Kimberlee Salmond

Kimberlee Salmond is responsible for leading an organizationwide learning framework at Meyer to provide strategic insights for grantmaking. This includes understanding the impact of Meyer’s work, examining internal policies and practices, and supporting a culture of learning across the organization.

Kimberlee’s worldview is profoundly shaped by her experience growing up as a Korean adoptee of British expats in the Midwest. After a childhood spent in Michigan and years living in Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Brooklyn, New York, she has proudly called Portland, Oregon, home since 2019.

Growing up, Kimberlee didn’t have many positive female role models who looked like her, so she aspired to be a journalist like Connie Chung. Today, as a researcher, she still channels the principles of inquiry, reflection and curiosity. She is inspired every day by those unafraid to ask hard questions and live in the complexity of their answers. She is also humbled by her parents, who followed their sense of wonder and possibility across an ocean to build a new life together.

Kimberlee finds joy in the application of research and is committed to using learning to advance equity in ways grounded in relationship-building and collaboration. At Meyer, she sees a real opportunity to further her equitable evaluation practice at a values-aligned organization. Kimberlee looks forward to contributing to the justice-based work ahead.

She has more than 20 years of experience in philanthropy, nonprofits and think tanks, focused on using research to inform strategic vision, understand impact, advance equity and shape programs and policies. Most recently, Kimberlee served as director of research and learning at the Oregon Community Foundation, where she led a team responsible for measuring impact, understanding Oregon-specific issues and developing research-informed philanthropic strategies.

Before her time in Oregon, Kimberlee was vice president of research at Girl Scouts of the USA in New York City. She also worked at Families and Work Institute and Re:Gender (formerly the National Council for Research on Women). She holds a master’s degree in women and public policy from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Kalamazoo College in Michigan.

In her free time, Kimberlee is usually buried in a novel, on the tennis court or eating her way through the city. She also enjoys spending time with her family, who—after decades of living across the country from one another—finally live in the same place again.

Kimberlee joined Meyer on July 29, 2025.