten salt systems, he authored the “Molten Salt Chemistry of Plutonium” chapter in the Plutonium Handbook and has championed empirical research in this field. He has also led multiple international technical collaborations as the U.S. representative and contributed to advancing technology development at sites worldwide.
Deeply rooted in the Los Alamos community, Matt is a graduate of Los Alamos High School and has two children currently enrolled in the local school system. His wife, Megan, a former elementary school teacher of 20 years, now serves as the Los Alamos Program Specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Matt is passionate about the outdoors, enjoying mountain biking, trail running, skiing, snowboarding, and backpacking.
With his professional expertise, leadership experience, and commitment to community, Matt is dedicated to contributing to the mission and vision of the Los Alamos Community Foundation.
Board Member
Steve Laurent has led a varied professional life, including as a cultural resource manager for Arizona State Parks, a real estate attorney in Michigan and New Mexico, and as a nonprofit leader providing workforce housing opportunities in Utah. He also served as executive director of the Los Alamos Community Foundation from 2022-2024.
Outside of work, Steve’s love of history and architecture led him to volunteer as a docent at a dairy barn in Utah and a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Michigan. In addition to his role on the LACF board, Steve also serves on the board of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee and volunteers his time assisting with historic preservation efforts and community leadership development in Los Alamos.
Born and raised in West Michigan, Steve lives on Barranca Mesa with his wife Anne. Both of their children are proud LAHS graduates out in the world. A graduate of both Leadership Los Alamos and Leadership Park City (UT), Steve holds an M.A. in history from Arizona State University and a J.D. from Michigan State University.
Board Member
John Pawlak’s postgraduate training in Pure Mathematics (Functional Analysis), after which he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories, primarily in process and technology management for new business ventures (e.g., MRI imaging algorithm development with Philips Medical Systems). His last position at Bell Labs was managing web development for early internet sites. It was a particularly fun job; building the first att.com and disney.com. John and his wife then retired and moved to Los Alamos (White Rock), where she had lived most of her life before working at Bell Labs. John then worked briefly as a project management consultant in LANL on the DLESE project (Digital Library for Earth System Education), taught a summer course at UNM-LA, and provided free tutoring for the AVID program in Santa Fe.
Failing retirement, John decided to get a teaching licensure and began teaching high school mathematics, became National Board certified and also taught Physics. While working at Los Alamos High School, he created a new math course for the NMPED; Explorations in Math, which ultimately was separated into two courses – Applied Mathematics and Elementary Functions. His last teaching position was at New Mexico School for the Arts, and finally retired after teaching for 15 years.
John is currently serving on the UNM-LA Advisory Board. His hobbies include wood working, solving math puzzles, and candy making.
Board Member
Brian L. Scott retired in 2023 after a thirty-one year career at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) as a senior scientist within the Materials Physics and Applications Division. He received his doctorate in physical chemistry from Washington State University in 1991. A specialist in structural inorganic chemistry, Brian’s work centered on materials synthesis and structure determination through X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic techniques. His research output includes over 550 publications and more than 24,000 citations, reflecting a career long impact on materials science and national security. This work is relevant to nuclear forensics and non-proliferation, energy security, stewardship of the US nuclear stockpile, and fundamental understanding of chemical behavior in elements like plutonium and californium. He received three LANL distinguished performance awards during his career. Brian has led multidisciplinary research teams, mentored students and post-doctoral researchers, and served on numerous strategic planning, hiring, and proposal review committees during his tenure at LANL.
Beyond his professional accomplishments, Brian continues to contribute to his community. He serves as vice president on the Friends of Bandelier board and is an active member of the steering committee for Los Alamos 100 Men Who Care. These roles reflect his ongoing commitment to supporting local non-profit organizations.
Brian has lived in Los Alamos for thirty-four years, where he and his wife Sara raised five children together. Sara is a retired LANL scientist, former Los Alamos County Councilor, and serves on the boards of the First Born Program of Los Alamos and the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee. They enjoy cycling, hiking, skiing, scuba diving and traveling the globe together.
Alison Watkins (née Honig) is a native of Los Alamos and brings extensive knowledge of the community—and its people and businesses—to her role at the Los Alamos Community Foundation. She is deeply involved in local civic life, serving on several boards and organizations, including Dance Arts Los Alamos, Topper Booster Clubs, and the United Church Executive Council. Before becoming Executive Director at LACF, Alison was employed at the Los Alamos Commerce & Development Corporation first as the Event Manager for Los Alamos MainStreet and then as the Assistant Director of the Chamber of Commerce.
Watkins holds a B.A. in History from Texas Tech University and a paralegal certificate. She is also a 2025 graduate of the Leadership Los Alamos program.
Outside of her professional work, Watkins and her husband stay busy supporting the many sports and activities of their three sons, and you may occasionally find her onstage dancing with her adult ballet class.
Program Manager
Kelle Harrison was born and raised in Los Alamos and is proud to be a Hilltopper alumna. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication with an emphasis in Marketing and Psychology, along with certifications in Program Planning and Wedding and Event Planning. Her diverse professional background spans marketing, communications, community outreach and event planning.
A year after graduating from college, Kelle and her husband, Landon, relocated to Arizona, where she began her career with the City of Chandler spearheading several campaigns and large-scale events, with her most notable achievement being the creation and implementation of a water safety campaign that continues to this day.
In 2019, they made the decision to return to Los Alamos to be closer to family and raise their children in the safe, close-knit community they call home. Since returning, Kelle has worked with several local organizations and businesses, continuing to put her expertise to work in the community.
Today, Kelle and Landon are raising their four children in Los Alamos. In this season of life, some of her greatest joys are watching her children grow, discover their passions, and thrive in the sports and activities.