Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network
Women’s March Partner
Founded: 1998
Founder: Carolyn Laub
Website: https://gsanetwork.org/
Location: 1714 Franklin St #100, Oakland, CA 94612
Agenda:
- LGBTQ advocacy group coordinating over 900 Gay-Straight Alliance clubs across the U.S.
- Advocates for LGBTQ policies and youth leadership in schools
- Funded by the Tides Foundation prior to being incorporated into a 501c(3) organization
Funding:
$300,000 and above
Anonymous
Ford Foundation
The California Endowment
$100,000 – $299,999
Arcus Foundation
Communities for Just Schools Fund
LGBTQ Racial Justice Fund and
Astrea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
$10,000 – $99,999
Horizons Foundation
Liberty Hill Foundation
Tides Foundation, on the recommendation of Mr. Weston Milliken
$10,000 and under
Akonadi Foundation
Genentech
Gill Family Foundation
Kaiser Permanente
Pacific Gas & Electric
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Strauss Hawkins Fund Tides Foundation, on the recommendation of Mr. Ralph Alpert
The Danielson Foundation
The Simon Strauss Foundation
Transform California
2008 – 2016 federal grants:
$232,481 (2014)
$204,170 (2013)
$173,116 (2012)
Key people:
Staff
Rexy Amaral(link is external), NorCal Youth Organizer
David Bracamontes(link sends e-mail), Senior Manager, Operations
Ginna Brelsford, Co-Executive Director
Frank Chestnut(link sends e-mail), Midwest Regional Organizer
Eli Chi(link sends e-mail), Office Manager
Cathy Chu(link sends e-mail), Southern California Regional Manager
Juniperangelica Cordova-Goff(link sends e-mail), National Trans Youth Justice Organizer
Christopher Covington(link sends e-mail), Southern California Local Community Organizer
Anna Davis(link sends e-mail), Lead Organizer, Southeastern Region
Aldo Gallardo(link sends e-mail), Lead Organizer, Northern CA Region
| Andy Gonzalez(link sends e-mail), Field Organizer, Southern California |
Michelle Guevara(link sends e-mail), Director of Development and Communications
Marc Navarro(link sends e-mail), Fresno GSA Organizer
Rhina Ramos(link sends e-mail), Director of California Programs
Tomas Rodriguez(link sends e-mail), Project Coordinator, Safe and Supportive Schools Project
Neda Said(link sends e-mail), National Training & Curricula Organizer
Christopher White, Director of the Safe and Supportive Schools Project
Geoffrey Winder, Co-Executive Director
Board:
Sam Alavi
Sam Alavi is in her 3rd year at UC Davis, studying sociology and education. She has been serving on the Board of GSA Network since her Junior year in high school. Sam served as the president of her high school’s GSA and worked as a Campus Climate Coordinator at UC Davis’ Cross-Cultural Center last year. This year, she is serving as the Director of the Office of Advocacy & Student Representation at UC Davis, working on issues of sexual assault prevention, mental health resources, LGBT issues, and political literacy.
Jonathan Azterbaum, Co-Chair
Jonathan Azterbaum is a multiracial, queer and genderqueer youth abolitionist and organizer from Los Angeles, California. Their past work includes organizing “The Beyond the Rainbow Run” to raise funds for unhoused LGBTQIA+ youth, facilitating workshops, leadership summits, and actions with GSA Network’s Queerdom Youth Council, and creating the youth programming for the first-ever Downtown LA Proud Fest. Currently attending Pitzer College, Jonathan pursues their passion for journalism as a news staff writer for The Student Life newspaper of the Claremont Colleges and studied Media Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Spanish. Jonathan is also an organizer with the Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine and volunteers with an alternative incarceration facility called Prototypes in the city of Pomona. They are proud to champion the youth movement toward intersectional liberations with GSA Network.
Kristen Burzynski
Kristen Burzynski is a legal fellow at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where she focuses on statewide civil rights and civil liberties with an emphasis on the rights of LGBTQ New Yorkers and transgender/gender-nonconforming students. During law school, Kristen advocated for student and LGBTQ rights at the ACLU LGBT and HIV Project, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the ACLU of Southern California, and Public Counsel. She represented clients in the UC Irvine School of Law Civil Rights Litigation Clinic, as well as the International Human Rights Clinic. Prior to law school, Kristen was a 7th and 8th-grade math and science teacher in Oakland, CA, where she sat on Teach for America’s Diversity and Inclusion Board.
Kristen holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an M.A. in Urban Education Policy from Loyola Marymount University, and a J.D. from The University of California, Irvine, School of Law, where she was awarded high honors for her pro-bono achievements. When she’s not working, Kristen is discovering Brooklyn’s outdoor eateries with her wife and two dogs.
