Staff
Mara Keisling, Executive Director
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Mara Keisling |
Mara is the founding Executive Director of NCTE. A Pennsylvania native, Mara came to Washington after co-chairing the Pennsylvania Gender Rights Coalition. Mara is a transgender-identified woman who also identifies as a parent and a Pennsylvanian. She is a graduate of Penn State University and did her graduate work at Harvard University in American Government. She has served on the board of Directors of Common Roads, an LGBTQ Youth Group, and on the steering committee of the Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition. Mara has almost twenty-five years of professional experience in social marketing and opinion research.
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Stephanie White |
Stephanie is NCTE’s Managing Director, coordinating all aspects of our administration and development. She comes to us from her previous work as Deputy Director, Campaign Operations, for the Rights Working Group and its Liberty & Justice for All campaign. Stephanie has been leading and training people for collective action for 15 years as a community organizer, campaign manager, political trainer, and U.S. Army office. She previously worked for the Michigan Environmental Council, where she provided management to their multiple legislative, administrative, and ballot initiative campaigns. Her electoral campaign experience ranges from a small town fight for gay rights for the Ypsilanti Campaign for Equality to city council races in the neighborhoods of East Harlem and Bay Ridge in New York City to the presidential campaign of Howard Dean. She holds a B.A. from Texas Christian University where she was a Distinguished Military Graduate.
Justin Tanis, Community Education and Outreach Manager, Communications
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Justin Tanis |
Harper Jean Tobin, Policy Counsel
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Harper Jean Tobin |
Harper Jean served as a staff attorney for the National Senior Citizens Law Center from 2007 to 2009. Her work for NSCLC’s Federal Rights Project included maintaining a listserv for hundreds of attorneys, providing training and technical assistance to public interest lawyers, and writing about court access issues for legal, policy and general audiences. She received degrees in law and social work from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She has served as an intern at several LGBT civil rights organizations, as well as the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. Her scholarly work includes the groundbreaking article Against the Surgical Requirement for Change of Legal Sex, and she has been published in periodicals such as The Nation, The American Prospect, and Roll Call. She received degrees in law and social work from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and a bachelor’s in sociology and English from Oberlin College.
Mul Kyul Kim, Health Policy Counsel
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Mul Kim |
Mul Kyul Kim is NCTE's health policy counsel. Her role is to analyze federal policy and collaborate with other organizations to promote transgender people's health needs. Before she joined NCTE, she was a practicing attorney focusing on commercial, family, and immigration law. She received a J.D. from the City University of NY School of Law and a B.A. In Sociology from Stonybrook University. She had interned for various nonprofits to promote access to healthcare and social justice, including the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition Against HIV/AIDS.
Jazmin Sutherlin, Administrative & Executive Assistant
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Jazmin Sutherlin |
Jazmin Sutherlin is NCTE's administrative and executive assistant. She first came to Washington in 2004 as a professional musician and make-up artist. She is a former employee of Transgender Health Empowerment. She also served as a counselor at the Wanda Alston house, a LBGTQ home for homeless youth where the full spectrum of our community is represented. Jazmin has done extensive outreach with transgender women who are part of the street economy; she has also mentored both youth and adults. She is also a musical director at City of Refugee. Jazmin has recently been featured in The Washington Blade, Metro Weekly, and Colorlines web magazine.
Summer 2010 Interns
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Rebekah Fasel |
Rebekah Fasel, Legal Fellow
Rebekah Fasel will be third year law student at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia this fall. She is interested in human rights and environmentalism, and has spent the last year working on nuclear power cases with Emory University’s Turner Environmental Law Clinic. In her spare time, she enjoys creative writing, music, lots of outdoor activities, and hanging out with her poorly behaved beagle. Most of all, she’s excited to be in DC for the summer and working with NCTE.
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Tonei Glavinic |
Tonei Glavinic, College Resource Project Manager
Tonei Glavinic will be a junior at American University this fall. In addition to studying political science and women's, gender and sexuality studies, Tonei will also be serving a resident assistant and Executive Director of the school's LGBT student group, Queers and Allies. Currently working from hir hometown of Anchorage, Alaska, Tonei is developing a virtual resource center for transgender college students across the country. In hir spare time, zie volunteers on a campaign against an anti-choice ballot measure in the state's August election. Since first coming up with the idea of the virtual resource center while interning at NCTE last fall, Tonei has been committed to make it a reality, and is excited to have the opportunity to do so this summer.
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Elliot Kennedy |
Elliot Kennedy, Legal Fellow
Elliot Kennedy currently attends the University of Washington School of Law. A recent graduate of the University of Vermont, Elliot has been involved in LGBTQ-related advocacy and outreach for the past several years. Most recently, Elliot worked with a coalition at UVM to develop and implement a policy whereby all students can use a preferred name and pronoun in the campus-wide system. This project resulted in a safer and more inclusive campus environment for transpeople. At UVM, Elliot was also an active member of the Translating Identity Conference Committee and the President's Commission on Social Change. Elliot is currently a member of the UW Outlaws, the Seattle QLaw Foundation Legal Clinic Education Committee, and the Dean's Advisory Committee on Diversity.
When not working, Elliot enjoys making vegetable soups, sailing, and playing the piano.