June 2020 – LGBTQ+ Pride Month - SOLD OUT
Join us for an interactive session with leading LGBTQ+ organizations that are advancing rights and supporting equality on this 50th Anniversary of Pride Month.
Celebrate with Alumni from Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Stanford Pride.
Moderated by David Tsai, Harvard AB ’97, Stanford MS '98.
Panelists:
- Michael Adams, Harvard AB ’83, Stanford JD/MA '90 – CEO, SAGE
- Kevin Jennings, Harvard AB '85, Columbia MA '94, NYU MBA '99 – CEO, Lambda Legal
- Amit Paley, Harvard AB ’04, Columbia MS '10 MBA '11 – CEO, The Trevor Project
- Imani Rupert-Gordon, UC Santa Barbara BA, U of Chicago MA – Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
- Janson Wu, Harvard AB ’00, JD ’03 – Executive Director, GLAD
Monday, June 22, 2020
5:00pm – 6:30pm - Pacific time
Free to attend
Zoom meeting link and dial-in information will be sent the day of the event at noon to those who RSVP. Please make sure you are all set to use Zoom before the conference. Click here to Get Started on Zoom.
Moderator: David Tsai (AB ’97)
David Tsai (AB ’97) is a law partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP’s San Francisco office. His legal practice focuses on intellectual property and litigation. He works with clients of all sizes from Fortune 500 corporations to startups. David moved to the San Francisco Bay Area after graduating from Harvard College in 1997. David currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Club of San Francisco and Lambda Legal. He also is a trustee of the University of California, Riverside Foundation, and a past president of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area and past Co-Chair of BALIF (the SF Bay Area LGBTQ+ Bar Association). David is committed to pro bono work and has successfully represented a number of LGBT and HIV+ clients in asylum matters. He also led the drafting of amicus briefs filed in the California same-sex marriage/Prop 8 cases for which more than 100 organizations signed. David has been recognized as a Best Lawyer Under 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association and by the California State Legislature for his work in civil rights.
PANELISTS
Michael Adams (AB ’83), CEO, SAGE
Michael Adams is the Chief Executive Officer of SAGE (Advocacy and Services for LGBT Elders), the world’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBT older people. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in New York City, SAGE is a national organization that offers supportive services and consumer resources to LGBT older people and their caregivers. SAGE also advocates for public policy changes that address the needs of LGBT elders, provides education and technical assistance for aging providers and LGBT community organizations through its National Resource Center on LGBT Aging, and cultural competency training through SAGECare. With staff located across the country, SAGE also coordinates SAGENet, a growing network of affiliates in the United States. Michael, a graduate of Stanford Law School and Harvard College, previously served as Director of Education and Public Affairs and Deputy Legal Director for Lambda Legal. Prior to that, he was Litigation Director of the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. He has served on advisory councils for AARP, the American Society on Aging, and the New York City Department for the Aging, among others. Adams is the Chair of the American Society on Aging.
Kevin Jennings (AB ’85), CEO, Lambda Legal
Kevin Jennings is CEO of Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest and largest national legal organization whose mission is to achieve full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work. Formerly president of the Tenement Museum, Kevin’s contributions to the LGBT movement began in 1988, when he helped students create the first school-based Gay-Straight Alliance club, leading him to found and lead the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) for 18 years. He then served as an Assistant Secretary of Education for President Obama, after which he led the Arcus Foundation, the world’s largest foundation for LGBT rights organizations, for 5 years. Kevin is actively engaged in nonprofit and community causes. Currently he chairs the Boards of the Ubunye Challenge and Muslims for Progressive Values. He is a past Board Member of the Harvard Alumni Association, Union Theological Seminary, Marjorie’s Fund, the You Can Play Project, and was the founding Board Chair for the Tectonic Theater Project, which created The Laramie Project. Kevin is a graduate of Harvard College. He also received a Masters of Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012, and an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Amit Paley (AB ’04), CEO, The Trevor Project
Amit Paley is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people. He began as a counselor on The Trevor Project's 24/7 TrevorLifeline in 2011, and since then he has answered hundreds of calls from LGBTQ youth in crisis. During his tenure, The Trevor Project has built and launched a new, integrated crisis services platform, expanded its chat and text services to 24/7, and more than tripled the number of youth served each month. The Trevor Project also now operates the largest grassroots campaign in the world to end conversion therapy. Amit serves on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Steering Committee and the Executive Committee of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and is a renowned expert on the mental health of LGBTQ young people and suicide prevention.
Imani Rupert-Gordon, Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
Imani Rupert-Gordon, University of California, Santa Barbara B.A., University of Chicago, M.A., is the Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), which is the first national LGBTQ legal organization founded by women and has been advancing the civil and human rights of the LGBTQ community and their families through impact litigation, public policy, and public education since 1977. Imani is a long-time movement leader and advocate for LGBTQ people of color. She previously served as the Executive Director of Affinity Community Services, the nation’s oldest social justice organization serving the needs of Black LGBTQ people with a particular focus on Black women. She also served as the Director of the Broadway Youth Center, a division of Howard Brown Health in Chicago, which has served more than 1,500 LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Imani has been widely recognized for her visionary leadership in the LGBTQ community. Most recently, the Illinois Human Rights Commission presented her with its 2019 Activism Award. Throughout her career, Imani has been a leader in many nonprofit and community organizations, including serving as a founding board member of the Point the Way in Chicago, and as a board member and lead grant writer for the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Center in San Jose, CA. She has also served as a committee member for the Chicago LGBTQ Aging Networks, an executive committee member for United Pride (United Way of Metropolitan Chicago’s LGBTQ group), and as a member of the Illinois State Treasurer Office’s LGBTQ Advisory Council.
Janson Wu (AB ’00, JD ’03), Executive Director, GLAD
Janson Wu is the executive director of GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders), which has been working in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation since 1978. Starting as a staff attorney at GLAD, Janson has been deeply involved in the breadth of GLAD’s work, including the rights of LGBT elders, marriage and family law, employment benefits, and transgender rights. He served on the legal teams for GLAD’s two federal challenges to DOMA, GLAD’s class action suit against Walmart, and the successful asylum case of Ugandan activist John Abdallah Wambere. In 2012, in In re Madelyn B, Janson successfully argued before New Hampshire’s highest court that a non-biological lesbian mother should be recognized as a parent. Prior to GLAD, Janson worked as an attorney with the anti-poverty organization Tri-City Community Action Program, and as an associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Janson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Questions: davetsai@gmail.com