*The position titles of each Commission on LGBT Affairs member have been updated to reflect a press release issued by the city.
The city’s newly appointed Commission on LGBT Affairs will hold its first public meeting Thursday at City Hall.
Mayor Jim Kenney and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown will welcome Amber Hikes, the newly appointed Director of LGBT Affairs who took the helm from Nellie Fitzpatrick earlier this month. Following a press conference, Hikes will lead the first public meeting for the Commission.
The press conference will be held 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the Mayor’s Reception Room at City Hall, 1401 John F Kennedy Blvd.
The following members were selected for the Commission:
- Deja Lynn Alvarez — trans activist; director, LGBTQ Home for Hope
- Chris Bartlett — executive director, William Way LGBT Community Center
- Kimberley Brown-Flint — education administrator; William Way LGBT Community Center board member
- Leonore Carpenter — LGBTQ civil-rights attorney; professor of law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
- Sharron Cooks — owner and CEO of Making Our Lives Easier LLC; social-justice advocate; Equality Pennsylvania board member
- Francisco Cortes — education administrator, Youth Program Coordinator of GALAEI, Juntos board member
- Amanda Dougherty — associate attorney Reiff and Bily, Philadelphia Trial Attorneys; longtime advocate for the LGBT community.
- Jason D. Evans — community activist; board member of Philly AIDS Thrift
- Heath Fogg Davis — professor of political science, Temple University; volunteer TMAN (Trans Masculine Advocacy Network)
- Soheila ‘Gigi’ Nikpour — Community Legal Services Aging & Disabilities Unit, LGBT sports, actively assists LGBT asylum-seekers
- Kati ‘Jazz’ Gray-Sadler — president and producer of Gray-Sadler, Inc., LesBe Real Radio/Media, Fifty Shades of Purple Against Bullying
- Kae Greenberg — assistant defender, Defenders Association of Philadelphia
- Stephanie Haynes — executive director, Philadelphia Family Pride
- Deborah Johnson — visitor-services manager, African America Museum of Philadelphia
- Jeffrey Jordan — pastor, Metropolitan Community Church
- Malcolm Kenyatta — member-engagement coordinator, Chamber of Commerce
- Anthony Leon — youth education manager, Mazzoni Center
- Barrett Marshall — attorney and LGBTQ legal-services expert
- Libby Peters — assistant rowing coach, University of Pennsylvania Women’s Rowing Program
- Bianca Pichardo — Latinx activist; GALAEI board member
- Raquel E. Saraswati — Muslim activist/writer, expert on gender-based violence
- Evan Urbania — chief executive officer, Chatterblast Media; founding board member and former president of Independence Business Alliance
- Yoshiaki Yamasaki — executive director, the Philadelphia AIDS Consortium d.b.a. World Health Care Infrastructures
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