Lisa Actor
Chief Philanthropy Officer

Lisa Actor leads the Philanthropy Department and also serves as the executive director of the Lowell Observatory Foundation.
Lisa came to Lowell Observatory in March of 2015. Prior to that, she spent 18 years on the development staff at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. She took on several roles at Westminster, including Director of Foundation and Government Relations, Director of Gift Planning, Development Director, and Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement.
Lisa earned a B.S. in biology from the University of the South in Tennessee and worked for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for five years, serving as deck officer/survey party chief on a ship charting the waters of Alaska and Hawaii.
Lisa is also an author, publishing the Civil War-era children’s novel, Rebel Raiders, in 2013.