In the years before RowLA, Liz worked at the White House on the National Security Council as a Presidential Management Intern. She has been involved in inclusion work for many years. She and her husband, Martin, helped close the technology gap when they founded a technology inclusion program called Tech4Success, teaching students whose families could not afford computers. The city of Santa Monica honored her for this work with its Humanitarian Award in 2014.

Liz is the mother of three grown children, Jilly, a web designer and artist in Denver, Jonah, the founder of BRIGHT solar in Mexico and Joni, a veterinarian and mom of Ari. It was when her own children were grown that Liz decided to keep her skills sharp by helping first-generation-to-college young women advance toward higher education. Rowing was a perfect vehicle to empower these young women of promise.

As one of the founders of RowLA, Liz has seen the club grow from 4 girls, erging only, to programming reaching almost 50 youngsters with regular water access. RowLA’s Erg Ed programs reached over 4,000 students annually (pre-Covid).

Ask Liz what is most rewarding about RowLA and she’ll tell you that it is the relationships with the current rowers and with RowLA’s graduates. She hears regularly from her rowers at Tufts, MIT, Northeastern, UC Riverside, University of San Diego, Connecticut College, Humboldt State and many more schools. She is passionate about making rowing and the opportunities it offers, available to a broadly diverse group of students.