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!
JEANA FRAZZINI
Executive Director, Basic Rights Oregon
Jeana Frazzini is proof that volunteering is not only good for the soul, but can also lead to a rewarding career. She began as a volunteer with Basic Rights Oregon in the 1990s, shortly after moving to the state. She became their development director in 2005 and, three years later, executive director. “I didn’t so much choose my professional field,” she says, “rather, I had no choice but to fight back. Having come out as a lesbian in the context of intense political battles that questioned the very humanity of LGBT people, I was ready to take a stand.” Since then, Basic Rights Oregon has won victories for the freedom to marry, increased access to transgender-inclusive healthcare, passed the Oregon Safe Schools Act, and successfully defended and implemented non-discrimination and domestic partnership laws. For her work, she was named one of the Equity Foundation’s “Women Who Lead,” and was appointed to the Oregon Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. And while such honors are nice, the biggest motivation, she says, are the people she’s fighting alongside. “When someone shares what is true for them and when they have the space, support, and safety to live that truth, that is the heart of inspiration for me.”
