Favorite Quote: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
Lisa L. Bottoms, is the President of Bottom Line Consulting Group. She assists government, non-profit and businesses in strategy, program design, and organization design. She was formerly Program Director for Human Services, Child & Youth Development at The Cleveland Foundation (TCF). She has developed and led strategy in community-wide child and youth development and human services in both government and non-profit sectors. She has led the community-wide initiative MyCom–My Commitment, My Community, a public-private youth development initiative that has served over 102,000 young people since 2008 through mentoring, youth leadership, community service, out of school time activities, and summer and year-around youth employment. Lisa’s work spans multiple funders and several human services’ initiatives, including several public-private partnerships focusing on social enterprises, re-entry, faith and community programming for low-income children and families, anti-gang/anti-violence work as well as using a program related investment (PRI) for homeless women whose children are in foster care find housing. Lisa has led the program design and implementation of Cleveland Municipal School District’s in the Community Connectors grant that serves 2,500 8th graders with career and self- awareness programming working with Stedman Graham, business chamber, non-profits, teachers, principals and residents.
Prior to joining TCF, Lisa was Executive Director of Cuyahoga County Family and Children First Council, the county’s human services public policy and planning body for children and families. She was responsible for coordinating networks of services and supports across neighborhoods. She created system level changes, improved program practices, increased access to services and supports to improve outcomes. She managed Invest in Children, a national model for redesigning early childhood services. She developed public policy and programming to meet the needs of children in public systems and began funding key youth development programs such as Families and Schools Together, Wellness/Teen Pregnancy Program, Out of School and youth employment programs. In addition, Lisa was instrumental in creating the framework and receiving $9.5M in federal funding for behavioral health wraparound services.
Lisa has served on numerous boards and is currently the Vice Chair of the Ohio Afterschool Network, a member of Leadership Academy’s class of 2000 and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She has received several awards including the YWCA Women of Professional Excellence Award, David C. Sweets Distinguished Alumni Non-Profit Leader Award and Who’s Who in Black Cleveland. Since 1989, Lisa has taught dance (ballet, tap, modern and jazz) to youth ages 3-18.