About Us

Lisa Nine Accordini

Lisa Nine Accordini is a Senior Staff Associate with the National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) with full-time responsibility for the design and delivery of the Grants Management Technical Assistance (GMTA) Program.  The EGMTA is designed to support the recipients/subrecipients which manage grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in order to provide the most efficient and effective administration of federal resources in support of state and local initiatives.  The EGMTA also promotes the necessary partnership-building which must occur between all first responder disciplines at the state and local levels for the national and state strategic goals to be successfully achieved.  

In addition to her full-time work with DHS, Lisa also served as an Adjunct Instructor for the Texas A&M University System at the National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC).  As a member of the DHS/FEMA National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, NERRTC offers the Technical Assistance Program to deliver on-site, state/jurisdiction-specific sessions, including one-on-one advisement, conferences and train-the-trainer classes.  Before her move to NCJA in March 2005, Mrs. Accordini was the Program Administrator for South Carolina’s Homeland Security Grant Program at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).  In this position, Lisa was responsible for overseeing the administration of over $90 million in Homeland Security grants for first-responder equipment, training, operations, planning and exercises throughout the State.  Previous to her work in Homeland Security, Lisa was SLED’s Grants Administrator establishing the Division’s first, full-time Grants Administration Office.  During her seven-year tenure, Lisa secured $41 million in federally-funded programs for SLED, $7.7 million of which established South Carolina’s Statewide Computer Crime Center, the first of its kind in the United States to combine the statewide investigation and forensic examination of electronic and computer evidence into one facility.  During this same time, and under the direction of the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Lisa was a Training Instructor for BJA’s Project Development and Implementation Training (PDIT) program offered to government and private organizations nationwide.  Specific course instruction included problem identification, solution viability, legislative tracking, partnership development and successful relationship-building with elected officials.

Mrs. Accordini also served as a Project Administrator for the late South Carolina Governor Carroll A. Campbell, Jr. and the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.  There, she oversaw the administration of over $10 million annually in U.S. Department of Justice federal funds for 200 state and local criminal justice programs, including the Byrne Formula Grant Program, Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program, Police Corps Program, and the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners Program. 

Lisa received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Administrative Management from Clemson University.  Upon graduation, she served for over three years as a Military Staff Assistant to the late United States Senator Strom Thurmond in his Washington, DC, Office.  Mrs. Accordini was the liaison between the U.S. Senate Office and the U.S. Department of Defense for active and retired military constituents from South Carolina.  She also managed the application and selection process for the U.S. Military Academies.  Lisa currently resides in Lexington, South Carolina.