Jennifer Tice,
Founder and Executive Director of Lily Pad
Tice’s leadership is shaped by both professional and personal experience. A registered nurse specializing in labor and delivery, she has spent her career supporting families through critical life transitions. In 2010, she and her husband became licensed foster parents and, together with their three children, have welcomed more than 40 children into their home. Alongside her husband’s career in law enforcement, these experiences revealed a critical gap in how environments often fail to reflect the care people need in times of trauma.
Today, Tice leads Lily Pad’s continued growth with a long-term vision of scaling its model across state systems and community agencies nationwide. Her leadership brings together compassion, cross-sector partnership, and systems-level thinking to redefine how communities support those in their most vulnerable moments.
She has been featured in outlets including Woman’s Day, The Post and Courier, WISTV, WLTX, WSPA, FOX Carolina, and Anderson Magazine, and has appeared on podcasts such as Fostering Change Podcast, as well as in video and digital features for YouTube, Yahoo! News, and the SC Daily Gazette.
In 2026, Tice and her family were selected as a Bananas Foster Families (BFFs) family at the Savannah Bananas Banana Ball World Tour in Greenville, South Carolina. The Bananas Foster Families program recognizes individuals and families making a meaningful impact in the foster care community by sharing their stories in front of thousands to inspire greater involvement. This recognition highlights both their personal commitment as a foster family and Tice’s professional leadership advancing support for children experiencing foster care.
Media areas of expertise: trauma-informed care, foster care advocacy, nonprofit leadership, child welfare, victim support, community partnerships, foster care, South Carolina community
Jennifer Tice
Executive Director, Co-Founder
jennifertice@lilypadinc.org
Meet Jennifer Tice
Executive Director, Co-Founder | Lily Pad: A Soft Place to Land
Jennifer Tice is the co-founder and executive director of Lily Pad: A Soft Place to Land, a South Carolina–based nonprofit transforming institutional spaces into safe, welcoming environments for children and other vulnerable individuals experiencing trauma. Since launching the organization in 2022 with her husband, Benjamin Tice, she has led the creation of more than 40 Lily Pad spaces across the state, each designed to provide comfort, dignity, and a sense of safety during moments of crisis.
Driven by their shared Christian faith and the conviction to “love because He loved us”, the Tices founded Lily Pad to transform the first point of contact for those in crisis. The organization partners with public agencies—including state child welfare offices and law enforcement—to create calming, trauma-informed environments equipped with soft beds, blankets, books, and other supportive resources. As the organization grows, Tice is guiding Lily Pad’s foster care programs into additional states while continuing to partner with law enforcement agencies to extend its trauma-informed model to victims of crime and others in crisis.
Contact Jennifer Tice
