About Lisa Diener

The Lisa Diener Domestic Violence Foundation  |  (215) 407-5771

Lisa Diener

Lisa graduated from Hatboro-Horsham High School in 1998. She received dual bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Women’s Studies from Pennsylvania State University. She received her master’s degree from The University of Kentucky, where she graduated summa cum laude.

Lisa dedicated her life to helping others. While at Penn State she worked at the Centre County Women’s Resource Center, a safe haven for abused women and their children. During her time at the University of Kentucky, Lisa was a research assistant for the University’s Center for Drug and Alcohol Research Department. She was also one of six women who founded what is now Green House 17 in Lexington, Kentucky.  Green House 17 provides shelter while “nurturing lives harmed by intimate partner violence” for seventeen counties in the state. Throughout Lisa’s career, she was committed to providing therapeutic services to individuals and their families in domestic violence shelters and drug and alcohol treatment centers. Before she passed in October 2010, she served as a therapist to women and their families at the Renfrew Center, a nationally renowned eating disorder treatment center in Radnor, in addition to treating patients through her independent practice.

Lisa is survived by her son, Thomas or “Tommy”, who exudes Lisa’s caring nature, sensitivity towards others, and interest in living life to the fullest with an ear to ear smile.

Friends and family will remember Lisa for her compassion, devoted friendship and boundless love. Lisa was a person of strong integrity and a great listener who people went to for strength.

Lisa’s death was incredibly tragic but she would want her life and her death to be a platform for understanding and to help to change the course of not only the realities of domestic abuse, but also suicide. In the words of a survivor, “Let us find and encourage within ourselves, within our society, those gifts that make each of us special: not star power, not intellectual prowess, but the ineffable mystery and extraordinary beauty of the simple human heart.”

“Lisa was someone who listened with her whole soul to the entirety of a woman’s story, not just the parts required for an intake form. She was able to lift up women, children, and families in crisis. Lisa spent most of her adult life seeking to understand why domestic violence situations exist with a mission to work to eliminate the cause. Lisa accepted each woman as she was without trying to change or smooth out her rough spots. Lisa always was there to walk beside survivors dealing with difficulty, offering a gentle presence of support to ensure they were not alone. “ 

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