Charisse R. Lillie is a businesswoman, attorney, and lecturer on issues of diversity, corporate responsibility, and corporate governance. She became CEO of CRL Consulting earlier this year after a 12-year career with Comcast Corporation, where she held several roles including senior vice president of human resources of Comcast Corporation, president of Comcast Foundation and vice president of community investment at Comcast Corporation. Prior to joining Comcast, Lillie was a partner at Ballard Spahr LLP’s litigation department and served as its chair from 2002 to 2005.

Originally from Houston, Texas, Lillie received her B.A., cum laude, from Wesleyan University in 1973. She received a J.D. from Temple University Law School in 1976 and an L.L.M from Yale Law School in 1982. While in law school, she worked as a research assistant for Judge Higginbotham on his first book, In the Matter of Color,  and was a law clerk to Judge Clifford Scott Green, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

She was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Seton Hill University and Cheyney University, as well as an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Peirce College.

Charisse was born into a well educated and artistically talented family in Houston, Texas. Her late father was a jazz musician, who earlier in life played tenor saxophone with the BB King Band before becoming a teacher in the Cleveland Independent School District and a private music teacher.  Charisse’s mother was an actress and speech and drama teacher at Phyllis Wheatley High School, the same school that she and her husband attended in their youth. Her father was a graduate of Texas Southern University in Houston and the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a master’s degree in counselor education. Her mother graduated from Dillard University and received a doctorate in English from Carnegie Mellon University.