2021 WEC Keynote Speaker, Lisa Hanna
With humble roots in St. Mary, she was born Lisa Rene Shanti Hanna on August 20, 1975, to Rene and Shirley Hanna – a farmer in the St. Mary community of Retreat, and a hairdresser in neighboring St. Ann. She has one son, Alex, and is married to Jamaican businessman Richard Lake.
Lisa began a career in media at the young age of 14 years, cohosting the TV Talk Show “Rappin”, and continued a focus on youth leadership and service as Head Girl of Queens High School. Committed to volunteerism, Lisa gave service to the World Hunger Project and JAMAL Foundation (now the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning). She was appointed a United Nation’s Development Program (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador – one of the youngest in history – leveraging her voice to address issues of global concern.
She continued engagement with the public through the media, co-hosting the TV Talk Show, ‘Our Voices’, and appearing in the hit lm ‘How Stella Got Her Groove Back’, and as a guest host on the American syndicated TV Newsmagazine, Xtra. A force to be reckoned with from an early age, Lisa built a prole that could lend a voice to important causes and the needs of the Jamaican people.
A Karate black belt and Instructor, she holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Communications from the University of the West Indies (UWI). At UWI, she conceptualized and fundraised the building of a much-needed Computer Lab for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and served as External Aairs Chairperson for the Student Government.
Lisa is a Director of the Lydford Logistics Group – An agriculture and food processing facility operating as a Special Economic Zone, providing services in third party logistics, farming and agricultural coordination, juice manufacturing, cannabis processing for pharmaceutical use, and a state of the art baking facility serving the island’s hotel, tourism, and foodservice infrastructure.