Lisa Nitze

Lisa is Director, Investor and Community Affairs for Nitze-Stagen & Co., an integrated real estate investment and property management firm with a portfolio of properties located in the West Coast market that offers unique expertise in the areas of commercial office and retail properties, and adaptive reuse. Lisa leads Nitze-Stagen’s work on ASAP!, a cross-sector coalition of key stakeholders, that is advocating for legislation to ensure the orderly upgrade of over 1,145 seismically vulnerable unreinforced masonry buildings in Seattle while also creating incentives for owners to help pay for these upgrades. Through a new venture, OZ Navigator, Lisa is working to invest in Opportunity Zone real estate projects in West Coast neighborhoods that will be catalytic to community revitalization efforts. Along with excellent financial ROI, OZ Navigator investments have the added benefit of offering significant social ROI to investors by enabling increased affordability and access to desirable real estate for vetted retail businesses that thrive in and contribute to underserved areas.

Lisa has 35 years of experience leading organizations and initiatives, working with government, corporations, foundations, nonprofits and educational institutions, to develop and implement strategies for building sustainable social systems change and for maximizing social impact. She has started and led four nonprofits. As recent CEO of Social Venture Partners Seattle, Lisa managed a team responsible for engaging and educating over 500 philanthropists making pooled investments in social enterprises and collective impact initiatives. As Washington D.C. Managing Director of Mission Measurement LLC, Lisa worked with leading organizations in many sectors to advise them on measurement, evaluation and reporting of social impact. She has built and led statewide cross-sector partnerships for economic development in New Jersey and Maryland, and a national cross-sector partnership for the restoration of Ellis Island. A former CEO of the U.S. Social Enterprise Alliance and as V.P. Global Engagement for the Ashoka Foundation, Lisa led work with corporations, foundations and philanthropists to secure investment in social enterprises around the world.

Lisa serves on the Boards of KUOW, SODO BIA, WELD, Ion, and Worldreader. She holds an MBA from Stanford University and a B.A. from Harvard University.