• Equality
  • Community
    • Health
    • Youth
    • Seniors
  • Voices
    • From the CEO
    • Take Five
    • Why I Give
  • About the Center
  • Galleries
  • Calendar
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Big Freedia Offers Words of Inspiration to LGBTQ+ Youth at The Future Is Black: Renaissance
  • Center South Celebrates Three Years of Service in South Los Angeles
  • Slice, Slice Baby!
  • LGBTQ+ Youth, Seniors, and ‘Drag Race’ Queens Celebrate Chosen Family at Inaugural Intergenerational Thanksgiving Dinner
  • Dispensing Culturally Competent Care: The Center’s Patient-Centric Pharmacy Does Much More Than Fill Prescriptions
  • Get to Know the Center’s New Leadership Team
  • The Center Looks Back on 25 Years of Senior Services
  • Center CEO Joe Hollendoner: “Our Work Is Never Done”
Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube
LGBT News Now
Learn about career opportunities at the Center
  • Equality
  • Community
    • Health
    • Youth
    • Seniors
  • Voices
    • From the CEO
    • Take Five
    • Why I Give
  • About the Center
  • Galleries
  • Calendar
LGBT News Now
You are at:Home»Voices»Get to Know the Center’s New Leadership Team

Get to Know the Center’s New Leadership Team

0
By on November 17, 2022 Voices

Joe Hollendoner

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Year Started at the Center: 2021
Title: Chief Executive Officer

The most rewarding part of working at the Center is seeing the impact that we are having on our community. Whether it is when I walk around the Anita May Rosenstein Campus or visit one of our community sites like Trans Wellness Center, I see the joy and resiliency of our clients. Truthfully, there is not a single day that I don’t get to witness a young person or senior accessing our services light up because they can be their authentic selves in a space that is designed to care for their unique needs. It’s a regular reminder to me of what an honor and privilege it is to be leading the Center.

And while it pains me to know that the demand for services regularly outpaces our capacity, I have every confidence that the Center will continue to evolve to meet the changing and ever-growing needs of our community. The board and staff are committed to building upon the legacy of the last 50 years and continuing to do as much good for as many people as possible.

Saurabh Bajaj

Hometown: Cerritos, California
Year Started at the Center: 2022
Title: Chief Development Officer

I decided early on that I only wanted to work at LGBTQ organizations; I knew I wanted to make change for and with the people of my community. I started at HIV organizations in San Francisco and most recently spent two years at Freedom for All Americans, which focused on securing nondiscrimination protections nationwide.

When it came time to decide what the next phase of my career would be, I knew I wanted to return to direct service. Joining the Los Angeles LGBT Center has felt like a dream becoming reality. Not only does our work touch on so many issues that are close to my heart, but it has been such a pleasure to work with a diverse team of people who really care about the health and well-being of LGBTQ people in L.A. and beyond.

Sharon Brown

Hometown: Sicily Island, Louisiana
Year Started at the Center: 2007
Title: Chief Impact Officer

I always say that I’ve grown with the Center. I first started here 15 years ago as a volunteer before working my way up through the ranks. In that time, I’ve seen the organization grow from 230 employees to triple that number today. I’ve seen our internal culture evolve over time, allowing people to bring more of their authentic selves to work. And I’ve seen how important our work is in pushing the LGBTQ movement forward.

But as far as we have come—and as far as we have to go—our hearts still beat to the same drums of advocacy. As we look ahead to this next era, I remain as excited as I’ve always been to continue our march toward a future where all LGBTQ people can thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society.

Ward Carpenter, MD

Hometown: Ridgewood, NJ
Year Started at the Center: 2013
Title: Chief Health Officer

The Chief Health Officer’s role is to oversee all activities within the Health Center and ensure integration with the broader work of the Center. It’s my job to make sure that we are innovating and creating responsive programs that really meet the needs of all our clients and community.

