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!
GLENNDA TESTONE
Executive Director, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
It seemed practically predestined that Glennda Testone would grow up to head one of the country’s largest LGBT centers. “My mother was the assistant director of an African-American community center when I was growing up,” she remembers, “so I got to see firsthand the difference such a place can make in people’s lives. I have always wanted to help people in a meaningful manner, and nonprofit leadership has afforded me the opportunity to do that in so many ways.” She’s changed the lives of countless New Yorkers by working to make The Center better—whether by expanding the organization’s existing programs, helping to initiate a new Center brand, or undertaking a gigantic renovation project to beautify the organization’s West 13th Street building. “Every day I walk through The Center, and I see people trying to make their lives better and their community stronger. It energizes me to do everything I can to make The Center a place where we can come together to support each other on our journey towards individual health and happiness, and to full equality and justice for our community.”
