GALAEI: A Queer Latin@ Social Justice Organization has not had an executive director since February, but recently welcomed a new staffer and some executive support to help keep it on track.
Madelyn Aamina Morrison joined the Trans-Health Information Project as a co-coordinator on June 27. She had spent a decade working for the project, called TIP, before stepping down in 2013 for “professional and personal soul-searching.”
“I didn’t want to become jaded working with the community,” Morrison said. “I’m at a different place now.”
She said she looks forward to working with Naiymah Sanchez, coordinator of TIP. The two met in 1998 through mutual friends. Morrison said they would be able to take care of each other while doing the work.
The Urban Affairs Coalition, a financial sponsor of GALAEI, will provide embedded executive support, the nonprofit told PGN. The coalition will have a representative at GALAEI’s North Philadelphia office at 149 W. Susquehanna Ave. three days a week, said Fran Zavala Cortes, youth coordinator.
Zavala Cortes said GALAEI’s board expects to interview executive director candidates this month, and that the organization would like to hire someone by the end of the summer.
Miguel Andrade, a former GALAEI board member who served as interim executive director since February, concluded his service in May. He told PGN he was only able to take three months off from his fulltime job working with the Indego bike-share program in Philadelphia.
Andrade has not rejoined GALAEI’s board, a body he left in order to serve as interim executive director. But he continues on good terms with the organization. He said he is focused on advocacy efforts for the U.S. Human Rights Network and Not 1 More, a campaign to end deportations.
Elicia Gonzales abruptly left GALAEI in February, after six years as executive director. The move was called a mutual decision by the board. Gonzales has not commented publicly on her reason for leaving. She was not available for comment this week.
GALAEI’s current employees expressed optimism for the organization’s future.
Zavala Cortes said TIP has grown significantly over the last few years.
“There is this increase in social positivity from the TIP program,” Morrison said. “It’s expanded in ways it couldn’t before.”
She said it’s great that she and Sanchez can go into the prison system and work with the guards, staff and transgender inmates to improve the environment. Morrison would also like to work on a new volunteer initiative.
Morrison said she would handle outreach and some administration work, while Sanchez would handle administration and some outreach work.
“It is stressful doing it on your own,” Morrison said. “We can call on each other for anything. I’m just ready to get the ball rolling.”
Sanchez was out of the office this week and not available for comment.
Zavala Cortes said Morrison would be able to jump right into providing programs and services through TIP because she has done it before.
In her previous tenure, Morrison shepherded TIP through the three-year Project STARR for Strengthening Trans Adolescents in Risk Reduction. It operated from 2006-09 through a $1.5-million grant from the CDC.
“We’re super excited,” Zavala Cortes said of Morrison’s return. “She was the perfect candidate.”
Morrison is also pursuing her bachelor’s degree in public health.