Women at the Helm 2014
Director, Forty to None Project at the True Colors Fund
There is a crisis of LGBT youth homelessness in this country and Jama Shelton, LMSW, PhD, has been fighting to end it for more than a decade. A former homeless youth herself, Shelton’s life goal was forged while working with queer kids as a community-based artist in Texas. “Young people would disclose things that had happened to them in their lives that I did not have the skill set to address. It felt irresponsible to continue doing that work without learning more about how to handle such disclosures, so I decided to pursue an MSW,” she says. “After years of providing direct services to LGBT youth experiencing homelessness, I knew I wanted to do more.” She went back to school to work on her PhD, which she completed. Currently, she is the director of the Forty to None Project at the True Colors Fund, an LGBT organization co-founded by Cyndi Lauper. She’s also a professor at Hunter College and NYU School of Social Work. “I remember the first young woman of transgender experience who I helped get her own apartment 10 years ago,” she says. “I think about how hard she worked and how many barriers she broke through to get there. Her story, and countless others like hers, keep me going.”
Meet the next wave of out leaders!
ANGELA PEOPLES
Co-Director, GetEQUAL
When asked for her greatest inspiration, Angela Peoples points to “Lesley McSpadden, Sybrina Fulton and Lucia McBath, the mothers of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis— women who are thrust into activism by horrific tragedy and become light barriers for a broader fight for systematic change.” A graduate of Western Michigan University, Peoples started her activism career in 2007 as an advocate with the United States Students Association. In that role, she empowered students by helping to keep college affordable and accessible. By 2010, she was working with Generation Progress, a politically progressive organization for youth, with campaigns in support of the DREAM Act, cheaper healthcare, and student loan reform. Over the past three years, she’s worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, again assisting those taking out student loans. All those positions were excellent training for her current gig as co-director at LGBT nonprofit GetEQUAL. “These folks put their hearts and souls into this movement,” she says. “They live every day with the impacts of homophobia, transphobia, and racism in our society, but they fight on to build a community that is empowered to make lasting change and reflects the America that they want to see.”
