Richard Albertson
Founding President
Richard Albertson is the Founding President of Live the Life, a statewide, faith based non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening marriages and families. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, Live the Life has regional offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, and Panama City, FL.
Richard is a co-Founder and Board Treasurer for the National Association for
Relationship and Marriage Education (NARME), and he authored NARME’s charter in 2010, which has been signed by community leaders and practitioners from 28 states to date. Florida Governor Rick Scott appointed Richard to the Florida Faith-Based and Community-Based Advisory Council in 2013, and fellow Council members elected him Chairman in 2017. He previously served as Chairman of the Florida Commission on Marriage and Family Support, Chairman of the Florida Commission on Responsible Fatherhood, and Board member of the National Abstinence Education Association.
Since Live the Life launched in 1998, the divorce rate in Leon County has dropped 48%, more than double the drop in the Florida divorce rate during the same time. After Live the Life launched its Community Marriage Initiative in Jacksonville, FL in 2015, two Independent Research studies, one from Florida State University and another from the University of Virginia, documented a 28% reduction in the divorce rate in Duval County. Brad Wilcox, lead researcher for one of these studies, stated “As family scholars, we have rarely seen changes of this size in family trends over such a short period of time. Although it is possible that some other factor besides COFI’s intervention also helped, we think this is unlikely.”
While Live the Life and its collaborative partners do not take all the credit for this significant drop, we are one of the only non-profit organizations focused on strengthening marriages and families and reducing the divorce rate in the communities we serve. Since 2004, Live the Life’s Hope Weekends have saved more than 80% of troubled marriages. In 2019 we had more than 17,000 graduates in relationship and marriage education programs across multiple states, but mostly in Florida.
Richard has authored multiple curricula for healthy relationships such as: Start Smart, a comprehensive premarital program, Family Frontiers, Power of US, and Champions, a curriculum for High School Boys. He also co-authored the Adventures in Marriage curriculum with Dr. Lori H. Gordon.
Richard’s background includes working for two U.S. Presidents. He served as a campaign fundraiser and media relations assistant for a political action committee for Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984. In 1987-1988 he worked for the George Bush Campaign in Florida, and was appointed by President Bush to serve at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He assisted in developing the President’s “1000 Points of Light” program, and represented the Secretary of Agriculture on the President’s Commission on National and Community Service.
His professional background also includes working for the James Madison Institute, a public policy “think tank,” Family First (at the time the Florida affiliate of Focus on the Family), and managing a Christian Life Center in Clearwater.
Richard graduated from Florida State University with a double major in History and Political Science in 1985. Richard and Elizabeth Albertson were married in 1988, and they have 5 children: Ashley, Rachel and her husband Jordan, Chip and his wife Haley, Katie and Kimberly.