Lisa serves as Senior Director of Development at the ASU Biodesign Institute. In her role, she develops philanthropic strategies and partnerships to advance interdisciplinary research addressing complex challenges in human health, the environment, and security.
Lisa brings two decades of experience as an academic researcher, fundraiser, and leader to her work. Throughout her career, she has built and grown successful fundraising programs across higher education, public health, and cultural organizations, securing major and principal gifts and developing partnerships with individuals, corporations, foundations, and federal agencies.
Lisa is passionate about connecting visionary people with ambitious ideas to resources and research that can create meaningful, lasting impact. She is a trusted partner to academic and institutional leaders, helping translate complex interdisciplinary research into compelling opportunities for philanthropic investment.
Before turning to a career in fundraising, Lisa was an archaeologist. Her research examined how humans adapted to environmental complexity and change during the Magdalenian period (c.18,000 years ago) in northern Spain. She conducted the first landscape study of stone technology in the Vasco-Cantabrian region, in which she evaluated how optimally prehistoric humans organized their stone toolkits and reconstructed their mobility patterns between archaeological sites. She was part of the team that discovered the Red Lady of El Miron Cave, the oldest modern human remains found on the Iberian Peninsula.