Individual Bios

Lisa Hall, Interim President and CEO

Lisa Hall, formerly Calvert Foundation’s Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer, will be serving as the Interim President and CEO of Calvert Foundation until the Board of Directors appoints a permanent one. Lisa, who joined Calvert Foundation in 2005, brings over 20 years of industry experience and has held multiple high-level policy and financial posts.

Lisa has also held positions in real estate and community development finance with the Enterprise Foundation, JP Morgan Chase and Travelers Insurance. She holds a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard University. In 2003, Lisa participated in the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a travel program for emerging leaders from the US and Europe.

Lisa serves on the Boards of Mentor’s Inc., The Funders’ Network, and ROC USA. She is also a member of the CARS (CDFI Assessment and Rating Systems) Advisory Council and a non-board member of the Policy and Communications Committee of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a national non-profit that aims to expand economic opportunity. Lisa lives in Northeast Washington, DC with her husband and young daughter.

What/who inspires you?

My parents have been my greatest inspiration. Both dedicated their lives to public service – my mother as a school teacher and administrator and my father as a social worker and community activist. Both of them came from very modest beginnings and were the first to graduate from college and and pursue graduate degrees in their immediate families. Their examples of hard work and personal social responsibility inspired me to find work that contributes to the greater good. I’m proud to be a champion of social and economic justice through my work at Calvert Foundation, carrying on a family tradition.

If you could have dinner with anyone (from the present, past or future), who would it be and why?

I’ve always thought it would be incredibly interesting to meet Madeline Albright, former Secretary of State and the first woman to hold that position. I think she’s an incredible example of a working parent who accomplished a great deal in her career, with much of her professional achievement occurring in the later part of her life. As the product of an immigrant family, I think she would also have a great deal to share about an aspect of American life which I’ve not experienced personally and would be interested in understanding better. And lastly, I would be honored to hear her stories from the many places she has visited and leaders she has met throughout her diplomatic experience.

What is your favorite book?

I’m an avid reader, or at least used be pre-parenthood. Two of my favorites are “Parable of the Sower,” by Octavia Butler, a fantastic science fiction writer, who also happens to be African-American. She incorporates issues of race, religion and gender into her story about what could happen in a world where environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos. My second, “Love Medicine,” by Louise Erdrich, is a story about Native American families set in the early 1980s – which is the time I “came of age.”

What quality is most important to you in a friend?

Loyalty and the ability to see the cup as half full – particularly important during moments in your life when the cup appears to be half empty.