Lisa Richardson

Lisa Richardson, PhD is the co-Executive Director of the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies (IWES), a community based organization in New Orleans. IWES’ mission is to improve the physical, mental, and spiritual health and quality of life for women, adolescents and communities of color. Dr. Richardson has been involved in community change and participatory action programs for more than 25 years. She was a Visiting Professor at Florida State University and a Assistant Professor at California State University Northridge, where she focused on health equity, social policy and applied research in her dual appointments in Urban Studies and Pan African Studies. She left academia and returned to community-based work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans in 2005. Lisa believes in healing justice as a movement and as a pathway to acknowledge and address collective harm and the trauma of colonialism, racism and all forms of oppression.