Lisa Ratliff Harrington

Lisa Ratliff Harrington passed away September 29, 2015, in Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. She was born December 3, 1961, to Dr. James and Doris Ratliff at Decatur General Hospital. She is survived by her parents, husband, Mike, step son, Sean and step daughter, Emily, of Lawrenceville, GA, and brother Jason (Amy) of Decatur.

Lisa was valedictorian of her Decatur High School class of 1980, where she also enjoyed being head majorette, and first chair clarinetist in the State, among other honors. She played the saxophone in stage band.

She graduated the University of Alabama in 1984 with a BS degree in Accounting and Computer Science. She was a member of AOPi sorority. Upon graduation, she became employed with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), assigned to the Atlanta Region, but performing health care reviews nationally. Then she joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, specializing in developing data bases for Native American women’s health care in the western and northern U.S. She also served the director of CDC (Dr. Gerberding) with strategic planning. After she resigned from CDC she established her real estate office at Flowery Branch, GA, with the slogan, Lisa, your Link to the Lake. She worked for Whole Foods at John’s Creek as Health Foods coordinator.

One of her sports was sailing. She served as Commodore of the Atlanta Inland Sailing Club, and competed on Lake Lanier where her competitive sail boat is docked. During the Atlanta Olympics, she was selected to serve as a judge of the international sailing competition off the eastern coast.

She has remained a member of Ninth Street United Methodist Church, in Decatur, since her early teens. A Celebration of Life will be at 11:00am Saturday at Roselawn Funeral Home in Decatur with Rev. Gary Heathcock and Jeff Sellers conducting, followed by interment in Roselawn cemetery. Visitation will be one hour before the service at 10:00am. Pallbearers will include Scott Parker, David Harris, Mike Chenault, Todd Craig, Thomas Milford, and Ken DesRoches.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Atlanta Humane Society.