Lindsey Spindle and Erin Samueli

Lindsey Spindle serves as President of the Samueli Family Philanthropies and Chief Operating Officer of H&S Ventures which oversees all the Samueli Family’s for-profit and not-for-profit activities. The philanthropic entities operating under the oversight of H&S Ventures include the Samueli Foundation, the Anaheim Ducks Foundation, the San Diego Gulls Foundation, the Irvine Ice Foundation, and The Rinks Foundation.

Spindle was President of The Jeff Skoll Group, where she connected and advised Mr. Skoll’s entrepreneurial portfolio of philanthropic and commercial organizations that include the impact entertainment company Participant, Capricorn Investment Group, and the Skoll Foundation. She was the first-ever Chief Communications and Brand Officer of Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit focused on ending childhood hunger in America through its groundbreaking No Kid Hungry campaign.

Before focusing on domestic hunger eradication, Spindle spent nearly 20 years in health care communications, policy, and government relations working for some of the nation’s most respected commercial and non-profit organizations. These include Georgetown University, Brookings, Avalere Health, and Porter Novelli. Lindsey currently serves on the Boards of Directors for the Skoll Foundation, World Central Kitchen, and advises the Shoah Foundation.

Erin Samueli serves as the Director of Social Justice Philanthropy for the Samueli Foundation. She leads the Foundation’s overall Social Justice portfolio with focus on its priorities to support grassroots organizing and organizations led by and for BIPOC and/or communities impacted directly at the intersections of gender/sexual justice, racial, economic and social justice, criminalization, reproductive rights and models for community justice. She also oversees the Foundation’s collaboration with partners and programs that promote diversity, equity, inclusion and access by building empathy, cultural competency and reducing stereotypes. 

Erin was born and raised in Southern California. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Science Education from Boston University in 2017, then a Master of Arts in Education from Stanford University in 2019. She was a middle school science teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area for a number of years and in her teaching, she focused on equity, anti-racist practices, and hands-on learning experiences. Aside from teaching, Erin began her philanthropy journey by joining the Maverick Collective, where she worked closely with a team in Ethiopia with the goal of integrating adolescent reproductive health care into the school system.  

Erin is passionate about reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ equality, racial justice, education, the environment, among more. She uses these social justice lenses as ways to view her work with the ultimate goal of leveling the playing field in America, and globally, so philanthropy is no longer a necessity. 

Adjust Accordingly: Placing Equity into Practice is a series of discussions about personal experiences of inequity and how industries, organizations, and people are working to move equity forward.

Each conversation will highlight the challenges, opportunities, and strategies for confronting these issues in our communities while collectively progressing toward a more equitable future.

Produced with Orange County Grantmakerswith support from Orange County Community Foundation.

Guests: Lindsey Spindle and Erin Samueli
Hosts: Jon-Barrett Ingels
Produced by: Past Forward