This is an exciting time to be helping to lead the organization because it feels like the future is arriving. We are becoming something better than we have ever been to this point. We are on the brink of providing world-class services in all our lines of service to the clients and communities who need us. And this matches my own personal mission of wanting to create a better world for my fellow queer community. This community has given me so much, and I hope to give back as much as I can.

Ricardo DeLeon

Hometown: Corpus Christi, Texas
Year Started at the Center: 2020
Title: Chief Financial Officer

Before joining the Center, I spent more than 25 years in corporate America building a career as a finance executive. It was in the summer of 2020, as the world was changing around us, that I began to feel under-utilized. I wasn’t actively looking for a new role at the time, but when the opportunity to join the Center presented itself, I had zero hesitation to pursue.

What I’ve come to understand is that the breadth and depth of the Center’s services extend even further than I knew. From housing and healthcare to social groups and cultural arts, the services and benefits for our clients and team members go far beyond my initial understanding. But there is always room to grow with a team as talented as ours, and it’s my goal to make sure we’re on a solid foundation for success.

Gerald Garth

Hometown: Baton Rouge, LA
Year Started at the Center: 2022
Title: Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

My role at the Center is to look throughout the organization at how we’re prioritizing equity in various capacities. From race to gender to class to ableism to visibility and so many other capacities, it’s my job to identify key areas for improvement, moments for activation, and opportunities to create cultural change.

What excites me most about this role is the team. The team at the Center is made up of so many great folks who really want to make sure that everyone has equitable access not only to care and services but to opportunities. We’re all committed to making sure that our policies, practices, and procedures align with these values as we strive to elevate the work of the Center and the narratives of our communities.

J-000144_42C_05 001

Phillip Picardi

Hometown: North Andover, MA
Year Started at the Center: 2022
Title: Chief Marketing & Communications Officer

Before joining the Center, I was in the magazine/digital media field for over a decade. While I believe in the power of journalism, I grew tired of being a spectator to the work. I’m here to do the work.

My mission is to find a concise and powerful way to tell the Center’s story, and to spread our message beyond just L.A. County so that our incredible service providers get the recognition and respect they deserve. I love hearing from folks who have been here for 10, 15, 20+ years. I am in awe of anyone who’s devoted their life’s work to helping their community, or to helping a community they felt called to serve. I’m hoping to help transform our visual identity, digital marketing, and social media presence so we look and sound as badass as I know we are.

Terra Russell-Slavin

Hometown: Seabrook, Texas
Year Started at the Center: 2006
Title: Chief Impact Officer

I love my job. It’s an incredible privilege to look at a systemic challenge facing our community and have the ability and access to advocate for change. Sometimes it’s as simple as shifting a box on one document, and sometimes it’s changing a whole federal law. At the Center, we have the ability to make those things happen.

One of the things I’m really passionate about is making sure our organization is at the vanguard of social justice efforts. It’s so important that we look at how the needs of the LGBTQ community overlap with other issues like reproductive justice or racial justice. Are we standing firm in our commitments on these issues? We have a duty to every single member of our community and we have to work together to protect the rights of future generations.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Related Posts

Center CEO Joe Hollendoner: “Our Work Is Never Done”

Center CEO Joe Hollendoner: It’s Time to Start Treating Human Monkeypox Like the Emergency It Is

Lorri L. Jean: “Great Things Must Come to an End”

Comments are closed.

Upcoming Events

Mar 16
March 16 - April 16

Menstruation: A Period Piece

Apr 22
April 22 - April 23

Arena: A House MUSIC-al

Apr 29
April 29 - June 24

A New Brain

May 13
May 13 - June 12

The Bottoming Process

View Calendar
About Us

LGBT News Now

LGBT News Now is a publication of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, the Center is the largest LGBT organization in the world, dedicated to building a world where LGBT thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society. Learn more at lalgbtcenter.org.

Follow Us on Instagram

lalgbtcenter

The Los Angeles LGBT Center is building a world where LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society.

