SCAN's Snapshots of Hope
Lisa Collis
Ask Lisa Collis about SCAN and she immediately talks about SCAN’s Alexandria/Arlington CASA Program and her experience as a CASA volunteer. Being a CASA volunteer brought her face-to-face with the reality that there are no easy fixes to difficult issues such as substance abuse, teen parenting, poverty, single parenting and generational child abuse. Yet, Lisa Collis will tell you that her work as a CASA volunteer was the best volunteer job she ever had.
As Virginia’s First Lady from 2002 – 2006, Lisa worked to advocate for parenting support programs, children’s health and quality early learning programs. As a Mom, she and her husband, Mark, continue to raise three daughters. With a Masters in Public Health, her early professional career included work as a health outreach worker to migrant farm workers with the East Coast Migrant Health project and work with the World Bank, focusing on food and nutrition issues, as well as, AIDS assistance to Africa.
It is with SCAN that Lisa has held the most jobs. Lisa first got involved with SCAN as a CASA volunteer in 1991. She served as a CASA for five years, providing a voice for abused children and intently working with families to help sort out their struggles to ensure what was in the best interest of the children. Lisa always went the extra mile for the family with whom she was working. As a CASA volunteer, she handled her work as an advocate quietly and thoroughly. Lisa’s work as a CASA volunteer made a real difference in a number of children’s lives, but it also enhanced her depth of understanding, awareness and compassion for both the abused children and the struggles of many of the families involved in CASA cases.
When she finished her time with CASA, she joined SCAN’s Board of Directors where she quickly moved into leadership positions. She served first as secretary, then vice president and then president, ultimately serving four years on the Board’s Executive Committee. As Board President, Lisa played an instrumental role in the efforts to focus SCAN resources on public education and awareness about child abuse and neglect. Although SCAN always carried out activities to enhance public awareness, it was under Lisa’s leadership that the organization determined it was time to hire a part-time staff person to carry out regular steps to promote and enhance the public’s awareness and understanding about child abuse and neglect.
Lisa also served on the Board’s Program Committee as a very active participant who paid special attention to the effectiveness of the organization’s strategies to reach the most vulnerable populations. She was a strong advocate for working towards ways to achieve measurable results. Around the same time, Lisa and her husband, Mark Warner, founded the Collis/Warner Foundation. Through her involvement on SCAN’s Program Committee and her work to develop the Collis/Warner Foundation, Lisa played an integral role in starting up parenting classes through a collaboration with another family-serving agency, targeting geographic areas with a high number of cases of abuse and neglect. Through these partnerships, parenting classes got underway at SCAN, laying a critical foundation for SCAN’s Parent Education Program today, which now includes parenting classes, educational parent support groups, developmental playgroups and workshops.
Now Lisa’s role with SCAN is to serve as a member of SCAN’s Honorary Board of Directors. She continues her association because she admires the “growth SCAN has experienced due in large part to the amazingly dedicated core group of founders and supporters who have remained committed to the organization’s mission.” Lisa gives back to the organization through her financial support and the enduring credibility she brings to family support and child abuse prevention. Whether it is presenting awards to SCAN’s Allies in Prevention Award winners at the April luncheon or participating in a media presentation that will assist SCAN in telling its story, Lisa Collis is all about doing the job that can mean a better and safer future for children.
