Our Team
Our Kind Board of Directors
Meet our Board of Directors who live here, there and everywhere.
Susan Thompson-Gaines
Susan Thompson-Gaines is living her best life. Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, she has called South Arlington, Virginia home since 2000. Her house in Arlington is situated on a very busy corner – at a stop light, on a bus route, and frequently passed by emergency vehicles. For some, this constant motion and noise might be a negative. For Susan, it is the perfect location for kindness.
This modest home has become a place of refuge for passersby. A neon green sign proclaiming “Just Be Kind” glows on the front porch and a bright yellow Little Free Pantry graces the side lawn. You never know what sort of “project” you will find taking place when you come over. On warm days, Susan and her husband David can often be found sitting on the front steps talking to strangers who pass by.
When not focusing on Kindness Activist, Susan is a professional interpreter (American Sign Language/English). She is nationally certified by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and has worked in the field since 1994. In her free time she enjoys travelling to new places (she has been to all 50 states), stand-up paddleboarding, writing, and swimming in the ocean.
Ixi Blandon
Ixi Blandon is from Guatemala and has lived in the United States for 20+ years. Her journey with Kindness Activist began in 2020 when she met Susan and found they shared similar perspectives about helping people and building community. Her involvement with the organization has taken many roles. She is intricately involved in many K.A. projects and activities and is honored to be on the board. As an experienced project manager, she has a keen eye for detail and ensuring success for all involved.
Her passion for Kindness Activist’s mission stems from her experiences growing up in Guatemala and witnessing the inequalities there between different groups in society. She began working with Fundacion Guatemala, a non-profit that focuses efforts on girls’ and women’s human rights and roles, while she was in college. There, she could see firsthand how much of an impact a person can have on bettering peoples’ lives and opening opportunities for all.
Ixi lives a life that reflects kindness, and it always makes her very happy to witness kind acts. People have shown kindness to her family in many ways – by demonstrating compassion and understanding to her autistic daughter, with the community swell of support for her husband’s open-heart surgery, and by a kind neighbor becoming a surrogate, allowing her to expand her family. Receiving kindness warms her heart and re-ignites her mission to help others and warm their hearts, too! Ixi is a firm believer in kindness ripples, and is always looking for opportunities to support Kindness Activist’s mission and purpose.
Zuraidah Hoffman
Zuraidah believes in the power of community and as an experienced storyteller, producer and communicator, she understands the impact of sharing stories to promote more kind acts in the world. Community kind acts during the tough times like the COVID pandemic gave her the much needed evidence that there is good in the world. Being on the K.A. Board strengthens that belief. Zuraidah travels to many countries to illustrate why rural and impoverished communities need access to affordable and reliable electricity to improve the quality of life. She has produced award-winning stories that promote the electric cooperative business model as a way for these communities to own and chart their future. Originally from Malaysia, Zuraidah is a proud long-time resident of South Arlington.
David Gaines
David Gaines is an eager participant in the many facets of activity that comprise Kindness Activist – building what is necessary, helping where needed, enthusing where possible, and enjoying all of the good feeling and sense of community that flows from that work.
David is a Northern Virginia local (Falls Church) and a graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa. He works as an actor, clown, and professor. David studied, and later taught, at the renowned Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France, and was a founding member of the Moving Picture Mime Show – a London-based movement theatre company that toured Europe and the world to great acclaim for 10 years.
He has taught at the graduate school of theatre at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and now teaches (happily) in the Theatre Department of George Mason University in the Washington DC area. His recently performed as Prospero in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” at GMU.
As a writer and director, David has developed and directed shows for companies in England, Paris, and Salzburg. As a solo theatrical performer, his most well-known works: “A Little Business At the Big Top”, and “7 (x 1) Samurai”, have won many awards and played to sold-out houses at Theatre and Fringe Festivals all across the continent.
You may have run into his alter ego, Dr. Beano, at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC, where he works as a clown for Healthy Humor Inc. in their clown care program.
When he is not performing or teaching, David is an avid gardener, loves to mow the grass, writes poetry, and makes an amazing sandwich.
Sherry Harold
Sherry Harrold was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska in a family where kindness was exhibited everyday as a way of life. She married her high school sweetheart, Jim, during college and both graduated from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. They became an Air Force family, and with their twin sons, moved 13 times in 26 years. Sherry learned to make friends quickly and become chosen family with many other Air Force friends and support spouses during deployments. After Jim retired, they moved back to the Midwest to be near family.
Sherry has worked as an educator in various roles for many years. She has served on boards for PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of LGBTQ), Officers’ Spouses’ Clubs around the world, Relay for Life, and Parent Teacher Associations. Her favorite things are spending time with her granddaughter, Hadley, traveling with Jim, and enjoying time with friends at a small-town coffee shop on Main Street. She is honored to be part of the KINDNESS ACTIVIST mission.
Eric Queen
Eric recently retired from a long career as an attorney. He attended Grinnell College and graduated in 1973. He then went to Columbia University Law School, where he graduated in 1976. Eric worked as an antitrust attorney at 3 large New York City law firms from 1976-2024.
Eric and his wife Renee Garrick live in Bedford, NY and have been married for 46 years. They enjoy travelling and have two children, Kathryn, age 35 and Justin, age 31.