Board of Directors
Bob Allnut
Bob Allnutt is a real estate broker, developer, and consultant active in commercial leasing, sales, and residential land development in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area since 1981. He has been a principal of AREA Properties, LLC, since 1995 and was previously Vice President of Boston Properties, focused on development and leasing of commercial office and industrial projects. Bob holds an MBA from the George Washington University School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in business finance from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
The Allnutts are a sixth-generation Montgomery County family and Bob grew up on their Homestead Farm in Poolesville. Now living in Gaithersburg, Bob and his wife Amy have three children and their youngest, Jack, is non-speaking autistic. Jack, now a 21-year-old, was one of the individuals featured in the 2017 documentary film “Far From the Tree” which follows his 2012 communication via typing breakthrough at age 10. With assistance from a one-on-one aide, Jack has successfully graduated from high school and will be attending community college to study finance and pursue his interest in stock trading.
Family is Bob’s top priority and providing Jack with safe, social, and inclusive permanent living arrangements will be life-changing for Jack and his siblings/caregivers. Bob is laser-focused on seeing The Neighborhood of Maryland come to fruition for the benefit of Jack and his peers. When not obsessing over developing The Neighborhood, Bob enjoys the farm, the outdoors, and playing blues harmonica/singing in The Moxie Blues Band.
Lori Mitchell-Keller
Lori Mitchell-Keller is a global tech leader and strategic advisor. She has held a number of executive leadership roles at Google Cloud, SAP, JDA Software, Manugistics Software, and Allegiance Healthcare. In addition to The Neighborhood of Maryland Board, she also serves on the boards of Madison House Autism Foundation, Mitratech Holdings and XTANT Medical (NYSE XTNT). Lori holds an MBA from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a master’s degree in operations research from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Iowa State University.
But the most important role to Lori is as the mother to three children, including a 20-year-old son with nonverbal autism. Her son Mike learned to type to communicate at the age of 9 allowing him to eloquently share his opinions, struggles and hopes and to become a short story writer.
Lori is passionate about creating solutions that will provide adults with autism, intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD), and other special needs the continued opportunities to be as independent as possible and to achieve to their fullest potential.
Dara Baylinson
Dara Baylinson considers her role as Mom to be the most important job of her life. She has two children, Zoe, and Gordy. Gordy is a non-speaking autistic who learned to type to communicate when he was 15 years old. In addition to being a mom, Dara has worked as a school counselor in Fairfax County Public Schools, and she has worked at two local non-profits, National Alliance on Mental Illness Montgomery County and KEEN Greater DC. Dara received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Florida and her master’s degree in counseling from George Washington University.
Dara lives in Potomac, MD with her husband of 25 years, Evan, and their two children. In her free time, Dara enjoys kayaking, biking, and reading.
Dara is committed to building a safe and inclusive community with many opportunities for socialization and building independence skills for Gordy and his peers.