Lisa L. Brody, Esquire, is the Chief Strategy Officer for the Foundation. She serves as a key member of the executive leadership team responsible for strategy development and deployment, and directly oversees the Foundation’s grantmaking, strategic initiatives portfolio, and research and evaluation activities. In her work, she ensures the highest and best deployment of strategies, leveraging opportunities of timing and momentum to maximize the Foundation’s impact. 

Before joining the Foundation team, she served as the Assistant Deputy Director and Managing Attorney for the St. Petersburg Office of Bay Area Legal Services, Inc., the largest nonprofit public-interest law firm in the Tampa Bay Area. Since 2013, Ms. Brody has served as an Adjunct Professor in the Paralegal Studies Program at St. Petersburg College. Ms. Brody is a licensed Florida Attorney (1995) and a member of the Florida Bar, St. Petersburg Bar and Fred G. Minnis Bar Associations.  She has held numerous Bar positions and presently serves on the Bar’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. 

As a graduate of Leadership Tampa Bay, she has a long history of board service and community involvement. She currently serves as the vice chair of the St. Petersburg Free Clinic and as a member of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus Advisory Board. She has also served on the Pinellas Opportunity Council, the Youth Development Foundation of Pinellas Inc., the Bayfront Hospital Board of Trustees, Pinellas Community Foundation, and Clothes to Kids. She also was a member and board member of the Junior League of St. Petersburg and presently serves as the International Trends and Services Facet Chair for the St. Petersburg Chapter of the Links, Inc. 

In addition to board service, Ms. Brody has a long history of active involvement in multiple organizations within the community. She has served as Girl Scout Leader, a member of the City of St. Petersburg Nuisance Abatement Board, Mayoral Appointment to City of St. Petersburg Affordable Housing Oversight Committee (2018) and presently is a member of the Bay Pines VA Community Engagement Board. She has also held many roles as a parent in Pinellas County Schools. 

Ms. Brody is a Life Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the oldest Black Greek Letter organization founded by African American college-educated women. She has held numerous positions within the organization and presently serves as the immediate past president of the Zeta Upsilon Omega Chapter in St. Petersburg, Florida and the South Atlantic Region Undergraduate Chapter Interest Liaison. Her personal motto is “…to whom much is given much is required.” 

Ms. Brody has received several community recognitions for her professional and civic service to our community. She has received Power Broker Magazine’s Silk Recognition for Service (2018), the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African-American History Museum’s First Lady in African-American History Recognition (2015), the Heroes Among Us Award from the St. Petersburg Bar Association (2010), the St. Petersburg Housing Authority Community Partner Award and the 2023 Florida Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Legacy Award. She was also a finalist for the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Community Service Woman of The Year (2010). 

Ms. Brody received her B.A. Degree in political science from the University of Oregon and her J.D. from the University of Oregon in 1995.  She has also earned a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the University of Tampa.  She is a life member of the University of Oregon Alumni Association and a charter board member and has served as the board secretary of the University of Oregon Black Alumni Network.   

She is married to Carl E. Brody, Jr, Esq., and the proud mother of daughter Mara and a son, Clayton.