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Nation’s Leading Community Development Support Organization Names Four New Board Members

29 Sep 2006

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation's leading community development support organization, today announced that Kevin Johnson, Don Randel, Rip Rapson and George H. Walker have been elected to its national board of directors.

NEW YORK – Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation's leading community development support organization, today announced that Kevin Johnson, Don Randel, Rip Rapson and George H. Walker have been elected to its national board of directors.

After 12 seasons as an All-Star player in the National Basketball Association, Kevin Johnson in 2000 returned to the Sacramento, Calif., neighborhood in which he grew up to become chairman and CEO of St. HOPE Academy. Johnson had established St. HOPE in 1989 to provide after-school services to young people. Since then, he's helped St. HOPE open a K-8 charter school and also re-open his alma mater, Sacramento High School, as a charter school. The organization now operates six schools serving nearly 2,000 students.

While president of the University of Chicago from 2000 to 2006, Don Randel, a noted musicologist, became involved in community issues as the school engaged increasingly with residents in neighborhoods adjacent to Hyde Park. He also spearheaded the university's campaign for $2 billion, the largest in its history. Randel now serves as president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Rip Rapson became president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation earlier this year. Prior to that, he was president of The McKnight Foundation, where he promoted early childhood development, innovative approaches to regional growth issues, and solutions to a variety of urban problems. Earlier, he was a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota's Design Center for American Urban Landscape and served as deputy mayor of Minneapolis, where he created the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program.

George H. Walker is a managing director responsible for the Investment Management Division at Lehman Brothers, which includes more than $200 billion in client assets. Previously, he was a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he led Alternative Investment Strategies and served on the firm’s partnership committee.

Leaving LISC's board are Norman R. Bobins, Janice C. Kreamer, Edwin Lupberger and Heidi G. Miller.

About LISC

LISC combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help community-based organizations revitalize underserved neighborhoods. Since 1980, LISC has raised more than $7.2 billion to build or rehabilitate more than 196,000 affordable homes and develop 27 million square feet of retail, community and educational space nationwide.

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Article Type: Press Release