Francine Ramsey: Co-founder and Executive Director, Zuna Institute “I didn’t get involved in nonprofit work on purpose. It was about being of service, and helping women to overcome challenges in their lives,” says Francine Ramsey, the Executive Director and co-founder of the Zuna Institute, the oldest and only national organization serving and supporting black lesbians. The first African-American woman to earn Journeyman status in the Rigging trade for the U.S. Navy, Ramsey has enjoyed a two-decade career in the nonprofit field with Girl Scouts USA and on the boards of civil rights and LGBT groups, including the Black Lesbian Elder Speak Project, Lambda Community Fund in Sacramento and Oakland Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club. Now at the helm of the Zuna Institute, Ramsey recently published its groundbreaking study, Black Lesbians Matter—a survey of 1,600 black lesbians across the country revealing the community’s key concerns and priorities. “I want to have the black lesbian community seen as an intricate part of the LGBTQ movement, and balance the scale of inequities, so the resources are available to organizations that serve black lesbians,” Ramsey says. “I did a presentation at a northern California university and there was a small group of black lesbians there. It brought me to tears when one of the students said, ‘this was the first time I ever heard anyone speak positively about who I am.’ This is why I do this work!”
