Lita Wills is an experienced leader in the public health, non-profit and education sectors. She has more than 20 years of experience in community health, education and prevention. A Cleveland native, she began her professional career at The Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland, leading HIV Prevention and the 2nd largest HIV Testing Program in the state of Ohio at the time. From there she served as the RSB Supervisor for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, implementing ground-breaking K-12 comprehensive prevention education.
Lita continued her career in the Mahoning Valley at The Rich Center for Autism at Youngstown State University as the Associate Director of Development. There she was able to implement outreach programs sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control to improve early Autism interventions for African American and Latino Communities. She later served as the Executive Director of the Mahoning Valley College Access Program, increasing post-secondary attainment for students in the districts of Warren and Youngstown, Ohio. She served as the Director of Community Impact at The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley guiding community investments to more than 40 partner organizations, leading COVID-19 Emergency Response Funding, and creating internal and external Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies.
Lita earned a Bachelor of Arts from Cleveland State University and a Master of Public Health from Kent State University as part of the Consortium of Eastern Ohio MPH program. She was also a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Ladder to Leadership Program for emerging community health leaders.