Southern Poverty Law Center appoints Lisa Sahulka as chief operating officer

Lisa Sahulka SPLC

The Southern Poverty Law Center today announced the appointment of Lisa A. Sahulka of St. Petersburg, Fla., as chief operating officer.

Former chief financial officer for the Juvenile Welfare Board (JWB) of Pinellas County, Fla., Sahulka assumed her new role as a member of the SPLC senior leadership team effective Sept. 16, 2013.

“Lisa Sahulka brings operational savvy, strategic orientation, and proven financial skills to the SPLC at a critical time,” said SPLC President Richard Cohen. “Her passion for social justice and insight into serving a particularly vulnerable population – children and youth in Florida – will help us meet today’s growing social justice challenges nationwide.” 

“As one of her key tasks, Sahulka will lead our effort to make technology a full partner in the Center’s impact and success,” Cohen added. The SPLC, he said, employs a three-pronged strategy to battle racial and social injustice:

• Track the activities of hate groups and domestic terrorists across America and launch innovative lawsuits to destroy networks of radical extremists.

• Use the courts and other forms of advocacy to win systemic reforms on behalf of victims of bigotry and discrimination.

• Provide educators with free resources that teach schoolchildren to reject hate, embrace diversity and respect differences

Sahulka is a career-long proponent of administrative effectiveness in mission-driven enterprises. During more than 15 years with JWB, she developed infrastructure and processes supporting some 60 external programs serving thousands of children each year. Prior to moving to Florida, she held positions with CARE, Covenant House, and the Jacob Riis Settlement House. She also served as an adjunct professor at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, and worked abroad at Casa Alianza in Antigua, Guatemala, and the International English Schools in London.

“The SPLC is without peer in the country,” Sahulka said. “It is enormously gratifying to be asked to become part of such a compelling organization. I am proud of what my team and I were able to accomplish on behalf of underserved children in our part of Florida. The opportunity to support the SPLC, an organization with true national reach, was simply too exciting to pass up.”