Mitchell Fox – Program Director | 206-829-9760 |  Email

Mitchell Fox has spent the last 40+ years advocating for animals, evenly split between grant-seeking and grant-making organizations. For a couple decades he led advocacy campaigns and legal and legislative endeavors at the Progressive Animal Welfare Society. (He secured that organization’s first-ever grant award — from the Summerlee Foundation — in the early 1990’s.) At the Glaser Progress Foundation for another couple decades, Mitchell’s grantmaking portfolio included independent media, global health, and animal protection. In between stints Mitchell was a Seattle Times columnist. He consults for other animal philanthropies and serves as Trustee of the Susan Michaels Compassion Trust. Mitchell has two grown kids and lives in Seattle with his wife and a dog resigned to being outnumbered by cats.

Gary N. Smith – President   | 214-363-9000  |   Email

Gary N. Smith is the foundation’s President and Texas History Program Director. During his previous career as a museum director, he participated on one of the foundation’s earliest projects, the Summerlee Commission on Texas History in 1989. During the next 20 years, he served as a Texas History consultant for Summerlee projects and served on the Advisory Board for the Summerlee Board of Directors. In 2014, he led The Summerlee Commission on the Financial Sustainability of History Organizations and was appointed Texas History Program Director in 2015. In 2018, he assumed additional duties as President of the foundation.

Smith grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and his professional experience includes positions with the Iowa Division of Historic Preservation, the Historical Society of Delaware, the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, and the McFaddin-Ward House Museum in Beaumont, Texas. From 1996 – 2014 he was the president and executive director of Dallas Heritage Village in Dallas, Texas. He has also served as adjunct professor in the museum studies program at Baylor University, where he taught courses on museum administration and historic house museums from 2007-2017. He is active in a number of professional associations, including Philanthropy Southwest as well as the Texas Association of Museums, of which he is a past president.

Amy J. Askari – Director of Administration   | 214-363-9000  |   Email

Amy J. Askari joined the Summerlee Foundation in 2020 as Director of Administration, where she oversees all day-to-day operations at the foundation’s Dallas headquarters. She brings more than 20 years of expertise in operations, management, and client relations across both the nonprofit and corporate sectors.

Prior to joining the foundation, Amy spent over a decade at Philanthropy Southwest, where she worked closely with the board of directors and members to advance the organization’s mission. In this role, she supported the philanthropic community through the successful execution of special projects, strategic initiatives, membership development, and communications. Earlier in her career, she held various leadership and operations positions in the financial services industry including The First American Corporation, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and GMAC.

Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from The University of Texas at Arlington.