Staff


Judith Thompson-Morris Photo

Judith Thompson-Morris

Deputy Executive Director

JudithT@lisc.org

Judith Thompson-Morris joined Greater Newark LISC in 1995. She is responsible for underwriting and monitoring loans and grants for our local partners and borrowers. An urban planner by training, she has worked previously for the City of Jersey City as a Senior Planner in the Planning Department and Project Manager with the City’s Affordable Housing Division. A member of the American Planning Association, Thompson-Morris holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University.

Phone: 973-624-6676 ext. 7935

Elijah Dixon

Senior Program Officer for Economic Development

edixon@lisc.org

Elijah Dixon is our new (and first!) Senior Program Officer for Economic Development. In this role, Elijah leads the building out of our Economic Development and Income & Wealth Building platforms. Elijah refers to himself as a ‘person of color who is both a practitioner and beneficiary of community development finance’. This is reflected in his work as an entrepreneur where six years ago, he co-founded the Orchid House, an equity- and asset-building cooperative working to preserve, sustain and grow commerce, social, and cultural opportunities for persons of color located in the City of Trenton’s most distressed commercial corridors. His work at the Orchid House has culminated in assuming the lead role of the Hanover-Broad Street Revitalization initiative (HBSR), a cross-sector coalition facilitating an estimated $12 million transformation of the predominantly Black-owned HBSR corridor. Further details can be found here: www.orchidhousenj.org/hbsr.

His experience as a practitioner has propelled Elijah as one of our State’s most rapidly emerging community development leaders. As the Development Specialist for New Jersey Community Capital, Elijah played a critical role facilitating multi-sector partnerships to bring about new subsidies, lower-cost capital, and technical assistance to enterprises operating in low-income communities. In his time at NJCC, Elijah raised over $30 million in capital for specialized place-based initiatives. His work in the community development space has also established Elijah as a critical thought leader, as evidenced by his appointment to the City of Trenton’s Mayoral Transition Committee on Economic Development.

Lenny Robbins

Senior Program Officer for Lending

lrobbins@lisc.org

With over 40 years of experience, Lenny has established himself as one of our State and region’s foremost experts in affordable housing & community development, finance and construction. Starting as an architect in the City of Syracuse’s Division of Buildings, Lenny’s diverse experience includes serving as a real estate development executive with our State’s leading nonprofit community development corporations to as a high-in-demand trainer and coach for affordable housing professionals, including serving as one of our inaugural coaches for LISC’s Housing Development Training Institute. His accomplishments and impact as a housing & community development executive, advocate and mentor are too long to list here. Lenny brings a wide and vast set of skills, knowledge and experience coupled with community-driven values to help LISC move our ecosystem-building agenda forward. In this SPO for Lending role, Lenny will work closely with Judith and myself to frame, form and drive our overall lending strategies.

Amaris Mitchell Photo

Amaris Mitchell

Community Engagement - Program Officer

amitchell@lisc.org

Amaris Mithcell co-manages our Community Capacity Building program design and strategy, ecosystem building, and is our resident communications afficianado. She’s passionate about advocating for communities of color, women, queer, and poor working-class folks that have historically been on the margins. Amaris has devoted much of her research and expertise to teams that enhance on-the-ground storytelling, arts, and community engagement to strengthen equity among large metropolitan areas from the east coast to Mississippi. With a Bachelor of Arts degree in media studies and production and African American studies from Temple University, Amaris has consistently made it her goal to tie in art creation and curation with collaborative problem-solving. She enjoys working with teams of people, mentoring high school students in film, and directly servicing underserved communities. Like a true Jersey native, Amaris also lives for live house music, hiking, roller skating, cycling, and a good TV show or film.

Sabrina Ambrose

Program Assistant

sambrose@lisc.org

Sabrina comes to us with over 16 years of administrative experience working in public, private and nonprofit settings. She's worked for Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, one of the State’s leading pro bono legal providers addressing a comprehensive range of legal and “justice” needs for the most economically vulnerable communities. Sabrina earned her undergraduate degree in Paralegal Studies from Kaplan University. In her role as Program Assistant, Sabrina serves as the primary administrator and navigator for virtually all of the Greater Newark’s office’s day-to-day functions. 

A native of Trinidad & Tobago, Sabrina is a proud “funny Grandma who sings and writes stories for fun.”