Senior Pastor from Culver City, CA
I talk about: Bridging Divides, Community Building, Community Safety, Criminal Justice, Equity & Inclusion, Faith & Spirituality, Food Security, Homelessness, Personal Development, Politics & Civic Engagement, Youth
As a single mother at age 23, Lisa Fitzpatrick was shot by two children who were forced to target a random stranger for a gang initiation. The bullet grazed her face. Amidst the shock, she was surprised by her reaction. “I realized in an instant, when I saw their terrified faces, that I was not the victim here. I was simply collateral damage in a war that neither I nor the children who shot me started. The victims that night were holding the gun.”
She dedicated herself to working with children and families to prevent gun violence, incarceration, racial injustice, and childhood trauma. She founded The Early Parenting Center in Los Angeles, and later the APEX Youth Center, a safe place for kids to be seen and valued off the streets in Central City, New Orleans.
Rev. Fitzpatrick has been recognized for her work in reconciliation and peaceful communities. She is a 2013 CNN Hero and a Christian Science Monitor “Difference Maker.” She served as the Faith-Based Coordinator for the City of New Orleans and on the Mayor’s Strategic Command Task Force.
Rev. Fitzpatrick is now Senior Pastor of Culver-Palms United Methodist Church in Culver City, CA. She has eight children of her own and has foster-parented more than 20 others with her husband Danny. She spoke in a keynote session with David Brooks at SXSW EDU in 2019, and at the Aspen Institute's Weave The People event with David Brooks, Katie Couric, and others.
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