Ellen Bird is a recent graduate of Northwestern University. As an undergrad, Ellen served as president of Rainbow Alliance, NU’s LGBT undergraduate student group, for two years. She started the ‘Where do you feel welcome?’ campaign to help raise awareness of the Federal Marriage Amendment and the need for anti-discrimination laws. She also helped organize NU’s first-ever Coalition Building Conference, an all-day event for student leaders and activists focused on how groups could overcome prejudice to build and maintain coalitions. Ellen was a key student in the successful effort to open an LGBT resource center at Northwestern. She was awarded the Outstanding Rainbow Alliance Member Award in 2004 and the Activist Award in 2006 by NU’s LGBT Support Network.
Since the summer of 2005, Ellen has been a member of the Gay Games VII marketing staff, where she is now the advertising and public relations manager. She has also helped to develop Youth Track, a series of events for 18-24 year olds for the week of the Games.
DID YOU KNOW? She once got a concussion from making safe-sex kits.