Alice Y. Hom / Los Angeles, CA /
Board Chair & Coordinating Committee Chair

Alice Y. Hom is Alice is the California Partnerships Program Manager for the National Gender and Equity Campaign, a demonstration project for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. As a community builder, educator and writer, she brings over 17 years of experience in organizing and teaching on the intersections of race, gender and sexuality while also linking academic issues to community based activism. From 2001-2006, she served as the Founding Director of the Intercultural Community Center at Occidental College where she worked on diversity and social justice issues. Alice also serves on the board of Visual Communications, an Asian American media arts organization. She co-edited an award-winning anthology titled Q & A: Queer in Asian America. Alice received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, a Masters Degree in Asian American Studies from University of California, Los Angeles, and is completing her dissertation on organizing and community building by lesbians of color from the 1970s to the 1990s in a Ph.D. History Program at Claremont Graduate University.

Stephanie Blackwood / New York, NY /
Board Development Committee Chair

Stephanie Blackwood was born and raised in Central Kansas. After graduating from the University of Kansas with a B.S. and M.S. in journalism, she started her migration east, stopping first in Columbus, Ohio, where she worked in community relations/marketing at Ohio State for eight years, and then continuing on to New York. She has launched four GLBT-focused businesses, including The Advocate's New York office, where she was associate publisher, and most recently Double Platinum, a full-service, award-winning gay/lesbian-focused marketing communications agency started with long-time friend Arthur Korant.

Ileana Jimenez / Brooklyn, NY / Board Secretary

Ileana Jimenez has been teaching high school English since she graduated from Smith College in 1997. For the first seven years of her career, Ileana brought a feminist vision to single sex girls' schools in Baltimore and Washington, DC. Working with girls and encouraging them to write personal stories about race, class, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and body image became the focus of both her classroom and scholarly work. She now teaches at a small, progressive high school in New York, where she offers courses in Latina/o literature, LGBTI literature, memoir writing, Toni Morrison, and race, class, and gender in American culture. Ileana also coordinates a professional affinity group for LGBTI independent school educators in New York, and continues to be involved in national conversations about education and social justice. She frequently leads presentations on integrating Latina/o and LGBTI authors in the English classroom at the annual People of Color Conference sponsored by the National Association of Independent Schools. Ileana received her Masters in English Literature at Middlebury College, Bread Loaf School of English and currently serves as a judge for the Lambda Literary Awards.

Rebecca Rolfe / San Francisco, CA /
Board Treasurer & Finance Committee Chair

Rebecca Rolfe is the Deputy Executive Director of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center. She has been active in the anti-violence movement for over 20 years. She is passionately committed to addressing inequities based on gender, race, economic status and sexual orientation. Rebecca lives in San Francisco, California with her partner of fourteen years and their two dogs.

Robin Rosenbluth / New York, NY /
Development Committee Chair

Robin Rosenbluth is the Assistant Vice President for Development at Columbia University Medical Center. She also teaches fundraising at Columbia, NYU, and the Support Center. Previously, she oversaw institutional fundraising for four NYC hospitals; she served as the Development Director of the Ms. Foundation and worked with environmental groups, museums, and other women's organizations. As a volunteer, she was a board member of the NYC Anti-Violence Project and has been active in international solidarity movements in Central America and South Africa as well as the women's and anti-racist movements in the US. Robin and her partner of more than 20 years have raised two children in Brooklyn.

Marion Banzhaf / New York, NY

Marion Banzhaf has been an activist since the early 1970's in the feminist health movement and in various LGBTI and anti-racist community organizations. In the late 1980's she was active in ACT UP/New York. Later, she served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Women and AIDS Network from 1990 to 1996. Since 1998, Marion has been the Director of the Sonya Staff Foundation, whose mission is to support the preservation of Yiddish culture; secular Jewish activities; HIV/AIDS groups and groups which serve visually handicapped and blind people; summer camping which is interracial, non-competitive, and non-religious; community library and literacy efforts. Currently, she is enrolled in the Chef Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute of Health and Culinary Arts in New York City.

Louisa Hext / Minneapolis, MN

An advocate, activist and philanthropist, Louisa was born and raised in London, England and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There, she serves as a Commissioner for the Minneapolis' Civil Rights Commission and as a board member on the League of Minnesota Human Rights Commissions. She also helped found the Jewish and Muslim Women's Dialogue and was the board president of Outward Spiral Theatre Company. She now works in financial services, where she emphasizes planned and philanthropic giving. She has worked as an advocate, educator and consultant within the field of disabilities and is a trainer of Essential Lifestyle Planning, a process that empowers individuals who experience disabilities, their families, and friends. Louisa created Friendship Connection, a social club for over 500 individuals with disabilities and is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing her work with people experiencing disabilities.

Meg Hickman / Los Angeles, CA

Though Meg has now spent most of her life on the West Coast, she was born in Baltimore, and grew up in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, prior to graduating cum laude from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After college, she studied and worked in Europe before pursuing graduate studies in Film and Mass Media at Stanford. Later, as a staff assistant to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Meg honed her political savvy. She has protested the Vietnam War and nuclear power, marched for LGBTII and Women's rights, and has protected patients at abortion clinics. Since 1985, she has owned and run an investment and tax practice as an enrolled agent, stock broker, and financial planner. She is an economist by training and socialist by choice for freedom, justice and transformation of the planet. Meg strives to serve, contribute and make a difference.

Toni Lester / Boston, MA

Toni Lester is a teacher, scholar, consultant, writer, activist and composer. Her work explores issues relating to human rights, culture and society, the connection between multiple forms of oppression, and spirituality. Her book, Gender Nonconformity, Race and Sexuality-Charting Connections, is published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Toni has published in numerous national journals and magazines, and has produced features on the above topics for Pacifica Radio and National Public Radio.

Eleanor Palacios / San Francisco, CA

Eleanor Palacios is the Events Manager at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), joining the staff after three years on NCLR's Board. She also serves as Principal at Lady Iguana Productions. Highly versed in events management, she has co-chaired NCLR's 28th and 29th Anniversary Galas and has been behind events for the SF LGBTI Center, the SF Botanical Garden, the New College, and the Latino Issues Forum. Over the years she has worked with Olivia Cruises, PlanetOut, and Procter & Gamble. She has been an activist in the LGBTI Community for more than 15 years and is a founding member of The Center's Latino Forum.

Nadeja Wesley / Chicago, IL

Nadeja has worked professionally on various statewide policy and education initiatives, including family support, anti-violence and affordable housing. She is an anti-oppression and anti-violence trainer for students, professionals and community based organizations, and dedicates her activism toward youth, women, members of the LGBTI community and other historically marginalized populations. Nadeja received her Master of Social Work from the University of Iowa, and has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

shash yázhí / Oakland, CA

shash yázhí was raised on the Diné (Navajo) reservation near Farmington, New Mexico. Raised by her grandparents until she was thirteen, she was taught the importance of living in harmony with "Mother Earth." shash yázhí now implements traditional practices passed down to her through several generations into her work with activists and individuals wishing to create internal healing and balance in their lives. Working in indigenous communities allowed her to experience movement work that fuses spirit work with organizing work. With a passion for intergenerational and youth organizing, shash yázhí has worked as a community organizer on issues ranging from indigenous sovereignty to racial equity in schools. In the last few years she has committed herself to practicing a spiritual walk full time, serving as a guide to her sisters and brothers in the movement. Currently, she is the co-founder and director of Spirit in Motion program of the Movement Strategy Center in Oakland, CA.

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