L’Tanya Likely was born on February 29, 1968 in Sanford, Florida. She attended schools in Paola and Seminole County, and she graduated from Seminole High School in June of 1986. After graduation, in August of 1986, L’Tanya began her pursuit as a college student in Tallahassee, Florida. L’Tanya lived on the campus of Florida A&M University (McQuin Hall) while she took classes at Tallahassee State College her first year. The plan was for her to become a full-time student of FAMU in her second year of college and later receive her Bachelors of Arts Degree in Business Management. One day L’Tanya Likely went home over the summer after her first year never to return to begin that second year at FAMU.
Life for L’Tanya became very strange. She began to remember her past, then life became very hard for L’Tanya Likely, who at the time was L’Tanya Payne. Through all of the storms of life and inner struggles for 25 years, she became a mother of two and later became the wife to a man who would one day love her unconditionally.
As a child, L'Tanya's world was thrown into a tailspin when she was molested over and over again. The tragedy turned her family upside down, and L'Tanya’s childhood was marred by sexual and physical abuse. L'Tanya was in church all her life and she had an understanding of the word at a young age. At age 18, she lost her way to the church, but through grace, ten years later she found her way back.
L’Tanya began her born again life in Christ in 2002 and she has been in ministry as a leader for 17 years, and Co-Pastor for nine years. She is a mother of three and is married to Pastor Chris Likely (Speak the Truth Ministries) in Eustis, FL, where she works side by side with her husband/pastor. She is the Women’s Ministry Leader and Events and Functions Coordinator, Office Administrator, and she helps in other areas when needed. She is the Author of “A Life Interrupted” and Founder of Life Interrupted Community Outreach Center (LICOC), a center designed to help hurting and abused women to become proactive and productive in life.
Lady L'Tanya is a humanitarian leader whose ministries have provided hundreds-of-thousands of pounds of food to the needy in the Lake County Area. As a woman, Lady L'Tanya has played a groundbreaking role in Christian ministry and has been noted for paving the way for women of all ages; to pursue God’s call for their lives.
Lady L'Tanya is the founder and CEO of Woman Arise. The beginning of the vision has been birthed from that which began in L’Tanya’s living room, God has increased it to be held in Daytona Beach, Florida as Woman Arise Women’s Retreat, designed to encourage all women to be strong, to be free, and to love God with all their heart. Today, Woman Arise has risen to high expectations for women of all walks of life and they presently meet in Daytona Beach, Florida annually bringing all women together to ARISE!!
Although, still a work in progress, L’Tanya Likely is living proof that God can and will do all things but fail. Her life confession is “She is nothing without God and she doesn’t look like her testimony.”