GLSEN Names First Black, First Nonbinary Executive Director
GLSEN, the organization advocating for safe and inclusive schools for LGBTQ+ students in grades K-12, has named its first Black and first nonbinary executive director.Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, who has been interim executive director since Eliza Byard stepped down a year ago, has been named to the executive director position, GLSEN announced Wednesday.
Willingham-Jaggers, who uses she/they pronouns, is the first person of color, first nonbinary person, and first Black woman to lead the organization.“I am thrilled to continue and accelerate the important work GLSEN started more than 30 years ago,” Willingham-Jaggers said in a press release. “Education is the cornerstone of our democracy and GLSEN’s work is rooted in the belief that education can and should be an experience that is safe, inclusive, and affirming for all students.
I am committed to ensuring our organization lives up to that promise and advances work based always on GLSEN’s core strategies: anti-racism, gender justice, and disability justice.”Willingham-Jaggers joined GLSEN in 2019 as deputy executive director and before that was program associate director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
They have extensive experience in social justice movements involving a variety of marginalized groups, such as those who are currently or formerly incarcerated, involved in the underground economy, LGBTQ+, youth, immigrants, people with disabilities, and senior citizens.
