our team
Who We Are
The Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation is a private family foundation funded by David and Wendy Novak. It was established in 1999 as a charitable trust to provide charitable grants and scholarships to people in need. In 2011, the Lift a Life Foundation was officially rebranded to reflect our purpose, to help those in need reach their full potential. In 2019, the name changed to the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation to include the family name.
The Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation recognizes that without strong leaders and the resources to execute a large-scale vision, high impact in the nonprofit space is limited. We commit to partnering with organizations that have the leadership capability, the know-how and the personal passion to help their populations reach their full potential.
Executive Director
Ashley NOVAK Butler
Ashley Novak Butler serves as the Executive Director of the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation. Her work includes developing and managing grant investments with the Foundation’s strategic nonprofit partners, overseeing board communication and staff development, marketing, financial investments and grant evaluation. She joined the Foundation in 2010 and has since created and implemented their investment strategy in the key areas of hunger relief, student leadership development, juvenile diabetes, early childhood education and military family support.
Ashley serves on the board of various nonprofits including Thrive by 5 Louisville, Community Coordinated Child Care, Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Ready for K Alliance leadership team, the Guiding Team. Prior to joining the Novak Family Foundation, she worked for Southwest Airlines as a Marketing and Corporate Relations Manager. Ashley earned a B.A. in Political Science and Human Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University and is from Louisville, Kentucky. She is married to Jonathan Butler and has three amazing children, Audrey, Claire, and Luke.
Grants
Manager
Kiana Brown
Kiana Brown serves as the Grants Manager for Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation. Her work involves building relationships with nonprofit partners and managing the grants process. She joined the Foundation in 2024.
Prior to joining the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation, she was worked with area nonprofits for the last 15 years. She earned a BA in Spanish & History from Wayland Baptist University. She now calls Louisville home and is married to Bradley Brown and they have 2 wonderful children, Pax & Quille.
Our Board of Directors
David Novak
David Novak is the Founder and CEO of David Novak Leadership, a digital leadership development platform he created to help people become better leaders through content, curriculum and his podcast How Leaders Lead.
He is Co-Founder, retired Chairman, and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), one of the world’s largest restaurant companies with over 45,000 restaurants in more than 135 countries and territories. He retired in 2016.
A renowned expert on leadership and recognition culture, Novak is also a bestselling leadership book author. His highly respected and critically acclaimed books include The New York Times bestseller "Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen", "The Education of an Accidental CEO: Lessons Learned from the Trailer Park to the Corner Office" and his latest parable, "O GREAT ONE! A Little Story About the Awesome Power of Recognition".
Yum! Brands include KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, and Mexican-style food categories. Yum! Brands employ 1.5 million company employees and franchise associates across its worldwide system. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened over six new restaurants per day on average, making it a leader in global retail development.
During his tenure as CEO, Yum! Brands doubled in size to 41,000 restaurants and established itself as a global powerhouse going from approximately 20 percent of its profits coming from outside the United States in 1997 to nearly 70 percent in 2016 while remaining an industry leader in return on invested capital. In so doing, Yum! Brands’ compound annual shareholder return has been 16 percent and its market capitalization has grown to nearly $32 billion from just over $4 billion. Novak was also the architect of spinning off Yum! China is an independent public company as its largest licensee. In so doing, Yum Brands is now almost wholly owned and operated by franchisees.
Prior to leading Yum! Brands, Novak was President at both KFC and Pizza Hut, and held senior management positions at Pepsi-Cola Company, including Chief Operating Officer, and Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales.
Novak has been recognized as “2012 CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine, one of the world’s “30 Best CEOs” by Barron’s, one of the “Top People in Business” by FORTUNE, and one of the “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review. He received the prestigious 2015 Horatio Alger Award for his commitment to philanthropy and higher education and became a lifetime member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. He is the recipient of the 2012 UN World Food Program Leadership Award for Yum! Brands World Hunger Relief effort that raised awareness, volunteerism, and funds to address the global problem. He also received the national 2008 Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. Novak serves on the board of directors of Comcast and is a special contributor to leadership for CNBC.
Novak and his late wife, Wendy, established the Lift a Life Foundation in 1999 to help individuals in need reach their full potential through innovative grants in the areas of youth leadership development, hunger relief, early childhood education, juvenile diabetes, and military family support.
David credits their success to their strong family ties and the people who believed and inspired him to reach his potential. David is excited about the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation and its mission. Through the Foundation, he hope to make a greater impact on the lives of individuals and families in need and to develop leaders who can make a difference locally, nationally and globally.
Wendy Novak - honorary board member
Wendy Louise Novak, philanthropist, fighter, and inspiration to many, passed away on February 24, 2024, at the age of 71 but she will forever be an honorary board member of the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation. Her memory will live on in the important work the foundation continues to do today.
Wendy had an unshakable belief in God and made her life count in so many ways. Her greatest joy came from the simple things, being a loving wife, mother and grandmother, bringing the entire family together for the holidays, giving others her full attention and being the world’s best listener and friend, relishing good ‘ole fashioned manual labor, tending to her garden and watering flowers, and keeping her body in great shape by working out each day, all with a keen sense of humor.
Wendy spent her life caring more about others than herself. She was renowned for being the beloved first lady of Yum! Brands. Additionally, she took special delight in helping other diabetics, pioneering the Wendy Novak Diabetes Institute, which is helping thousands deal with this daunting disease. Wendy was also heavily involved in Southeast Christian Church, where she co-founded the Weaving Mentoring program and helped create “Suitcases for the Homeless.” She traveled to South America to feed the hungry and was a big supporter of the United Nations World Food Program.
Locally, she was always gratified to feed the hungry at the food shelters and enthusiastically backed the Dare to Care community kitchen. She also was a wise and insightful board member for Cabbage Patch, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Camp Hendon and the Wendy Novak Diabetes Institute, including being its spokesperson on the NBC Today Show.
In 2023 she authored the book Diabetes and Me: Living a Healthy and Empowered Life in the Face of Diabetes to raise awareness about the condition. She wanted children with diabetes to know that they can live full, happy, and productive lives, and she hoped her story would serve as undeniable proof of this fact. Despite all she achieved and the magnificent life she lived, she always had a humble spirit, grounded in what really matters most: her faith, her family, and creating a welcoming and loving home.
Wendy chaired the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation Community Impact Grant Committee and we are proud to continue the Community Impact Grants today as a way to honor her legacy.
Jonathan Butler
Jonathan Butler is owner of his counseling practice, JB Counseling, LLC. He received his Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Campbellsville University. Prior to becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist, Jonathan spent ten years working in ticket sales and services for several collegiate athletic departments around the country. He and his wife Ashley have three children, Audrey, Claire, and Luke.