Title: President and Executive Director
Company: Marie Bel Fay Fund
Location: Houston, Texas, United States
Joan T. Neuhaus, MBA, President and Executive Director at the Marie Bel Fay Fund, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements and leadership in Private Foundation Operations.
Throughout a distinguished career spanning more than four decades, Ms. Neuhaus has demonstrated exceptional expertise in managing and expanding private foundations. In her current capacity as the president and executive director of the Marie Bel Fay Fund in Houston, Texas, since 2025, she has led the organization through a transformative period of growth. Under her guidance, the fund has significantly increased its assets and broadened its grantmaking capacity, allowing it to more fully realize the vision of its founder, Marie Bel Fay Evnochides. Notably, the foundation is dedicated to nurturing children’s natural curiosity and fostering a lifelong love of learning through experiential education.
Ms. Neuhaus oversees all operational aspects of the fund, including developing marketing strategies to connect with the community and implementing innovative grant programs that reward inspiring teachers and support hands-on learning opportunities for students from ages 3 through fifth grade.
Prior to assuming her current role, she served as the vice president of the Marie Bel Fay Fund from 2018 to 2025. During this tenure, Ms. Neuhaus played a pivotal role in establishing the Teacher Awards program and laying the groundwork for experiential learning grants. Her efforts were instrumental in transitioning the foundation from a largely inactive entity into an active force for educational enrichment in southeast Texas.
From 2021 to 2025, Ms. Neuhaus was at the helm of the Kick Drugs Out of America Foundation, also known as Kickstart Kids, as its president and executive director. Working closely with founder Chuck Norris, she helped instill values such as loyalty, perseverance, courage and kindness among more than 8,000 middle school students annually through martial arts programs. Ms. Neuhaus likened this initiative to extending the character-building benefits of scouting to communities where such opportunities were otherwise unavailable.
Leveraging her previous experience in the nonprofit sector, Ms. Neuhaus held the position of executive director at the William Stamps Farish Fund from 2014 to 2020. There, she was credited with building a veteran ecosystem that reshaped perceptions of veterans within Houston and beyond. By translating military experience into terms understood by civilian employers and funding research initiatives, including those that improved trauma care protocols and extended organ transplant viability, Ms. Neuhaus made lasting contributions to both public health and veteran affairs.
Earlier in her career, during the 1980s, Ms. Neuhaus worked in finance before establishing her own private investigations business a decade later. Specializing in financial due diligence for transactions and litigation support related to business fraud, she developed a reputation for thoroughness and integrity.
Ms. Neuhaus’s professional journey also included significant roles in national security and public policy. As an Edwards Fellow for Homeland Security and Terrorism at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and as the director of the Texas Security Forum, she contributed to foundational elements of community security infrastructure. As the executive director of the Houston-Harris County Regional Homeland Security Advisory Council (now Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Council) with the Houston-Galveston Area Council, Ms. Neuhaus helped pass legislation and testified before Congress on multiple occasions.
Ms. Neuhaus’s honorable military service as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve spanned over 10 years before she resigned her commission due to family commitments. Her most significant career achievement during this time remains classified.
Integral to her career success, Ms. Neuhaus earned a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1980 and a Master of Business Administration from Rice University in Houston in 1987. Her education provided a strong foundation for strategic thinking and effective leadership throughout her career.
Civic engagement has been a consistent theme in Ms. Neuhaus’s life. She has served on several advisory boards, such as that of Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, and contributed as a board member for the Glenwood Cemetery and the Joseph H. Thompson Fund as well as several other nonprofits. For more than a decade, she volunteered as an assistant scoutmaster and den leader for Pack 55 and Troop 55 of the Boy Scouts of America (now Scouting America), reflecting her commitment to youth development outside formal educational settings. Perhaps most notably, Ms. Neuhaus was appointed by the governor to what is now the Texas Private Security Commission under the Texas Department of Public Safety as a gubernatorial appointee.
Among Ms. Neuhaus’s numerous accolades, she considers receiving a Defense Meritorious Service Award her highest military honor. She was also recently recognized as one of Houston’s Most Influential Women for 2026.
Ms. Neuhaus attributes her effectiveness to prioritizing results over personal recognition, a philosophy that has enabled her teams to achieve ambitious goals while fostering collaboration and innovation. She believes that focusing on accomplishing what needs to be done allows others to appreciate the value of work itself rather than individual accolades. Looking ahead, Ms. Neuhaus is committed to transforming early childhood education by championing models that prioritize genuine connections with children and encourage their innate curiosity about the world around them. She hopes that by demonstrating effective approaches through the Marie Bel Fay Fund’s initiatives, others will be inspired to adopt similar methods, preserving curiosity in young learners while fostering lifelong exploration and discovery.
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