Board of Directors

  • Travis Hansen
    Travis co-founded Little Heroes Foundation with his wife in 2007. He played collegiate basketball for two schools: Utah Valley State College and Brigham Young University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in Health Science with a minor in Business Management. He also earned the Defensive Player of the Year, All-District and All-Conference Honors in basketball while at BYU. He was drafted and played in the NBA for the Atlanta Hawks in 2003. And later played eight seasons in the Euroleague for Tau Ceramica (Victoria, Spain), Dynamo, Khimki (Moscow Russia), and Real Madrid (Madrid, Spain). In September 2011, Travis retired from professional basketball. Today, He Is Author of "The Next Few Years will Change Your Life", a book published by Deseret Book released in December of 2012, is currently the Chairman/CEO of the Little Heroes Foundation, and is the managing partner of Yapo Ventures, a venture capital firm. After serving an LDS mission to the Chile, Santiago West mission, he married the former LaRee Merrell. They have two sons (Ryder and Mason) and one daughter (Halle). You can follow Travis on twitter: travishansen24
  • LaRee Hansen
    LaRee co-founded Little Heroes Foundation with her husband in 2007. LaRee is a mother of three children and loves teaching them about the importance of love, service and values. Her devotion to motherhood and children is what motivates her to help children around the world. LaRee's tender heart and sincere desire to make the world a better place is one of the essential forces that drives Little Heroes Foundation.
  • Aaron Miller
    Aaron Miller is an attorney and adjunct faculty member in the Romney Institute of Public Management, which is part of the Marriott School of Management at BYU. As a member of the nonprofit curriculum faculty, he teaches Nonprofit Structure and Finance and Business Ethics. He is also the faculty director and co-founder of BYU's Grantwell program and faculty director of BYU's Social Venture Competition. A member of the Utah Bar, Aaron's practice areas include nonprofit formation, taxation, and governance. In addition to sitting on the Little Heroes Foundation board, he currently serves as chairman of the board for The Tipping Bucket and as the board development chair for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Utah County.
  • Erik Adams
    Erik Adams is the President of Simplicity, Inc., a Utah-based company. Before joining Simplicity in 2009, Erik worked with Quickutz, The Franklin Covey Company, Gap Inc., and The Mountain Sports Group. He has been instrumental in helping organizations develop and grow. He has 15 years of management experience that he contributes to Little Heroes. Erik earned his B.S. from the University of Utah.
  • Jeff Burningham
    Jeff Burningham grew up in Spokane, Washington. He graduated with honors
    from Brigham Young University. After graduating, he started his first
    technology company Mindwire-- which was named one of the 25 fastest growing
    companies in Utah. In 2002 Jeff was named the Young Entrepreneur of the Year
    in the state of Utah. He has also started an online meal planning and
    preparation service geared toward serving and strengthening families, a
    cause that has always been important to him. He currently owns and runs a
    successful private equity firm called Peak Capital Partners where he
    specializes in fundraising and leads out in corporate strategy, business
    development and his firms philanthropic endeavors. He is very excited about
    his involvement in charitable ventures as well and is currently serving on
    the boards at the Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance at BYU, The
    Academy for Creating Enterprise, and helping his good friend Travis grow the
    Little Heroes foundation. He loves traveling around the world with his wife and as a former college basketball player enjoys coaching his sons¹ basketball teams.

Board of Advisors

  • Brad Garrett
    Brad Garrett is an International Tax Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. Brad assists multinational companies to efficiently structure and operate global businesses, and he has deep expertise with tax planning for global acquisitions, reorganizations, and value chain management. Brad received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University and he is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Texas. He currently resides in Dallas, Texas with his wife and four children. He enjoys coaching and playing baseball, basketball, football and soccer with his daughter and three sons. As the father of a prematurely born son (27 weeks) that benefited from exceptional medical care, Brad values the well being that suitable medical, educational and other welfare opportunities can provide for all children.
  • Norma Collett
    Norma Collett works in the Athletic Communications Department at Brigham Young University where she’s responsible for all media relations for the women's basketball team including media guides, weekly releases, stats, and game-day operations. She supervise student interns who handle men's and women's tennis, men’s and women’s golf, and women’s soccer. Prior to arriving at BYU she had worked at Cable News Network in Atlanta, Georgia and United Press International in New York City. Norma has both bachelor’s and master's degrees from BYU in Communications. She was born in in Santiago, Chile  and current resides in Spanish Fork with her son who is attending Utah Valley University.
  • Eric Graves

    Eric S. Graves is the Director of International Marketing for Nature's Sunshine Products, Inc. Eric is an experienced marketing and public relations professional with almost 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and customer relations. He brings a wealth of knowledge, having gained valuable experience in previous positions as vice-president for a small start-up company, real estate professional, and ten years as a member of the Utah Army National Guard, Regional Sales Manager, Distribution Manager, and a Manufacturing Supervisor. Most importantly, he is a father of six wonderful children. Graves has served on the Utah Valley University School of Business alumni board. In this role, he has assisted in the development of events, fundraising, and other efforts to increase the influence of the business department, the school and their alumni. Eric earned his B.S. in Business from Utah Valley University and an MPA from BYU’s Marriot School of Management.

