Board Member Bios

Home Parish: St. Patrick Church of Merna - Bloomington, IL

Partner School: Corpus Christi Catholic School

Family & Background:

Lisa Thoennes grew up in Springfield, IL and was raised to have a strong Catholic faith. She attended Blessed Sacrament School and Springfield High School, then ventured on to Southern Illinois University Carbondale to pursue a double major Communication Sciences and Disorders and English, where she also met her husband, Chris. An active college student, Lisa was a member of the Saluki Shakers dance team and the SIU Dance Company. She regularly volunteered at churches, schools, and nursing homes, and she found the perfect match for her passion to help others as a tutor and note-taker for SIU’s Achieve Program, which has supported students with learning differences for over 45 years. While she may not have known at that time, those experiences were foreshadowing where her career would lead.

After earning her undergraduate degrees from SIU in 2006, Lisa and her husband moved to Bloomington- Normal, and she obtained her Master’s Degree in Speech Language Pathology from Illinois State University in 2008. She spent the first twelve years of her professional career as a speech therapist in skilled care before the pandemic resulted in her making an unexpected career shift into a school setting at Unit 5 in 2020.

Initially hired as a speech pathologist covering multiple schools, Lisa’s current role since 2021 has been a Language and Literacy Interventionist for three elementary schools in the district. Working in different schools has provided her with unique opportunities to develop professionally and collaborate with a diverse group of special educators every day, enhancing her awareness of all the tools and technologies created for all students to be successful learners. What a blessing it has been!

Lisa and her husband have three children: Eva, who attends Central Catholic High School, and Luke and Jack, who both attend Corpus Christi Catholic School. She is very active in their education, and even though she spends her workdays in the classroom, Lisa especially enjoys opportunities to volunteer for activities in her own children’s schools. Since moving them from the public schools to Catholic education, she and her family have loved the sense of community and fellowship they have developed; something she’s wants all families to experience who have the desire to.

Reasons for serving on the FIRE Foundation Board:

Lisa fully supports the mission and vision of the FIRE Foundation and is excited to be on the Board. She feels that embracing and implementing inclusion in Catholic education aligns with the Church’s identity and is an attainable goal. Through her own experiences, she has seen how the impact of inclusive education goes beyond only those students with learning differences, and she knows all children enrolled in Catholic education will benefit from an awareness of each other’s differences and gifts from God.