Who We Are
Lisa Hardaway
Lisa Hardaway is an advocate with a track-record of developing and implementing highly effective communications strategies that advance social change. She has particular experience with high-stakes and high-pressure scenarios. She is a gifted strategist, problem-solver, and ghost-writer whose strong internal compass drives her to create clear and compelling, action-oriented communications plans.
For nearly 25 years, Lisa has led communications and managed teams of communicators at national and local nonprofit advocacy organizations. The majority of her career was spent at Lambda Legal working in partnership with cutting-edge constitutional litigators advocating for LGBTQ people and people living with HIV who experienced life-altering harm and discrimination. For 15 years, Lisa was instrumental in changing the legal landscape by helping Lambda Legal’s courageous clients tell their stories in compelling and empowering ways to help their local communities understand why change was necessary.
Some of the most notable cases Lisa worked on include:
the landmark 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges winning the freedom to marry for same-sex couples nationwide;
the landmark 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas which struck down all remaining “sodomy laws” across the country that were used to justify wholesale discrimination against people in same-sex relationships;
the 2009 Iowa marriage equality court victory Varnum v. Brien which made Iowa the third state where same-sex couples could marry and the first state where they could do so in the middle of the country;
a landmark victory for transgender rights in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals which found that the Georgia General Assembly discriminated against their employee, Vandy Beth Glenn, who was fired from her job as a legislative editor after she told her supervisor she was transitioning;
the 2002 New Jersey marriage equality lawsuit, Lewis v. Harris, which was the second marriage equality lawsuit filed in the “modern” marriage equality movement;
a landmark case defending a man with HIV who was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a one-time sexual encounter. The Iowa Supreme Court reversed the conviction recognizing that HIV-positive individuals who have a reduced viral load as a result of effective treatment pose little risk of transmitting HIV.
In her most recent role as vice president of communications at the National Audubon Society, Lisa led the public launch of Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink and broke the news with CNN, The New York Times, and National Geographic. Lisa worked with Audubon’s team to create the award winning Birds and Climate Visualizer, a tool to drive personal engagement with climate change, which elevated media interest in the report. As part of the launch, Lisa and her team provided message training for 380 staff and volunteers (under embargo) and held 17 local press events announcing the news cumulatively reaching 3.1 billion media impressions over a three month period.
Lisa believes that healthy, mutually-beneficial working relationships make advocacy work most successful and helps advocates stay resilient as they carry the heavy emotional labor of making change. She has built communications programs and teams from scratch with high rates of retention and at Audubon established a community of practice with 50+ communicators across the U.S. and the western hemisphere.
Lisa is an advocate for and fan of all women’s sports and takes her rescue dog, Buster, to K-9 Nosework classes.
Photos by Mike Fernandez (David Jeffrey Ringer, Elizabeth Sorrell) and Leslie Von Pless (Lisa Hardaway)