Nominated by the Office of Multicultural Affairs

What does it mean to be the person a community calls when there is nowhere else to turn? For Laura Jane Willoughby, that question has shaped nearly three decades of work with immigrant families across Anne Arundel County. It has also shaped how she gives. She doesn't start with a check. She starts with a name; what the family needs this week; and who else needs to be at the table before anything actually gets solved. In Anne Arundel County's philanthropic circles, that's rare enough to notice, and it's why her commitment to equity in giving looks less like a policy and more like a habit.

A resident of Anne Arundel County since 1998, Laura brings a rare combination of skills to this work: a 20-year career in journalism, a decade leading nonprofit organizations in the national security sector, and fluency in Spanish that allows her to communicate directly with the families she serves. From 2018 to 2025, she worked as an immersive journalist documenting faith communities supporting immigrants at the nation’s borders and across the interior of the United States, an experience that sharpened her instinct for identifying where resources were needed most and who was best positioned to give.

Laura co-founded the Anne Arundel Rapid Response Network. It connects people with resources they can trust, when things are uncertain and they don't know where else to go. She also co-leads the immigration team at Ark and Dove Presbyterian Church. Someone calls, usually a Spanish-speaking family behind on rent or staring down a shut-off notice, and Laura picks up. She figures out what's wrong, then starts working the phones. During the pandemic, that's what saved a Glen Burnie family from eviction after an illness wiped out their income. Her church covered it, along with a few individual donors who chipped in.

Laura's gift is bringing people and resources together across lines that might otherwise divide them. Earlier this year, when a group of day laborers was apprehended by federal immigration authorities on the Eastern Shore, she quickly identified two Anne Arundel County residents among them and connected their families to support through the county's Family Protection Initiative. Four of the men lived just outside the county line and didn't qualify for that help. So, Laura called around: churches, nonprofits, anyone with something to give. She's still in touch with all six families.

Alison Flores, Anne Arundel County’s Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, called Laura an "indispensable pillar of fundraising and crisis response teams." Flores described Laura's work as spanning three areas: connecting identified needs directly to willing donors, showing up for families in acute crisis, and advocating for immigrant and mixed-status households navigating systems that don't always account for them.

She's pitched in with immigrant-serving groups in Buffalo, Chicago, and Denver over the years, and in 2016 helped start a Spanish-speaking Presbyterian worship community. People who've worked with her say she has a habit of noticing a need before anyone else does, then quietly building whatever it takes to meet it.

Laura Jane Willoughby has spent her career proving that diversity, equity, and inclusion are strongest when they are practiced, not just professed, one connection, one family, and one act of generosity at a time.

Join us in celebrating the Laura Jane and all of the honorees at the 2026 Celebration of Philanthropy Awards on November 12, 2026 at Live! Casino & Hotel.

Carroll H. Hynson, Jr. Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Philanthropy

Named in honor of former Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County board member Carroll H. Hynson, Jr., this award is presented to an individual, group, or organization that has demonstrated a significant commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in philanthropic work in Anne Arundel County.