Los Angeles LGBT Center
Are you ready for a little #Lesbian 101? In honor Are you ready for a little #Lesbian 101? In honor of #WomensHistoryMonth, we pulled together some facts about the L in the LGBTQ+ movement. Swipe through to learn more.
“The Los Angeles LGBT Center keeps me together” – @gottmik 

We feel love all the way from #SXSW 💜

Thank you @kwprime @trevorproject @jaidaehall & @the_symone for having this amazing conversation on the importance of protecting drag in our community.

#drag #lalgbtcenter #dragrace #queen #SXSW #sxswfilm
As a part of Ms. Versace’s iconic visit to the C As a part of Ms. Versace’s iconic visit to the Center, she invited the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) to bring Los Angeles design talent to meet with the young people we serve in our Youth Academy. Two of those designers, Sergio Hudson and Pia Davis (No Sesso), offered their time and talents in a very special talk with our students who expressed an interest in pursuing careers in the fashion industry. Both South Carolina natives, Mr. Hudson is a decorated American designer who recently dressed Mrs. Michelle Obama, and Ms. Davis is the first Black trans designer to be awarded membership to the CFDA. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the entire CFDA family for their support of the Center’s Youth Services department. Mr. Hudson said that the experience was a reflection of his purpose as a designer. “I want to inspire people and open doors for people who look like me. We’re there, but people hold us up like unicorns on a pedestal! We’re trying to put in the work to normalize it for others.”
Happy #InternationalWomensDay! We’d like for you Happy #InternationalWomensDay! We’d like for you to meet Bonnilee, one of the many treasured members of our Senior Services program. 

At 68, Bonnilee is newly retired after having spent her career as an educational diagnostician and special education teacher who worked to ensure that students with learning disabilities received the attention and care they needed. In her spare time, she also worked as a cosmetologist and makeup artist, using the craft as an outlet to express herself after spending long days of having to hide her true self at work.

“The Center was my first stop when I moved to L.A. 15 years ago,” she says. “I came out a million times in my life, as I'm sure everybody has to. But my parents were very unhappy about it, and that made for a lot of intensities. … But I’m feeling really content now. I’m older, I’m retired, and I have nothing to hide anymore. I feel like I'm really being my most authentic self, in a way.”

Today, Bonnilee spends her days traversing Los Angeles on her bike, stopping by the Senior Center for lunch or to visit the farmer’s market. She’s also found new outlets for her creativity in programs like the Still We Rise poetry writing class for LGBTQ+ women and a new 3D hanging art class offered at the Senior Center.

“I don’t think anyone at the Center ever knew how much hiding I was doing at work and in my day-to-day life because I’m so out and proud and clear and shining,” she says. “I figured out a way to play it safe and compartmentalize. But for the people coming up behind me, don’t compartmentalize, don’t be ashamed. Be free.”

Images by @mcfaddenphoto
We recently had the pleasure of hosting @donatella We recently had the pleasure of hosting @donatella_versace, the Chief Creative Officer of Versace, at the Center. To accompany her visit, Ms. Versace invited the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) to bring fashion students and designers to hear her speak. After Ms. Versace’s tour of the Center, she sat down for a conversation in our Renberg theatre to a very packed and very lively audience. One of the highlight’s of Ms. Versace’s visit was when we asked her about her legacy. How does she want to be remembered? “I don’t want to be remembered,” she said. “I want to live!”
In celebration of #WomensHistoryMonth, we’re tak In celebration of #WomensHistoryMonth, we’re taking a look at some of the vibrant contributions of the #LGBTQ+ community and highlighting a few of the innumerable women whose contributions and achievements have shaped the culture of Los Angeles and helped push our society forward.
 
Today, we’re highlighting Hattie McDaniel, the trailblazing actress and performer who defied racial barriers and went from traveling across the United States with her brother's vaudeville troupe to becoming the first Black person to win an Academy Award for her role in “Gone With the Wind.”
 
