Ruby is the activist/visionary behind of Casa Ruby, the only bilingual, multicultural LGBTQI organization in Washington, DC. A transgender woman, Ruby was part of the coalition to clarify D.C. Human Rights Act, which changed the D.C. Human Rights Act to include protections for gender identity or expression, a change that took effect in March 2006.

Since its founding in 2004, Casa Ruby has grown substantially, now filling three community spaces, including the original home/administrative office, a transitional home for queer homeless youth, and a transitional home for adults. Along with housing, each site provides a safe haven for transgender and gender-nonconforming folks that includes food service, job training, advocacy for employment and advocacy for access to appropriate medical care.

Jean Hardisty was a researcher, writer, and activist who spent her life studying the political right wing. After eight years teaching political science, she left academia to found Political Research Associates (PRA), a think tank and small publishing house that has done foundational analysis on the various movements that make up the growing spectrum of right-wing organizations and ideologies. After she retired from PRA, Jean was a Senior Scholar at The Wellesley Centers for Research on Women at Wellesley College.

Jean’s book, Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers, was published in 1999 by Beacon Press. She also published numerous articles in The Nation, The Women’s Review of Books, and The Public Eye, the publication of Political Research Associates. She served on a number of boards, including The Ms. Foundation for Women, The Highlander Center for Research and Education, and The Center for Community Change. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Community Change, Inc. and was inducted into The City of Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

Her most recent work included a report on race and child care in Mississippi, a study of the mechanics of institutional racism, and research and writing on neoliberalism, a little-understood form of late capitalism that underlies and explains the current concentration of power in the hands of wealthy elites in the United States and internationally.

Her lifelong interest in race and racism, women’s oppression, and issues of poverty and injustice led her to explore the roots of reactionary power and the corrosive influence of the right. As a lesbian, she had been particularly sensitive to homophobia and crimes against LGBT people. She had been a supporter of Astraea since its founding in 1977.

To learn more about Jean's life and work, visit: www.jeanhardisty.com.

Elyse D. Cherry is CEO of Boston Community Capital (BCC). Cherry helped found BCC in 1984, and has been integrally involved in its growth from a start-up organization to what is, today, a national model for community investment.

Under her leadership, BCC has invested more than $1 billion in underserved communities, financing affordable housing, jobs and opportunities for low-income people. Elyse is a leader in the community development finance industry with a reputation for finding solutions to tough problems. The Washington Post called her pioneering foreclosure-relief program, the SUN Initiative, a “national model for fighting blight;” former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called it “an innovative strategy to prevent occupied homes from becoming vacant and creating a strain on the community.” In 2014, the White House recognized her as a Champion of Change for her work to bring solar power to low-income communities; Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly inducted her into its Circle of Excellence; and Women’s eNews named her one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century.” Cherry currently serves on the Massachusetts Governor’s Foreclosure Impacts Task Force and the Advisory Committee to the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. She is past Chair of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and MassEquality. She has served as Vice Chair of the Opportunity Finance Network. Elyse is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Northeastern University School of Law. She started her career as a VISTA Volunteer at the East Tennessee Community Design Center.

As a Black femme lesbian, sexual health educator, strategist and organizer, Daunasia Yancey exemplifies the best of Boston. She has spent her life advocating for the vital resources that underrepresented communities need.

Daunasia has been organizing locally since age 13, but her passion quickly grew into a full fledged commitment while working for the Boston Alliance of LGBT Youth (BAGLY), Fenway Health and for the Boston LGBT Adolescent Social Services (GLASS).

Working as a strategist, Daunasia has successfully served on the Board of Directors for both BAGLY and the National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC). Daunasia's work has been featured in the documentary, Secret Survivors, (2012) and she has been honored with the Colin Higgins Foundation’s National Youth Courage Award (2011) and the Fenway Health Trailblazers Award (2014).

Most recently, Daunasia has responded to the international call to action of the Black Lives Matter movement, organizing direct actions, community building opportunities, and leading the fight for Black liberation, in Boston and beyond. She is currently taking time off from pursuing an (expensive) degree in Public Health while continuing to change the world.

Vernita Gray was one of Chicago's longest and most prolific activists for LGBT rights.

She and her wife Pat Ewert were the first same-sex couple married legally in Illinois, Nov. 27, 2013, after winning a court victory because of Gray's critical health situation. That paved the way for additional court rulings that hastened marriage in Illinois ahead of the original June 1, 2014 implementation of full marriage equality in the state.

Gray worked in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office for 18 years, including in the position of victim/witness assistant, where she helped LGBT crime survivors, and as an outreach worker on LGBT issues. Prior to that, she owned the popular Sol Sands restaurant in Uptown.

For her work, Gray received dozens of honors. She was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1992. She received the prestigious Stonewall Award, the Horizons Community Services Human First Award and many other accolades.

Tracy Baim is publisher and executive editor at Windy City Media Group, which produces Windy City Times, Nightspots, and other gay media in Chicago. She co-founded Windy City Times in 1985 and Outlines newspaper in 1987.

She started in Chicago gay journalism in 1984 at GayLife newspaper, one month after graduating with a news-editorial degree from Drake University.

She is also the editor and author/co-author of several books, including Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America (2012) and Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage (2010). Her most recent book, co-authored with Owen Keehnen, is Vernita Gray: From Woodstock to the White House (2014).

Baim was executive producer of the lesbian feature film Hannah Free, (2008, Ripe Fruit Films) and Scrooge & Marley, a gay Christmas Carol, (2012). She was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1994 and was named a Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 leader in 1995. She is also creator of That's So Gay!, a 2,400-question LGBT history trivia game.

Julio Rodriguez is one of the founders and current Board President of the one of the few Latino LGBTQ non-for-profit organizations in Chicago and the Midwest, the Association of Latinos/as Motivating Action (ALMA).

Founded in 1989, ALMA has been at the forefront of issues impacting the Latino LGBTQ community both locally and nationally.

In addition to his work with ALMA, Rodriguez has also served on a number of other local, state and national boards such as the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues, the Illinois Latino Prevention Network, Illinois Anti-Violence Authority, the Center on Halsted, the National AIDS Prevention Coalition and the national Latino Lesbian and Gay Organization and the Color Triangle.

He is a native of Chicago, Puerto Rican, and has a degree in business from DePaul University. In 2004, he was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of the Community Leadership Award for Philanthropy in 2003 from the Chicago Latinos in Philanthropy.