Lutheran Services Florida
We create a world of...
SAFE Children
STRONG Families
VIBRANT Communities
SAFE Children
STRONG Families
VIBRANT Communities
Lutheran Services Florida helps communities build healthier, happier, and hope-filled tomorrows by impacting the lives of 1 in 50 Floridians through various services offered across the state.
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Sam has a background in leadership roles in nonprofit organizations, as well as experience in child welfare, social services and programs for senior citizens.
Sam has a passion for helping and serving children, families, and communities that are underserved and vulnerable. During his tenure at LSF, Sam has overseen the agency’s tremendous growth around the state as LSF has more than tripled in size and impact since 2013.
Mike joined LSF in 2018 after retiring as the Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families ending a state career that spanned more than 28 years within the department. As the Chief Operating Officer, Mike manages the day-to-day operations of LSF’s core lines of service including Family Focus, Head Start and Health Systems. Mike also oversees the Central Services Departments of Human Resources and Quality Assurance and works to champion our mission, vision and values. One of Mike’s biggest strengths is advocating for vulnerable families and that is clear in LSF’s expansion of child welfare programs across the state.
Known as a nonprofit executive with an extensive financial and accounting background, Bob joined LSF in 2016. He comes to LSF after spending 15 years as Controller and CFO at the Children’s Home Society of Florida. With over 25 years in the not for profit sector, Bob is well versed in nonprofit accounting, fiscal policy compliance, budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning.
While Lisa is driven by measurable outcomes and is known as a change agent, she recognizes people are the most important resource and dedicates time to growing and nurturing leaders to further strengthen social services in Florida.
Lisa most recently served as the Vice President of Operations for LSF Family Focus. As the Executive Vice President of Family focus, Lisa now oversees child welfare, children and families in need of services (CINS/FINS) programs, refugee services, adult advocacy, and multiple other direct service programs.
Amelia brings deep knowledge in developing and executing strategies for growth across multiple industries, and has significant experience in building people-focused organizations and designing and implementing programs to improve outcomes and overall business processes. She has led several organizational transformations to include building a strategic planning team and developing global strategies for growth at a multi-billion dollar payments company. She holds a BA in psychology from Davidson College and an MBA from Yale University, School of Management.
Phil is a dynamic hands-on human resources leader from the private sector earning his Bachelor’s degree from Duke University and his MBA from Babson College in Massachusetts. Phil most recently worked for Jabil Circuit as Global HR VP, leading HR work in several corners of the globe, but his passion to help others and his faith drew him to LSF. He sits on several Community Boards that tie into our mission, including Starting Right, Now, a nonprofit organization in Hillsborough County meeting the needs of homeless families and children. Phil enjoys playing tennis, traveling with his family, and taking in all sports events.
Bob joined LSF in 2019 after retiring as a Captain from the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). Bob served in many different capacities throughout his 26+ years with the USPHS. As the Executive Vice President of Children and Head Start Services, Bob is responsible for overseeing Head Start services for approximately 5,800 children and families, totaling $53 million with over 750 employees throughout Florida.
Dr. Christine Cauffield has served as President and CEO of organizations providing integrated health services for children through seniors, including a corporation that provides in-patient, acute psychiatric care to seniors in crisis. She received her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from Florida Institute of Technology and completed her Internship and Post-Doctoral Residency at Harvard Medical School, where she specialized in geriatric neuropsychology. She serves as President of Florida Council on Aging, President of Florida Association of Managing Entities, and serves on the Executive Board of Smart Justice of Florida.
Prior to joining LSF, he was the President and CEO at Daniel Memorial Inc. for over 25 years. He also served on LSF Health Systems Board and was involved with our Duval Head Start program. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE). He designed the current Statewide Inpatient Psychiatric Program (SIPP) concept utilized in Florida and expanded the state adoption hotline. He has spearheaded projects for homeless youth and orchestrated creating a school for youth with special needs in Jacksonville. Jim has incredible relationships throughout the state of Florida, and it shines through his philanthropic successes over the past year at LSF.
Prior to joining LSF in 2016, Rob served as a Senior Associate with a Tampa based civil litigation firm. In this role he primarily practiced in the areas of plaintiff’s side insurance disputes (general liability and property), wrongful death, catastrophic injury, and mass tort proceedings. Additionally, his experience includes the direct legal representation of clients similarly served in multiple programs operated by LSF, including Immigrant Detainees, Refugees, Asylees, and Guardianship populations.
Rob is an admitted member in good standing of The Florida Bar
LSF expanded its statewide footprint with residential and counseling services in Southwest and Southeast Florida, including its first runaway youth shelter in Broward County.
LSF Children & Families in Need of Services and LSF Guardianship programs launched in the Northwest. LSF opened the doors to a new runaway shelter in Fort Myers
LSF added case management services in Lee (2004) and Pinellas (2011) counties to work with children and families in the child welfare system.
LSF added Head Start and Early Head Start services , growing from Belle Glade and Hillsborough County programs to include Duval, Pinellas, and Palm Beach counties
LSF Health Systems began serving Northeast and North Central Florida, improving the quality and level of mental health and substance abuse care in Florida.
LSF added new residential services for youth with the opening of Grace Place in Broward County and Dream Center in Sarasota County.
In 1975 when the Vietnam War ended, thousands of refugees sought safety in the United States arriving with nothing more than the clothes they wore. The needs of the refugees were tremendous and Lutheran churches responded quickly providing them with immediate aid in the form of food, clothing and temporary homes. This assistance was vital; however, it soon became apparent that a larger, ongoing and more organized effort was necessary to help the newcomers adjust to life in a new country.
As a result, Lutheran churches sponsored employment programs to help refugees find jobs so they could truly begin building new lives in America. In 1980, when thousands of Cubans came to the United States during the Mariel Boatlift, Lutheran churches responded once again helping refugees with resettlement needs and employment assistance.
When Lutheran Services Florida (formerly Lutheran Ministries of Florida) was established in 1982, the agency assumed responsibility for the employment programs started by Lutheran churches in Miami and Tampa. Whereas initially the greatest demand for assistance came from Vietnamese and Cuban refugees, soon counselors from Lutheran Services Florida (LSF) were helping refugees from Central America, Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean, Bosnia, Sudan and many other countries. As the number of refugees increased dramatically throughout the years, LSF responded to the growing demand for services by expanding its programs. Today LSF has Refugee and Immigration programs throughout Southeast and Central Florida.
Other programs located throughout the state include: Guardianship Services, Youth Shelters, Head Start and Early Head Start, the Child Care Food Program, Counseling Services, Disaster Response, Sexual Abuse Treatment Program, Teen Court, Ryan White Program, Case Management for Child Welfare, Foster Care and Adoptions, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health.
Continuing its mission, LSF continues to expand each division of services to meet existing needs and to bring healing, hope, and help to people in need throughout Florida. Today LSF has offices and programs in Belle Glade, Crestview, Fort Myers, Fort Walton Beach, Jacksonville, Largo, Lauderdale Lakes, Miami, Milton, New Port Richey, Oakland Park, Orlando, Pensacola, Port Charlotte, Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa.