Despite her success, McDaniel’s rise in Hollywood was met with intense discrimination and criticism. She was barred from attending the “Gone With the Wind” premiere—which was held at a whites-only theater in Atlanta—and at the 1939 Oscars ceremony where she had her historic win, McDaniel was forced to sit at a segregated table in the back of the room. 
 
She also withstood condemnation throughout her career from the NAACP, who took issue with the stereotypical roles she inhabited. In response, McDaniel reportedly said, “I can be a maid for $7 a week, or I can play a maid for $700 a week.”
 
Meanwhile, McDaniel used her fame and influence to fight against racial discrimination off screen. When she moved to the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1941, white residents filed a lawsuit against her and other Black homeowners, aiming to oust them from their homes on the grounds that property deeds forbade sales to Black homeowners. McDaniel led the fight against the attack, and a judge eventually ruled that the racial restrictions were unconstitutional, paving the way for the end of such restrictions nationwide (and leading to the Fair Housing Act). 

McDaniel’s home has been preserved as a historic monument, and those in Los Angeles can still visit the site to this day at W 22nd St. and S Harvard Blvd. (Stay tuned for more updates like this throughout the month!)
 
Image Credit: Criterion
Today marks the beginning of #WomensHistoryMonth—a celebration that would not be anywhere near as vibrant without the contributions of the #LGBTQ+ community. For years, the Center is proud to host the #OutForSafeSchools curriculum and lesson plans, a partnership with @OneArchives and UCLA to teach LGBTQ+ history to our students. 

One of our lesson plans is about The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB)—named after the lesbian poetry collection “The Songs of Bilitis.” DOB is believed to be the first lesbian rights group in the United States. Founded in San Francisco in 1955 by a diverse group of women (and later carried on by the couple Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon), DOB originated as a social club but quickly changed its focus to education and advocacy. Daring to embrace their sexuality in a time of relentless persecution and opposition, DOB brought women together to fight for acceptance in a culture that deemed homosexuality as deviant and abnormal.

In 1956, the group began publishing The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine in the country. Aiming to provide an outlet for voices that had long been silenced, The Ladder included news, poetry, short stories, and essays relating to the lesbian experience, as well as updates on DOB meetings and activities. 

The Ladder encouraged readers to “come out of hiding,” offering employment advice and distributing a pamphlet titled “Your Legal Rights.” DOB continued to meet and publish new issues of The Ladder into the 1970s, connecting women across the country and giving rise to dozens of other lesbian and feminist organizations nationwide. Thanks to Internet Archive, we curated some of our favorite covers of The Ladder for your viewing—you can see how the tone and messaging evolves as the LGBTQ+ movement more firmly takes hold over the decades.

We’ll be posting more throughout the month, so stay tuned for other updates like this. (And if you don’t want to miss a beat from the Center, you can always turn those post notifications on. We promise we won’t spam ya!)
Do you know the latest about #tranq? As the opioid Do you know the latest about #tranq? As the opioid crisis tightens its grip on America, the newest substance sweeping through our city streets is a medication widely used as a livestock sedative. When #xylazine is mixed with opioids like #fentanyl and injected by humans, it can cause people to black out for hours. Withdrawal symptoms are said to be worse than those from heroin or methadone. The opposite of addiction isn’t always sobriety but it’s always a connection. Swipe to learn what to look out for—and how to access the Center’s life-saving resources by contacting 323-993-7448 or recoveryservices@lalgbtcenter.org
It’s on all of us to show up for Black LGBTQ+ yo It’s on all of us to show up for Black LGBTQ+ youth. Sometimes, living in our truth and our beauty can be hard—not because of ourselves, but because of how others treat and see us. Black queer youth deserve all the love and support that we can provide. Swipe through for some ways we can uplift our youth through community.
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Stay Connected
Subscribe
Copyright © 2022 Los Angeles LGBT Center
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.