Lois Carson

As Riverside County's Executive Director, a position she has held since 1980, Carson is charged with leading local efforts to fight poverty.  The CAA focuses on education and wealth building, advocacy, community organizing, and capacity building.  Key initiatives and programs include Individual Development Accounts, the Earned Income Tax Credit, Project L.E.A.D. (Linking Education, Advocacy, and Development), pre-apprenticeship workplace mentoring, energy assistance, and disaster preparedness.

Under Carson's guidance, the agency has taken an aggressive and bold approach to ending poverty in Riverside County in 30 years by adopting a Community Declaration. This document calls for economic opportunity and hope for all in Riverside County, thereby creating "Bliss County" - Riverside County without poverty.

Tim Donnellan, Community Action Partnership Board Chair, praised Carson for her vision, her leadership, and great optimism locally, statewide, and nationally.  "Lois Carson sets a standard in our network," he said. "She lives the Community Action Promise and through her actions, creates a model for a productive, learning organization."

Carson's dedication to fighting poverty led to Riverside County being the first public Community Action Agency selected by the Community Action Partnership as the 2005 Award for Excellence winner-in recognition of the CAA's outstanding leadership and anti-poverty programs. She also chaired the Advisory Committee resulting in California Senate Bill 1376, which will ensure fairness and equity in Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) allocations.

Active in Community Action on the national and state levels, Carson has served as board president of both the national Community Action Partnership and the California/Nevada Community Action Partnership. She was one of the designers of the Community Action Partnership's Certified Community Action Professional (CCAP) program, a professional executive development strategy for community leaders, and served on the Steering Committee for the Community Action Partnership's National Symposium on Poverty and Economic Security.

Carson is also chair of the statewide Disaster Planning Committee for the California State Department of Community Services and Development, and has served on the US Department of Health and Human Services' Monitoring and Assessment and Information Systems Task Forces.

She holds a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees, and is a "Distinguished Alumnus" of California State University, San Bernardino and the University of California, Riverside.