  • Brian Santiago
    Brian Santiago is in his fourth year as senior associate athletics director. Prior to that he spent five years as the associate athletics director over operations. As senior associate Santiago oversees men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, men’s volleyball, the men’s and women’s golf programs and game management for football and basketball. He also oversees many other programs at BYU. Previously, he spent four years on the basketball staff during Steve Cleveland’s tenure. A graduate of Provo High in 1988, Santiago was part of the 1987 state basketball championship team. After high school, he played at Utah Valley where he was All-Conference and All-Region in basketball and baseball. He then went on to Fresno State where he led the WAC in assists and three-point shooting percentage-finishing second in the nation from the three-point arc at 50 percent. Following college, he spent three years playing professional basketball for the Arecibo Capitanes of the Puerto Rican Superior League, and was named to the pre-selection Olympic team for Puerto Rico. His brothers, Kevin and Mark, played basketball for BYU. Santiago earned his B.S. in business administration from Fresno State in 1995, and then received his MBA from BYU's Marriott School of Management in 2001. After serving a Church mission to the Dominican Republic, Santiago mission, he married the former Kimberly Blackburn. They have three sons, McKay, Colson, and Jaxon, and one daughter Whitney.
  • Jared Hunsaker
    Jared D. Hunsaker is the Chief Legal Counsel for Property Solutions Int'l Inc. Graduating from the University of Utah with his Juris Doctorate in 2010, his areas of expertise include Corporate and Business Law, Civil Litigation, Employment Law, Contract Law, and Family Law. While in law school he was chosen to participate in two Moot Court Competitions, receiving Top Oralist recognition, and competed in national competitions. He was also an Editor on the Utah Journal of Law and Family Studies. Before attending law school, Jared played power forward/center for the Marist College basketball team. He has worked as a sports writer for the Daily Herald as well as volunteered with many basketball and troubled youth programs in New York, British Columbia, and Utah.
  • Eric Johnson
    Eric is currently the COO and a co-founder of MokiMobility, a Utah-based technology company. Eric has 15 years of finance and operational leadership experience and has been part of building many local companies including Allegiance Software, WingateWeb (sold to the Active Network ACTN), and Omniture (IPO). Before transferring to Utah, Eric worked with Deloitte & Tousche in San Jose, California. Eric is a Certified Public Accountant and earned a B.S. in Accounting from Brigham Young University. Eric and his wife Kimberly have 3 kids and reside in Alpine, Utah. Eric loves being a dad and spending time with his family. He is passionate about Little Heroes Foundation and helping children.

Office Staff


  • Annie Sundwall: Executive Director
    Born and raised in Utah County, Annie has been involved in service since  childhood. For the past 11 years she has worked with various non-profit organizations here in Utah including the Shadow Light Foundation and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She has a great love for children and has worked as a teacher/mentor for young children in numerous capacities. In December 2010, Annie earned a bachelor's degree in Communications with an emphasis in Communication Studies and a minor in Business Management from Brigham Young University. You can contact Annie at: annie@herowithin.org
  • Jessica Braithwaite: Event Coordinator
    Jessica grew up in Washington State, the oldest of 7 children. She has been married for 17 years and has 5 children ranging in ages from 8 to 16.  Volunteer work is something that has always been important to her, causing her to dedicate her time to helping many different organizations throughout her life. She got her first job in 8th grade so she could make enough money each month to sponsor a child in Africa. Some of her recent volunteer experiences include playing the piano and teaching in nursing homes, helping with hospice care, assisting at local schools, volunteering at the Launfal Foundation (a local humanitarian aid foundation), teaching young children to read in her community, volunteering as the secretary for the Highland City Arts Counsel, assisting the Highland City Children's Choir and working in the temple cafeteria for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She loves using her strengths in researching, organizing, and coordinating to benefit children in need at Little Heroes Foundation.
    You can contact Jessica at jess@herowithin.org