Our Board

Meet the passionate team behind the Rita June Foundation.
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The Hearts Behind
The Rita June Foundation

Rita June Board Chair Lisa Dischinger headshot in blue circle

Lisa Dischinger

Board Chair

Lisa

Board Member
Rita June Foundation Chair

Lisa is one of the co-owners and founders of LDG Development. She works full-time as the Chief of Resident Experience for LDG Development. As one of the first employees for the organization, Lisa was the organization’s “asset manager” and worked directly with residents who lived in the hundreds of single-family homes owned by LDG. It was during this time that she gained a direct understanding of the challenges and issues families living in poverty face. These experiences led her to start the Rita June Foundation in honor of her grandmother. This is LDG’s first non-profit foundation focused on providing support services that include shelter, education, and food security.

Under Lisa’s leadership, the Rita June Foundation has piloted and is expanding several out-of-school-time educational programs that are focused on boosting reading scores for elementary and middle school students. Lisa cultivated a partnership with Bezos Academy to bring tuition-free, full-day preschools near LDG communities.

As a lifelong Louisvillian, Lisa is a graduate of the University of Louisville.

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Rita June Board Member Christi Lanier-Robinson headshot in blue circle

Christi Lanier-Robinson

Board Member

Christi

Rita June Foundation Co-Chair
Executive Vice President
Communications and Strategic Initiatives
LDG Development

Christi is the Executive Vice President for Communications and Strategic Partnerships for LDG Development. In this capacity, she oversees the organization's communications, branding and marketing activities and helps it develop partnerships with community groups and agencies that can provide on-site resources to the more than 40,000 residents who call an LDG community home.

Christi has more than two decades of experience developing communication and marketing plans that support the strategic initiatives of leading organizations and projects that have a significant economic impact on the community.

Christi was born and raised in Louisville. She holds a master's degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Grambling State University. Christi married her college sweetheart, Donald, and they are the proud parents of two children, Darian and Alexis.

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Rita June Board Member Ashley Novak Butler's headshot in blue circle

Ashley Novak Butler

Board Member

Ashley

Executive Director
Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation

Ashley serves as the Executive Director of the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation. Her work includes developing and managing grant investments with the Foundation’s strategic nonprofit partners, overseeing board communication and staff development, marketing, financial investments and grant evaluation. She joined the Novak Family Foundation in 2010 and has since created and implemented the Foundation’s investment strategy in the key areas of hunger relief, student leadership development, juvenile diabetes, early childhood education and military family support.

Ashley serves on the boards of various nonprofits, including Dare to Care Food Bank, Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Guiding Team for the Metro United Way’s Ready for K Alliance. Prior to joining the Novak Family Foundation, she worked for Southwest Airlines as a Marketing and Corporate Relations Manager. Ashley earned a B.A. in Political Science and Human Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University and is from Louisville, Kentucky. She is married to Jonathan Butler and has three amazing children: Audrey, Claire, and Luke.

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Rita June Board Member Marland Cole headshot in blue circle

Marland Cole

Board Member

Marland

Executive Director
Evlove502 — Louisville’s Promise from Cradle to Career

Marland is the executive director of Evolve502, a public-private partnership working to ensure every child in Louisville is prepared for college, career and a successful, productive life. Evolve502 does this work by convening and organizing community partners to link youth to better resources to ensure academic success and provide access and funding to pursue postsecondary education, beginning with the class of 2021. Focusing on systems, scholarships and supports, Evolve502 is committed to removing and mitigating the systemic barriers of poverty and racism and ensuring an educated, growing and vibrant community where all citizens can prosper.

Marland previously served as assistant vice president of governance and board support for Baptist Health, where she was responsible for activities related to the function, recruitment, education and engagement of the Baptist Health Boards. Prior to her time at Baptist, Marland served as vice president of institutional advancement for Simmons College, Louisville’s HBCU, as chief public affairs officer for Hosparus, the community’s hospice provider, and as assistant vice president for Jewish Hospital and St. Mary’s Healthcare. She has an MBA from Bellarmine University and a bachelor’s degree in communications, with an emphasis in public relations, from the University of Louisville.

Active in the community, Marland has served on the Board of the Leadership Louisville Center, as board chair for the Lincoln Foundation and as co-chair for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Luncheon and the YMCA Mayor’s Thanksgiving Breakfast. She also served on the executive committees for the YMCA of Greater Louisville, Metro United Way and Maryhurst boards. Marland has presented at a number of national, regional, and local convenings and conferences, including the National Education Association’s national conference on its summer learning and enrichment collaboration and the Power of Place convening hosted by the William Julius Wilson Institute.

Marland recently received a Nonprofit Visionary Leader Award from Business First, was a 2019 40 Under 40 Hall of Fame award honoree, received the Metro Council Community Leadership Award for District 11, the Spirit of Louisville Award from the YMCA of Greater Louisville and was named to Louisville Magazine’s “Most Powerful Under 45” list. She is a 2004 Leadership Louisville graduate, a 2019 Bingham Fellows participant, and a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. member.

A native of Bardstown, KY, Marland and her husband Bryan have one daughter.

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Rita June Board Member Audwin Helton headshot in blue circle

Audwin Helton

Board Member

Audwin

Owner and President
Spatial Data Integration, Inc.

Audwin was born and raised in Charlotte, NC. After attending public schools, he attended North Carolina Central University and, in 1981, received a BS degree in Geography with a minor in Cartography. Audwin later obtained a Master’s degree in Human Resources from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. He is also a 1987 graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College.

Audwin began his career as a cartographer with the Defense Mapping Agency. In his twelve years with the Agency, now known as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, he rose to become the Director of the Agency’s Louisville Field Office. Seizing a unique opportunity, he left the Agency to pursue his dream of building his own company.

