When Lisette arrived in Little Rock in 1997 she found herself as one of the few Latinos in the state, since the Latino population was not what it is today. She quickly identified a need to stay connected not only with the Latino community but the Arkansas community as well. One of her first connections was with the League of United Latin-American Citizens (LULAC) Little Rock/State chapter, the only one in the state at that time. Later on she collaborated with the UALR (former) Arkansas Global Programs/Arkansas International Center, the UALR Spanish and the Intensive English Language Program (IELP) and the Little Rock Centro Hispano (now closed). Through this work, she saw a great need for the accurate communication between the Spanish speaking population and service providers, so she began collaboration with the Arkansas Spanish Interpreters and Translators to assist with interpreting at various hospitals like Arkansas Children’s Hospital, UAMS, Baptist Health and Saint Vincent Hospital. A few years later, she also interpreted for District Courts around the state for several years. She also saw a need to bridge the gap between the English and the Spanish speaking population, so 1998 she started conducting trainings on Latino Culture across the state in order to create an awareness and better understanding in the community. Her efforts continue for several years, not knowing that someday, they would lead her to become a central piece between immigrant victims of crimes and the agencies that investigate these cases.

In 2005 serendipity put Lisette in the path of assisting victims and by looking for a marketing position chance placed her at a non-profit organization that was starting a new victim services program, targeting the Latino/Spanish speaking population. So, she became the first Latino Victim Advocate in the state of Arkansas. During her tenure in this role, she assisted over 2,500 Latino and international crime victims from various countries around the world, among other Lartin-American countries. In 2012, she joined the Children’s Protection Center, CPC (a Child Advocacy Center in Pulaski County), as their first bilingual Child Forensic Interviewer and served as an advocate for some of their Spanish-speaking clients. A few years later, she was promoted to Lead/Senior Forensic Interviewer, a role that allowed her to interview over to 7,000 children/teens and to become a mentor for other less experience forensic interviewers. She also led Peer Review for Region #3 in the state, and for other partners trained in the forensic interviewing protocol such as the Little Rock Police Department Juvenile Detectives, the North Little Rock Police Department and the Sherwood Police Department. In 2022 she joined the ChildFirst (Forensic Interviewing Protocol) faculty. Her career as a Forensic Interviewer includes trainings in ChildFirst, Missouri and ChildFirst, Arkansas protocols for the Forensic Interviewing of Children and in 2016 she obtained additional forensic interviewing training at the National Child Advocacy Center (NCAC) in Huntsville, Alabama, the first Child Advocacy Center in the United States. Through her almost eleven years as a Forensic Interviewer, Lisette completed numerous trainings related to child abuse and crimes affecting children and teenagers (over 1,500 hours). In addition, she collaborated and helped facilitate the language barriers (with interpreting) between clients and various agencies including the Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (Little Rock, North Little Rock, Maumelle, Sherwood, and Jacksonville Police Departments), as well as Saline and Lonoke Counties Prosecutor’s Offices, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division (CACD), DHS Investigators, and federal agencies including the Jacksonville Air Force, the FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations. Because of her expertise in the Forensic Interviewing and Child Abuse field she continues to serve as an Expert Witness in criminal cases in Pulaski, Saline and Lonoke Counties. Thus, she has been qualified as an expert at the Rockport, TX Circuit Court and Comanche Circuit Court in Oklahoma.

When Lisette was not interviewing, she also provided trainings for the Krimes Against Children Conference in Florida, the UALR MidSOUTH Conference (Little Ron and Hot Springs), UAMS PRI Institute, the LR Police Academy, Elementary Schools personnel --among others in the community where she trained on topics such as Child Abuse, Mandated Reporter, Latino Culture, Serving Immigrant Victims, Internet Safety, Domestic Violence, Human/Labor Trafficking, Latino Gangs and Drug Cartels, and provided Child Abuse Prevention Education around Pulaski County schools to mention a few. She is Law enforcement certified and assured by the Arkansas Department of Education since 2013. 

Some of her past and present professional and community involvement include:

·       The first AR State Task Force for the Prevention of Human Trafficking, appointed directly by the AR Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

·       The Arkansas Human Trafficking Council (ASP/DPS – Active Collaboration))

·       The AVAA – Arkansas Victim’s Assistance Academy

·       The Arkansas Child Abuse – MidSouth Conference

·       The FBI Citizen’s Academy (Alumni and Former Board member)

·       The Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program, Class XXIV

·       The Saint Vincent’s Patient Satisfactory Advisory Board (dissolved).

·       The UALR Arkansas Global Programs (now closed)

·       The FBI Civil Rights Working Group (dissolved)

·       The Arkansas Cradle to Prison Summit (dissolved)

Last year, on July of 2023, she moved into a leadership role with the Arkansas Department of Public Safety (DPS), where she serves as the first bilingual Crime Victims Reparations Board (CVRB) Administrator, something that she sees as a full circle, as she received the CVRB Advocate of the Year in 2011; a program dear to her heart because it was the program she relied on when she began assisting immigrant victims of crimes almost 20 years ago.

Lisette holds degrees in advertising and graphic design (from Guadalajara, Mexico), and in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Spanish, Psychology, and Criminal Justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Her vast work experience also includes working in advertising (in Mexico), fundraising and marketing for the United Way of Pulaski County. She was born in Mexico City but spent most of her life growing up in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco along with her mother and twin sisters Ivette and Anette (she is the fraternal sister in a set of triplets). After marrying her husband Michael, a resident of Arkansas, they settled in Little Rock, a place that became her home in 1997. She and her husband have one child, Carlos, who attends Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.