Lisa was brought to Ojai by
the Ojai Valley Inn in early summer 1999. She was recruited from the
Four Seasons San Diego for a junior executive position at the
Inn where she served until
early 2003. After a
total of 15 years in hotel management, she intrepidly jumped off the
glamorous roller coaster of celebrity, champagne, and Egyptian
cotton linens in 2003. Looking for an opportunity to
learn something new, do something more meaningful, and work less
than 70 hours a week, she took a government job where
she served as the right hand to the
County of
Santa
Barbara’s Housing and Community
Development Director until October of 2006 when she went to work for
the Ventura Housing Authority.
Lisa
grew up in the rural backcountry of
San
Diego
County where her keen
appreciation for small town life and a passion for writing were
first nurtured. So it
was only natural that it was love at first sight when she came to
Ojai. The quirkiness of
the town and the eccentricities of the hotel business have given her
much fodder for writing. Lisa has a passion for
writing, particularly in a local format, and has found her voice in
self-deprecating humor. Her publishing successes include
several local print media, a national writing award, regular
assignments with Santa
Barbara Wine and Dine magazine, the Sierra Club’s local paper,
the VC Reporter and a quarterly column in Ojai.
One of her most rewarding projects, writing, producing and directing
the documentary, The Price of Paradise, yielded her first
foray into filmmaking.
Lisa has also written two plays, Millennium Dreams, a comedy,
and Wind River
Redemption, a drama.
Lisa
holds a Bachelor of Science from
Cal
Poly
University,
Pomona. She volunteers from time to
time for local non-profit special events. She is thirty-something and
is married to her husband, Bill, of 17 years. Together they enjoy vacations
abroad, dinner with friends and playing fetch with their rescued
teenage Labradork, Toby.
Listen to one of Lisa’s
local podcasts on Radio Ojai, where she hosts music and talk of
the Central
Coast.
Remembering Sydney. |