In 1994, Audwin became the owner and president of Spatial Data Integrations, Inc., a Geospatial Mapping firm. The company has operated for 30 years, produces software applications, and holds patented software toolsets.

Audwin serves on the following business and community boards: U.S. Bank Advisory Board, Rita June Foundation, North Carolina Central University’s College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Advisory Board, University of Louisville’s President’s Council, 15,000 Degrees Education Attainment (Co-Chair), Evolve502 (Chair), Evolve502’s Operating Committee(Chair), Jefferson County Public Education Foundation and the Theta Omega Inc. Foundation. Audwin is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., a co-founder of the Men of Quality Mentoring Initiative, and a JCPS School Choice Community Advisory Council member.

In 2012, Audwin and Mrs. Helton donated to the University of Louisville, which resulted in the creation of the “Audwin and Rae Helton Geographic Information Systems Laboratory.” Additionally, they recently created “The Audwin and Rae Helton Charitable Trust Endowment,” a first at their Alma Mater, North Carolina Central University.

Audwin received the 2017 WLKY Bell Award, recognizing individuals who dedicate their time and energy to better our city. Audwin is the recipient of the 2022 Zeta Phi Beta Image Award.

Audwin is heavily involved in Louisville’s public education and post-secondary sectors. He is also involved in Louisville’s golfing community as a player and as the coordinator of a major charitable event.

Audwin and Mrs. Helton are the proud parents of two sons, Collin (Deonna) and Carson, and two granddaughters.

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Alexandra C. Rock

Board Member

Alexandra C. Rock

Alexandra has a passion for helping people and uplifting those around her, whether through acts of service or small tokens of appreciation. In her legal practice, she has focused this passion on the development and preservation of affordable housing, specifically through the issuance of municipal securities and low-income housing tax credits, including credit-enhanced and non-credit-enhanced public offerings and private placements of rated and unrated bonds backed by proceeds of FHA, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. She serves as bond counsel, issuer’s counsel, trustee’s counsel, lender’s counsel and underwriter’s counsel and works with developers nationwide. Her clients include municipalities, state and local housing agencies, for-profit developers, non-profit housing organizations, national banking associations and investment banking firms. These transactions can involve many parties and complex financial and legal structures, which Alexandra sees as opportunities to help all parties achieve their goals and to forge lasting partnerships among the participants.

Recently, she acted as bond counsel in an innovative pooled finance, which leveraged $6 million of private equity and $12 million in multi-family private activity bonds to rehabilitate an RD portfolio consisting of 225 scattered units throughout Oklahoma. Alexandra also served as bond counsel in connection with the first RAD for PRAC conversion in the country, redeveloping a 45-unit senior housing facility in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Prior to joining Dinsmore, Alexandra worked in a variety of roles and careers, including as a law clerk in the Public Utilities Section of the Ohio Attorney General’s office, as a restaurant manager, a decorative painter, and as a performer. She uses this diverse background and the skills she developed through her wide-ranging experiences to help her think more creatively and empathetically in the service of her clients and those they serve.

Alexandra is the co-chair of the Firm’s Leadership Academy, which is our internal training program for new attorneys and serves on the Firm’s Professional Development Committee. In addition to her internal contributions, Alexandra currently serves as the Secretary of the Board for the Ohio Chapter of Women in Public Finance, is on the Board of the Ohio Women’s Bar Foundation and is a member of the Ohio Women’s Affordable Housing Network.

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Greg Voyentzie

Board Member

Greg Voyentzie

Greg Voyentzie is the Chief Executive Officer of Greystone Real Estate Capital and an Executive Managing Director at Greystone. Mr. Voyentzie joined Greystone in 2023 to create and grow a national affordable housing equity company that is committed to improving the quality of life in communities across the country. The company provides diversified capital solutions and services to both investors and developers of affordable housing.

Prior to Greystone, Mr. Voyentzie served as the Chief Executive Officer of Boston Financial where he held overall responsibility for the firm's day to day operations, strategic planning, and enterprise growth initiatives. During his 24-year tenure at the company he participated in originating, underwriting, structuring, and managing tax credit funds totaling more than $16 billion of institutional client equity. In addition to his CEO responsibilities, Mr. Voyentzie also served as a member of ORIX Corporation USA's Management Committee and as Head of ORIX USA Real Estate, where he was responsible for all three real estate businesses, Boston Financial, Lument, and the Real Estate Capital group.

Previously, Mr. Voyentzie was a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and a senior associate within Ernst & Young LLP's National Tax Practice, where he was instrumental in growing the company's LIHTC consulting and advisory practice.

Mr. Voyentzie is an active advocate for affordable housing, a frequent speaker at LIHTC industry conferences, and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University on the topic of historic tax credits. He serves on the Board of the Friends of Boston's Homeless and is a member of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition and the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association. He holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Connecticut

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Staff Support

June Board Member Lisa Becker in blue circle

Lisa Becker

Treasurer

Lisa

Rita June Foundation Officer, Treasurer
Executive Vice President

Lisa is the Executive Vice President of Finance at LDG Development. She has served as head of accounting for the company and its related parties for the past 25 years. Her current role is primarily overseeing tax return preparation and tax planning, plus strategic planning and troubleshooting.

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Karen Harrell Board Secretary Rita June Foundation

Karen Harrell

Board Secretary

Karen

Rita June Foundation Officer, Board Secretary

Karen has extensive experience working with local and national foundations, non-profits, and the philanthropic community. 

She holds a master's degree in Humanities and Civic Leadership from the University of Louisville. In her free time, she volunteers as an educational docent at the Speed Art Museum.

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