Sophie Fanelli
Sophie Fanelli is a Senior Program Officer, Education, at the Stuart Foundation in San Francisco. She plays a key role in advancing the Foundation’s goal to provide opportunities for students to be engaged, learn, and achieve in schools through the development of effective education systems. Previously, she served as Director of Research & Policy at Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA where she oversaw public policy and legislative efforts focused on education reform, equity and access, and student and parent engagement. Her range of experience also includes work with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California where she focused on advancing education equity, LGBTQ equality, immigration rights, the needs of at-risk youth, and advocacy for the homeless. Sophie was also a Board Member for Immigration Equality which fights for equality under U.S. immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive individuals. Sophie received her Master’s Degree in Political Science and Juris Doctorate, both from Faculte de Droit d’Aix-en-Provence in France, and a Masters in Legal History and Political Science from Universita La Sapienza, in Rome, Italy.
Amanda Goad, Co-Chair
Amanda is Director of Litigation at Inner City Law Center, a nonprofit organization working to secure healthy homes for the most vulnerable people in Los Angeles. From 2011 to 2015, Amanda worked in the LGBT & HIV Project of the national ACLU, where she advocated for the civil rights and civil liberties of LGBTQ youth from Hawaii to Maine. She also previously served as Senior Counsel with the New York City Law Department and coordinated a pro bono name change project for transgender individuals. In 2015, Amanda was named to the National LGBT Bar Association’s annual list of 40 Best LGBT Lawyers under the age of 40.
Amanda is an alum of Harvard Law School, Rice University, and Teach for America. Outside of social justice work, she can often be found hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains or playing with her cats.
Logan Henderson
Logan is a student at Dartmouth College, pursuing a degree in Native American Studies, African American Studies, and Digital Arts. He has been involved with GSA Network programming since 2010, joining the board in 2012 before taking a break for school and coming back in 2015. Logan is a proponent for racial, economic, and gender justice, queer rights, disability rights, and community healing on his college campus. In his spare time, Logan does his homework and takes long walks in the wilderness.
Danny Orsburn, Treasurer
Danny is a director at PwC in the Financial Markets team where he focuses on the valuation of portfolio companies. He has spent 12 years with the firm and works with a diverse client base comprised of venture capital and private equity firms as well as corporate investment entities. Danny has been performing financial reporting, tax, and strategic valuations for over 14 years. He is also a leader in PwC’s OPEN (Out Professional Employee Network) group and with the firm’s youth financial literacy initiative (Earn Your Future). He has been involved in Kiwanis International through Key Club and membership and executive board positions in the NYC Young Professional and San Francisco Kiwanis Clubs. Originally from West Virginia, Danny has a B.S.B.A from West Virginia University with double majors in Finance and Management Information Systems and is a founding member of WVU’s College of Business and Economics’ Young Professional Network. Having found career opportunities in New York, London and now San Francisco, Danny enjoys travel, food, the outdoors, and Bikram yoga.
Henry Pickavet, Secretary
Henry Pickavet is the copy chief at TechCrunch. Prior to that, he was the editor of several online and print publications, including InternetNews.com as a chief copy editor and Government Technology magazine as managing editor. Between 2007 and 2010, He lived in Australia and was editor of RBI Australia’s manufacturing group, which is when he also developed an affinity (a love, really) for cricket.
Henry consulted the board of directors of San Francisco-based nonprofit Queer LifeSpace. He has a bachelor’s degree in English from California State University, Chico, and a master’s in Liberal Studies from the New School for Social Research in New York.
Sterling Waldman
Sterling is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Missouri studying Women’s and Gender Studies. They are a senator in their student government, having passed several pieces of legislation, including increasing the number of gender-neutral bathrooms and writing a new preferred name policy that allows trans students to have their name on transcripts. They previously served on the board of Missouri GSA Network and on the National Youth Council throughout high school. They are the youngest person certified to the National Sexuality Education Standards in the state of Missouri. They feel it is a great honor to be able to serve on the GSA Network board and hope to continue to organize with queer and trans youth throughout the rest of their life.
Matthew Yeung
Matthew Yeung is a champion for intersectional and systemic reform for minority communities. As a recently appointed member of the Board, Matthew is always inspired to continue navigating their gender and advocacy. They also serve on the Trevor Project Youth Advisory Council and the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) National Student Council.
Matthew is a proud community college student at Diablo Valley College. They plan to transfer to the University of Southern California and aspires to be a Public Defender. Naps are their favorite pastime.
