Denise Scott, a national leader in community development and an advocate for social and racial equity, has been named president of the Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC). She has served as LISC’s executive vice president for programs since 2014, overseeing 39 local program offices and nine national programs.
Lisa Glover, a former banking executive and longtime LISC board member, will continue to lead the organization as interim CEO in 2022. She has served in the role since February.
They are the first women to hold the top leadership positions at LISC, one of the nation’s largest community development organizations.
“Denise and Lisa are proven leaders who reflect the tremendous diversity of talent at LISC,” said Robert E. Rubin, LISC chairman, in a statement. “Together, they will manage the significant expansion LISC has seen in recent years, while continuing to strengthen the organization’s capacity to address racial and socio-economic disparities throughout the country.”
Scott, who joined LISC in 2001, brings experience in the philanthropic, finance, and public policy sectors to her new position. She previously served as executive director of LISC New York City, LISC’s largest local program, which has invested more than $3 billion in underserved communities since 1980. She serves as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Before joining LISC, Scott held leadership positions at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the New York City Mayor’s Office of Housing Coordination. She led numerous community-based housing and economic development initiatives, including serving as director of the New York City Department of Housing and Development’s Harlem Neighborhood Preservation Program office.
“I’m truly honored to serve as president of LISC and to work closely with Lisa to deepen LISC’s impact in urban and rural communities,” Scott said. “There is no other community development organization in the country that has LISC’s local capacity to break down race and class barriers and create new pathways to opportunity for those who have been excluded from our nation’s prosperity. I can’t think of a time when this work has been more important—for families, for communities, and for our national economic outlook.”
Glover has worked with LISC for the last 15 years as a member of the national board and as chair of the LISC Milwaukee local advisory committee. She spent more than 33 years leading management initiatives at U.S. Bank before coming out of retirement to take on the role of interim CEO. She will continue in that role over the next year and will focus on building LISC's organizational capacity to sustain its significant growth, with a particular eye toward managing operations in a post-pandemic environment.
“We are grateful to Lisa for putting her retirement on hold to help us implement a new senior management structure with both a CEO and a president,” Rubin said. “This structure allows us to better direct an increasingly complex organization and efficiently meet the needs of the communities where we work.”
Glover’s permanent successor is expected to be selected by the end of 2022. Maurice Jones stepped down as president and CEO to take another job earlier this year.
Glover said LISC’s growth reflects the organization’s long history of outreach and impact, including a record $2 billion in community investments during 2020. “We are working with a broader range of funders and investors than at any time in our history, and we are rapidly deploying capital in ways that even a few years ago would have seemed impossible,” she said.
“As CEO, Lisa will reinforce LISC’s financial and organizational management systems, while continuing to advance core community investment strategies,” added Ellen Gilligan, a LISC board member and president of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. “And, as president, Denise will drive the primacy of LISC’s local program approach, as well as innovation around urgent issues like affordable housing and wealth and income inequality, for which she has long been a leading national voice.
Glover and Scott released a joint blog post.
