Women’s History Month 2023
Lori & Scott are blessed to have known and worked closely with Lisa Kimura during her time as Branch Manager for the Santa Clarita Valley office of North LA County Regional Center. As you will see from the testimonials below, Lisa was certainly more than simply the Branch Manager…She was always available to the families and individuals that NLACRC supported, as well as to her staff and service providers like Avenues SLS. Lisa was never one to say “No, we can’t do that”; “We can’t fund that”; or “It can’t be done”. Instead, she identified and shared strategies to bypass the barriers, provided resources, and shared her optimism with families and service providers assuring them that quality outcomes could be achieved! Lisa coordinated the annual SCV Transition Fair as an opportunity for transitioning students to connect with adult service providers and other supports. She served for nearly two decades on the Santa Clarita Valley Mayors Committee for the Employment of Individuals with Disabilities along with Scott; most of those years as Secretary (www.SCVMayorsCommittee.net). She also served as a guest speaker for many of Scott’s classes at CSUN, sharing how to navigate the Regional Center system. Lisa also worked closely with Lori and Ricki Macken-Chilvers at NLA to convert rates from monthly services to hourly, as Avenues became one of the first SLS agencies to do this conversion. They worked together to ensure that the formulas would be transparent and able to accommodate the unique needs of each individual for additional staff needs during shift changes, for medical and other critical appointments, and for those months where there were more weekdays than others, etc. Without the diligence and trust of Lisa and this team working together, Avenues and other service providers would not have been fully funded for the services we provide today. Lisa was smart, always optimistic and hopeful, supportive, positive, and radiant while providing essential guidance and support to consumers, families and service providers in the SCV. We valued her collaboration, leadership, and friendship.
Parent testimonial about Lisa
Fourteen years ago our adult daughter began her journey with schizophrenia. She was continually in and out of psychiatric hospitals and tried numerous medications to control her menacing auditory hallucinations. She lived with us at that time, but we both became physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted and unhealthy trying to care for her at home by ourselves. Since it was somewhat of a crisis situation for us, we thought a group home placement for our daughter might give us a chance to regain our strength to better cope with our daughter’s mental illness. After two unsuccessful group home placements, Lisa Kimura drove all the way to meet us at UCLA Hospital’s cafeteria during one of our daughters many psychiatric admissions. Her calm demeanor, genuine compassion and concern for our daughter’s best interest, and her professionalism were tremendously appreciated. Lisa guided us through an orientation on the benefits of “ Supported Living” and patiently answered all of our questions. Lisa gave us so much reassurance, encouragement and hope that despite our daughters intellectual disabilities and mental health challenges, she could one day live in her own home, have a job again, and lead a safe, happy life fully integrated in the community. Our family will be forever grateful for Lisa’s knowledge and wisdom, because for the last ten years, our daughter has enjoyed the best possible life through the outstanding services provided by Avenues Supported Living Services.
Maureen & Gary Spindt, 2023
An anonymous young adult we support had his quarterly meetings in the Santa Clarita Valley Regional Center office and always asked if Lisa was in, admitting that he had a huge crush on her ever since she was his Service Coordinator as a young teen. He was super excited when Lisa filled in for his Service Coordinator at one of his meetings. Lisa was a favorite of many of the individuals we support in the SCV.
Lisa Kimura Bio courtesy of Ruth Janka and North LA County Regional Center:
Lisa joined North LA County Regional Center in January of 1998, as a Consumer Services Coordinator and upon opening our Santa Clarita Valley Office, where she worked directly under Ruth Janka (now the NLACRC Executive Director). She later went on to be the Branch Supervisor for the Santa Clarita Valley Office.
Prior to joining NLACRC, Lisa was a Consumer Education Instructor, Associate Director (Interim) and Supportive Services Supervisor for Work Training Program from 1986 to 1998. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from Humboldt State and a Master’s in Special Education from Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks. Lisa truly loved our community, she was kind to all, and a strong advocate for individuals we serve and families. She approached issues with a positive attitude and was rarely seen without a smile. She was also a tremendous support to staff.
On a personal note, she was a huge Mary Poppins fan, and was seen as being as kind and caring as the famous character is known to be. She enjoyed baking, annually making her famous pumpkin bread for staff and enjoyed crafting – often sharing that talent with staff as well.
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