ABOUT
LIFT CAREER RESOURCE CENTER
Lift Career Resource Center, Inc. is a federally registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in the greater Los Angeles area. Lift Career Resource Center's vision is to make a meaningful contribution through mentorship, by providing life skills, job skills, and community resources to young adults aging out of the foster care system.
The organization is led by a volunteer Board of Directors and Executive Staff team that lend their time and talents to the organization. To learn more about the Lift Career Resource Centers' core values click here.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Howard G. Love
Chair
Howard G. Love has a diverse career background with over thirty years of experience in sales, marketing and customer service with the grocery industry and the Frito-Lay Corporation. For the past seventeen years, he has been employed as a public servant with the City of Los Angeles Fire Department in the capacities of Firefighter and Fire Inspector, assigned to various churches and schools within the greater Los Angeles area. The University of Southern California (USC) is one of his major assignments where he enforces life and safety codes. He also represents the Fire Department as a Recruiter at job fairs and other public events.
Mr. Love has always had a passion for youth, particularly the disenfranchised. He volunteered with organizations to promote literacy and mentors young people who desire to have a career with the Fire Department by guiding them through the application process and throughout their careers. For several years, he coached and mentored youth on life skills. Many of these young men continue to seek advice from Mr. Love today in their roles as fathers, husbands, and in their careers as professionals.
As a resident of the Los Angeles area, he donates new sports equipment and uniforms to inner city teams who have limited financial resources.
LaWanda Morris
Treasurer
LaWanda Morris is a retiree of Northrop Grumman Corporation where she was employed for 37 years. During her professional career, she was afforded the opportunity to support and work with various levels and disciplines within the Corporation. She worked closely with the Accounting, Contracts, Business, and Technical disciplines within and provided Financial Reporting Management and support at the Sector, Division and Operating Unit levels within the Company. Specific duties included project budgeting, tracking and reporting, balance sheet and income statement development, analysis and variance reporting as well as annual budget development, tracking and analysis.
As a personal commitment, LaWanda served on the Executive Board of the South Los Angeles Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. for more than 20 years. During her tenure, she served as Chapter President, Vice President, Treasurer, Financial Secretary, and Recording Secretary. While serving as a Financial Officer for more than 10 years, she oversaw the annual budgets of the Chapter, prepared and presented monthly reconciliations and operating reports as well as year-end corporate reports. LaWanda was a bonded signatory for checks and performed internal audits to assess adherence to corporate as well as chapter guidelines, processes and procedures.
In 2017, LaWanda served as the Assistant Financial Secretary for the Culver City Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Her responsibilities included recording, reconciling and tracking all payments for chapter fundraising activities, assisting with chapter budget development as well as cash intake, distribution and tracking using a remittance/voucher process.
Eva Love
Vice-Chair
Eva Love is a retiree of Kaiser Permanente where she was employed as an Optical Technician for 23 years. She attended the American College of Optics and is ABO (American Board of Opticianry) certified. During her earlier years at Kaiser Permanente, she was a Union Representative advocating for over 500 employees in the south bay region.
Mrs. Love also has Administrative background and while employed at the Los Angeles Unified School District she worked closely with junior high school students in counseling and monitoring them regarding their class attendance and behavior before entering the classroom. Additionally, Eva’s previous work experience includes an impressive career in the banking industry which spanned over 12 years at City National Bank as an Administrative Assistant. In this capacity, she reported to the Vice President in the Installment Loans department processing loan documentation and in Communications and Training Development department where she wrote training manuals for the department and also worked in the capacity as an Auditor in the Centralized Leasing department where she traveled and audited the books of various Car Leasing Dealerships.
Eva is very passionate and advocates for the less fortunate and elderly. She is very devoted to her church where she serves the Kingdom of God in several capacities including the Deaconess, Prayer, and Greeters Ministries.
Kimberly Johnson-Thomas
Secretary
Kimberly Johnson-Thomas currently serves as the Educational Director and co-founder of Epiphany Academy Nonpublic School in Compton, CA. A privately owned Special Education school that services the needs of students from local school districts that are negatively impacted by mild to moderate mental and physical disabilities.
She is an active member of the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Inc., in which she has held many positions on the Executive Board of the Beta Theta Chapter (Los Angeles). Kimberly serves as an advisor for the Beta Theta Chapter Xinos/Kudos Youth Leadership Group.
Kimberly holds a degree in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Literacy (Cal State Dominguez Hills 2005), a Master’s Degree in Education in the area of Curriculum and Instruction (CSUDH 2008), and possesses a Clear Education Specialist Credential with an authorization for Autism. She is also a member of the National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) as well as the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
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Paul Turner
Executive Director
Paul Turner was appointed as the new Executive Director of Lift Career Resource Center (LCRC), effective January 2021. LCRC is a nonprofit organization that provides life skills workshops, and mentoring to youth aging out of the foster care system who are between 18 to 25 years old. Additionally, LCRC provides referrals in the areas of housing, education, job assistance, and other community resources to foster youth. His key duties include providing leadership in achieving the nonprofit's mission and goals, oversight of operations and volunteers, recruitment, fiduciary responsibility, collaborating with existing community partners, and establishing new partnerships and alliances.
Mr. Turner is a native of Los Angeles, CA. He has over fifteen years of managerial experience with AT&T and other business corporations including over thirty years in sales management, training, team building, coaching, direct sales, new business development, territory management, strategic planning, entrepreneurial and self-directed leadership. He is also highly skilled in successful contract negotiation and surpassing team profit goals.
Mr. Turner joined LCRC in 2019 as a Lead Mentor and is a strong advocate of community service and assisting youth in reaching their goals. Paul Turner is a financial and active member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated and has been since 1977. He has mentored youth in the Los Angeles community for over twenty years with the Youth Leadership Conference (YLC), which was founded in response to the need for healing for young men of color shortly after the Rodney King riots. The Youth Leadership Conference's inaugural event hosted over a hundred young men discussing various topics: respect, education, chivalry, and success. The YLC is still thriving, in conjunction with the Omega Educational Foundation, and hosts five to six hundred young males, ages 8 to 18, participating annually for over 20 years.
In his own words: "Success is yours if you want it and work for it. As we move forward, we must look back, reach back and give back to the communities that support us."
SENIOR LEADERSHIP
LaTanya Love
Operations Specialist
LaTanya Love has over 25 years of administrative, investigative and human resources (HR) experience in public service at five County of Los Angeles Departments including Health Services, District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Department, Office of Affirmative Action Compliance and centralized Department of Human Resources. LaTanya studied and completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science/African American Studies from California State Universities Northridge /Dominquez Hills.
Mrs. Love currently serves in ministry at her church including assisting the sick and shut in and intercessory prayer. She utilizes her HR skills and resourcefulness gained at the County to provide assistance to community residents from young adults to the elderly through job searches, resume writing, coaching in interview skills, enhanced business communication social justice, and patient advocacy.
Loelita Branch
Marketing Specialist
Loelita Branch completed her undergraduate studies at Dillard University, in New Orleans, LA, where she received a BA degree in Business Administration, in 1987. She then obtained an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a concentration in Marketing in 1989.
She has a diverse background in Marketing and Customer Service through work experience in the Telecommunications and Sportswear industry. Additionally she has experience in Management and Sales.
She has a passion for helping others. She has exhibited this through volunteering for community service projects for many years. She actively serves in church ministries, has participated in Outreach Ministries providing clothing and food for the less fortunate, and has worked with youth through community and school events.