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.
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.
Fall 2009 Interns
Tonei Glavinic is a sophomore at American University majoring in Political Science and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies, with a certificate in Women, Politics & Political Leadership. On campus, Tonei is the Director of Transgender Advocacy for American University Queers and Allies and coordinates the Intersections of Gender and Sexuality residential living community. Zie also works actively with a number of campus, local and national LGBT organizations both in Washington and in hir hometown of Anchorage, Alaska. After graduating, Tonei plans to work for nonprofit organizations working towards LGBT equality and civil rights in various parts of the country.
Jessica Pfisterer is a second year law student at Georgetown University Law Center. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in 2006 from San Francisco State University, where she majored in Speech Communication and Political Science. Working for the rights of the LGBT community was her inspiration for embarking on a legal career and she is very excited about working with NCTE this fall.
Email Jessica