Women At The Helm 2011

November 9, 2011 Kat Long

Rachel Tiven: Executive Director, Immigration Equality “Every day, Immigration Equality hears from couples and individuals who, because of our work, literally have a new lease on life,” Rachel Tiven proudly reports. As the Executive Director of Immigration Equality and Immigration Equality Action Fund, the national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for LGBT and HIV-positive individuals, Tiven (pictured with New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler) has helped to win asylum for more than 100 LGBT people who escaped persecution and violence in their homelands. Immigration Equality was founded with three goals: end the HIV travel and immigration ban, provide LGBT people with full access to asylum in the United States, and allow lesbian and gay Americans to sponsor their partners for citizenship. “In a little more than a decade, we have already accomplished our first two goals,” Tiven says. “Today, Immigration Equality is working to win its final victory, too. That work is based on a simple but profound belief: American citizens should not be told whom they can, and cannot, share their lives and their homes with, and no one should be forced to choose between the person they love and the country they call home.” Prior to her work with the group, Tiven was a reporter and television producer for Bloomberg Business News and an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of New York.

In the Arts, Activism, Government and Human Rights, These Out Nonprofit Leaders Create Positive Change Every Day.

REV. DR. Cindi Love: Executive Director, Soulforce Inspired by her children to leave corporate America for the nonprofit sector, Rev. Dr. Cynthia “Cindi” Love leads Soulforce, an organization committed to freedom for LGBT people from religious and political oppression. Soulforce campaigns against LGBT discrimination with “relentless nonviolence resistance” under Love’s leadership through programs like the Equality Ride, a nationwide bus tour started in 2006 that promotes about LGBT issues on Christian college campuses, megachurches and faith-based organizations like Focus on the Family. Prior to joining Soulforce in 2010, Love was the Executive Director of Metropolitan Community Churches worldwide and member of the Faith & Religion Council of the Human Rights Campaign. Before she joined the nonprofit sector, however, she worked in corporate America building privately traded companies and serving as senior leadership in a Fortune 500 company. In addition to her role at Soulforce, Love is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post on religion and serves on the United Nations’ Faith Coalition for LGBT Human Rights and the Faith and Religion Council for the Human Rights Campaign. She was recently given an award by St. Paul’s Center for International Reconciliation in Uganda for her contributions to decriminalization of the lives of LGBT people. “Creating environments where young adults can emerge in leadership roles” is one of Love’s passions. “I think the perspective of people under 35 is so healthy in so many ways in terms of diversity and acceptance. We need more of them on our boards and in our leadership positions to help accelerate the curve of societal change.”