Square One Markets Inc. is a family-owned, seven-store convenience and fuel retail chain based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The company also operates a fuel distribution company, Keystone Fuels.

Prior to joining the family business, Lisa spent time working in human services, providing community support to adults with disabilities. She also served as the program director for Twin Rivers Clubhouse, a program enabling mental health consumers to re-enter the workplace after crisis.

Lisa joined the NACS Convention Committee in 2010 and later was named to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Board of Directors. She joined the Executive Committee in 2020 as vice chairman, member services and chaired the Member Services Committee and later served as 2023-24 NACS Treasurer. Lisa also was very active in the NACS Leadership for Success program, serving as a teacher during the week-long event and as a mentor in the months afterward as participants worked on their projects.

“There was no part of Lisa that wasn’t about giving back. She was more than passionate about our industry—she was passionate about the people. She led by example and inspired and motivated so many people,” said NACS President & CEO Henry Armour.

Lisa was active in other industry groups, serving as chairman of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association and earned its 2022 Food Industry Trailblazer award. She also served on the Board of Directors for the Team Pennsylvania Foundation, a group of non-partisan, private sector and public officials working to ensure the economic prosperity of Pennsylvania. Lisa earned a B.A. in dance and psychology from DeSales University.

Beyond work and family, Lisa had many passions, including dance, which she also taught, and martial arts—most recently Jiu-Jitsu-cars. She achieved the rank of Purple Belt in Jiu-Jitsu and was a second-degree Black Belt in mixed martial arts.

Lisa has often compared the skills learned in martial arts to business.

“It’s this big moving puzzle of problem solving, and if you train at the right place, the people around you are vested in your success. It’s not unlike NACS. It’s having people around you that help you solve problems. As a small operator there are a lot of problems to solve right now, and sometimes you feel like you are being crushed by a 200-pound opponent, and you’re not. Sometimes it takes people on the outside to see what you don’t see and to give you the advice you need to move. You don’t have to be the biggest, strongest person in the room. It’s about using leverage, angles, space and the stronger parts of you against the weaker parts of your opponent,” she told NACS Magazine in 2023.

“This is a special industry, and it’s because of the people in it. We share with each other, and we care about each other. I’ve found my tribe. I don’t think of them as ‘my industry friends’. I think of them as ‘my best friends’,” she told NACS in 2024.

The family will receive guests at Connell Funeral Home, 245 E. Broad St. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 20, with a service to celebrate Lisa’s life to follow at 8:00 p.m., officiated by dear friend, Pastor Jodie Harney. Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that memorial donations may be made in Lisa’s memory to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, P.O. Box 5028, Hagerstown, Maryland 21741-5028.

Obituary Linked Here

About NACS
As the leading global trade association for convenience and fuel retailers, National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) advances the role of convenience stores as positive economic, social and philanthropic contributors to the communities they serve and is a trusted adviser to its retailer and supplier members from more than 50 countries. The U.S. convenience store industry, with more than 152,000 stores, conducts more than 160 million transactions daily and had sales of $860 billion in 2023. For more information, visit www.Convenience.org. Follow NACS on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

NACS Contact:
Jeff Lenard
V.P., Strategic Industry Initiatives
703-518-4272
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