Equality Maryland Appoints 16 New Members to Boards of Directors
Equality Maryland, the LGBT civil rights group that lobbies for marriage, equal protection and anti-discrimination legislation in the Free State, announced on Sept. 27 the selection of 16 new members to the Boards of Directors for its advocacy organization and educational foundation.
Ten new members were chosen for the Equality Maryland Board, the board of the group’s 501(c)(4) advocacy organization, which lobbies across the state, primarily in Annapolis, for political action to provide equal protection for LGBT Marylanders. The new members include: Karen Blood, Angie Callahan, Joe Davy, Izzy Firth, Evan Glass, Katheryn King, Akil Patterson, Sue Silber, Pegeen Townsend and Tim Williams. They join four other members currently serving on the board: David Lublin, Rosemary Nicolosi, Lisa Polyak and Mark Yost.
Six others were appointed to the board for the Equality Maryland Foundation. That board oversees the operations of the group’s 501(c)(3) educational foundation, which works to eliminate prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity through community outreach and educational campaigns. The new members of that board are: Rabbi Stephanie Bernstein, Robert Blizard, Ariel Glasner, Manuella Hancock, Marilee Lindemann and Reverend Donna Martin. They join Rosemary Nicolosi and Patrick Wojahn, the current president of the Equality Maryland Foundation Board.
The new members were selected by a 10-member nominating committee tasked with vetting and interviewing potential applicants. The selection of the new board members comes a month-and-a-half behind the Aug. 15 deadline laid out in Equality Maryland’s six-month strategic plan, a summary of the group’s major goals for 2011, which was made public in June.
The goals detailed in the plan include hiring a permanent executive director, building the boards of directors, formalizing donor programs and securing funding from a variety of sources to help the group continue operating through the end of the year. The plan also includes partnering with Gender Rights Maryland to develop a legislative strategy for the 2012 session and continuing outreach and education work on behalf of the transgender community.
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