CAITLIN SMETHURST

What is your favorite word?
Tomfoolery.

What is your favorite quote?
“Never underestimate that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

What musician would you most like to see perform in your living room?
No contest: the late, great Bob Marley.

What food and drink would you not want to live without?
Pho & an IPA.

Other interesting facts we should know about you?
Portland was my first true love. I’m not a fan of fruit. I have an unnatural preoccupation with noodles.

What I do…
I serve on the board of Levé in the Development Committee. In my professional work, I’m able to pursue a personal passion for the alleviation of global hunger and poverty as Program Coordinator in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Agricultural Development initiative. Before coming to the foundation, I developed the social compliance program for a local Seattle apparel company, working to ensure fair labor practices in our global supply chain. Following the example of other Levé board members, I initiated the convening of an Ambassador’s board for Friends of the Children’s King County chapter, a mentoring organization that targets the most at-risk children in our communities, whose Portland chapter was Levé’s 2005 nonprofit partner.

In 2005, I graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. from the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. I spent my junior year overseas, working for the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust in Cape Town, South Africa and attending the University of Granada, Spain. Most recently, I received a graduate Certificate in Sustainable Business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute.