By Erin Reid P’01,’05

Palin Ngaotheppitak Samuelson ’01 has a deeply personal connection to her work creating stable, affordable housing. She is the executive director of Beacon Housing, a Los Angeles organization that provides transitional, diverse, and affordable housing opportunities to low-income individuals and families in a community environment. “I spent much of my earlier life peripatetic, moving countries every few years because of my parents’ work as diplomats,” Samuelson says. “The through line for me has always been the meaning of a home.”

She arrived at Hotchkiss as a lower mid. “I was living in Tokyo, where my parents were posted. We knew we’d have to leave before I finished high school, and they wanted to find a way for me to stay in one place. My sister was at Miss Hall’s, so we started looking at New England boarding schools. Hotchkiss accepted me, and I arrived without knowing anything about prep schools aside from what I had read. It was definitely a shock going from a metropolis like Tokyo to Lakeville!”

She made lifelong friends at Hotchkiss. “There’s something unique about the friendships you make at the edge of adulthood—the kind that hold up decades later. I recently returned for the first time in years for our 25th Reunion. It was a blast catching up with classmates. I brought my eldest son, and it was emotional to watch him so eagerly set up the dorm room he was staying in. It made me remember my first dorm room at Bissell, and it really made me realize how much Hotchkiss is still a significant part of who I am. Hotchkiss is where I learned to trust that my voice mattered.”

Samuelson matriculated at Brown University, which she considers one of her best decisions. “The open curriculum gave me the freedom to try courses I never would have otherwise. It opened my eyes, allowing me to chart my own path.” 

After graduating, she went to Thailand. When it came time for graduate school, that same sense of possibility Brown had given her made the decision easy. Rather than return to the States, she wanted to try somewhere new. “Brown had given me the confidence to take on that kind of challenge. Oxford ended up being a real contrast, far more structured than Brown, but wonderful in its own way,” she said. “As a history major, it was a treat to be somewhere I could see history in action. What I loved most at both places was how diverse my peers were, coming from all corners of the globe, and the experience of learning among them had a big impact on how I see the world to this day.”

She spent the early days of her career working at a law firm and a consulting management investment firm, which provided a useful background for her current work at Beacon. “I’m a naturally risk-averse person, so one thing I took from those firms is how to build a plan and follow through, but also how not to be afraid of not having all the answers upfront. That ability to problem-solve as you go has been central to my work at Beacon, especially in how we’ve responded to rebuilding our community after the Eaton Fire,” she said, referring to a highly destructive wildfire in January 2025.

Samuelson met her husband, Todd, in Hong Kong in 2008. “We were married in Bangkok at the church attached to my old elementary school. Michael Fraser ’01 did a reading at my wedding,” she said. They stayed for nearly a decade and then moved back to the United States. Beacon Housing was established by Todd’s grandfather and great-uncle 30 years ago, and Samuelson was asked to come on board to widen access to housing in the community.

“My initial task was to help the organization envision and plan for the next five years, which became a full-time role that definitely involved a steep learning curve. I have made many changes to the organization, but what has remained consistent is the commitment to honoring Todd’s grandfather's original vision of giving everyone the chance to be safely and affordably housed,” she said.

She said there have recently been challenges on multiple fronts. “We don't typically rely on federal funding, though the uncertainty around housing vouchers has made things harder for some of our residents. We’re also seeing rising construction costs, which have made projects more expensive. What’s been hardest to watch is our neighbors facing the devastation of the fire and its aftermath, and then being unable to heal because of the situation with ICE and the threat it poses to their safety and livelihood,” she explained. “My hope for Beacon is that we bring more housing to those who need it. But I also hope that we, as an organization, can become a voice and a model for rebuilding equitably after a disaster. This won’t be our last fire, and I believe what we’ve learned and the models we’ve put into practice to stabilize our community will have a lasting impact.”

When she was younger, Samuelson measured accomplishment by milestones such as grades, degrees, and titles, but now she sees it differently. “Success is watching a family move into stable housing, and they start to exhale. It’s seeing my own sons growing up somewhere they can call home without question,” she reflected. “After the Eaton Fire, it shifted into even sharper focus. Success means thinking long-term and making sure that we can look back and be proud of the work we’ve done.”