Lisa Morris Jones, BS 85 - Passionate To Serve Underserved Communities

OneHaas

Lisa Morris Jones joins us in celebration of Black History Month. Lisa is an alumna of the undergraduate program here at Haas. She is a CFA Chartholder and a Master of Business Administration - MBA focused on Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, she is the president of the LMJ Group, a real estate management and development of commercial and residential properties throughout California.

In this episode, Lisa shared a little about her origin story, her interest in finance and entrepreneurship, and her extensive career. She is a strong professional with a demonstrated history of working in real estate development and management, investment management, and community development finance.

She also talked about what it was like being a Black female in finance back in the 80s when she started working and what inspired her to push forward even with some roadblocks. Currently, she is supporting the Haas MBA fellowships program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Another passion for Lisa is helping underserved and distressed communities. She is working on how to provide the needed capital to be able to help these communities thrive.

Episode Quotes:

How Haas helped her make her way through Wharton

So much of what I learned at Haas, especially in marketing, accounting, and finance, those fundamentals were just absolutely essential in helping me go to Wharton, to be able to do other things while I was there and to really enjoy that experience.

On her experience as a Black woman in finance in the 80s

There were definitely people that discouraged me and many, many roadblocks. Lots of people telling me, "Maybe, you should focus on another discipline. This would be too challenging, too hard."

You can't really control how people think about you. It's what you think about yourself that's really important. You have ways to really reinforce who you are and build yourself up. I always said that if I'm prepared, I know the opportunities will come. And then, I can be able to walk through them. And I know that change in time is on your side. It may take a little time, but things are changing and moving in the right direction. And you have to keep that level of optimism because there's always going to be someone to tell you, you can't do it.

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