GLSEN announced that its newest executive director is Melanie Willingham-Jaggers (they/she).
Before joining GLSEN in 2019 as deputy executive director, Willingham-Jaggers was the program associate director of The Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. As a part of the leadership team there, Melanie worked to ensure the strategic, programmatic, and operational excellence of the Institute.
They earned their B.A. in politics, peace and justice studies and philosophy from the University of San Francisco, and their M.A. from The City University of New York’s School of Professional Studies in applied theater; they lecture there as an adjunct.
During 2016-19, she was board chair of The Audre Lorde Project, the oldest center for community organizing for LGBTGNC people of color in the New York City area.
GLSEN is a national non-profit that works to ensure K-12 education is safe and affirming for all students, including LGBTQ+ youth.