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.

Chelsea Lemon Fetzer: Executive Director,The Create Collective The height of the economic crisis might not seem like an ideal time to launch a nonprofit—but Chelsea Lemon Fetzer didn’t let the recession stand in her way. Along with co-founder Maril Ortiz, Fetzer formed The Create Collective, an organization that facilitates collaborations between professional artists and community-based spaces to offer free, high-quality arts programs to people of all ages and means. Youth development and identity, social justice, job creation, crime and safety are just a few of the issues Fetzer’s programs explore. Before starting The Create Collective—her first experience in the nonprofit sector—Fetzer developed and led a workshop series with her father, Ralph Lemon, called the Memory Project. She went on to teach undergraduate literature and writing courses at Syracuse University. She’s currently a volunteer for the New York Writer’s Coalition and leads weekly creative writing workshops for LGBT homeless youth, augmenting her desire to make a positive impact on the community. “The most rewarding part of this work has been creating relationships between artists and everyday people. Both perspectives are changed as a result. Again and again we witness the transformative possibility of these collaborations,” Fetzer says. “Relative to the usual life span of non-profits, we are still a very young organization. Optimism and energy are on our side.”