Equality Florida

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Nadine Smith, Executive Director

Nadine Smith has been executive director of Equality Florida since its inception in 1997, and was executive director of its predecessor, the Human Rights Task Force of Florida prior to that. She joined the organization in 1993 after serving as one of four national co-chairs on the 1993 March on Washington and taking part in the historic, first-ever meeting between LGBT leaders and a sitting U.S. president (Clinton) in the White House.

During her tenure as head of Equality Florida, she has also served four terms as co-chair of the Equality Federation and served as a member of the Democratic National Committee. She has led advocacy efforts in Florida at the state level at a time of unprecedented attacks on the LGBT community, serving as Equality Florida’s lead lobbyist in Tallahassee and heading efforts to stop discriminatory legislation and ballot measures and to overturn Florida’s ban on adoption by gay and lesbian parents.

Her deep experience in community organizing, social change and politics includes her service as campaign manager for Citizens for a Fair Tampa, a successful effort to prevent repeal of that city’s human rights ordinance in 1995, and her own campaign in 1991 for Tampa City Council. In the latter, her first bid for public office, she emerged from a field of seven as the leading vote getter in the primary, losing narrowly in the runoff.

Nadine has been recognized for her national and state leadership by organizations around the nation, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Black Lesbian and Gay leadership Forum and others. A former award-winning journalist, Nadine has written syndicated columns for various LGBT and general audience publications.

Stratton Pollitzer, Deputy Director

Stratton co-founded EQFL in 1997 and serves as the Deputy Director overseeing all Field and Development programs. A Political Science graduate of Emory University, Stratton has spearheaded numerous community based campaigns both responding to far right political attacks and building support for anti-discrimination ordinances, safe schools policies, and domestic partnership laws at the local level and at our state capital. As a key spokesperson on LGBT issues, Stratton is a regular contributor to major television, print, and radio outlets throughout the state and has had opinion columns published in the Miami Herald, Broward Sun-Sentinel, Saint Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune, Daytona Beach News Journal and Orlando Sentinel. Stratton served on the board of directors and as Vice-Chair of the Equality Federation, the national network of statewide LGBT advocacy groups, from 2004-2006. He has raised over five million dollars for LGBT Organizations and political campaigns. Stratton lives in Miami with his husband of 14 years, Christopher Boykin and is the father of 11 year old twins, Ben and Sarah.

Brian Winfield, Director of Communications

Brian graduated from Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ in 1986 with a BS in Accounting. He achieved his CPA certification in 1988, having worked with Deloitte & Touche. In 1991, Brian graduated from New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business with an MBA in Finance & International Business. He was a Mergers and Acquisitions specialist for several years.

Brian's political activism dates back to 1992 when he volunteered for the first Presidential campaign of Bill Clinton in New York City. In 1994, he managed a campaign for Howie Katz, the first openly gay candidate for the New York State Senate. Brian's early LGBT activism included being named the New Jersey Chair of HRC's Federal Advocacy Network and as a development volunteer for Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC).

In late 1994, Brian relocated to Florida, the home state of his life partner, Kim Byrd. Here, Brian has served on the boards of several health and community organizations, including Bay AIDS Services Coalition (BASIC) and Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Brian began his career with Equality Florida as a volunteer in June of 2000.

George Byars, Director of Development

George was born, raised and educated in Cambridge, MA. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, George started his professional career in sales and marketing positions with IBM and other companies in Boston and New York. From 1992 until 2002, he taught Marketing and International Business in colleges in Singapore, London and Rome. George most recently was the Institutional Giving Officer for GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) at its New York national office.

A long-time supporter of LGBT organizations, George volunteered for many years with SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) in New York. Since 2002, he has served as Vice President of Harvard’s Gay & Lesbian Caucus (HGLC), an organization comprised of more than 3,400 LGBT Harvard University alumni/ae, faculty, staff and students. In 2005, George relocated to Miami with Mike Spinelle, his partner of nearly 25 years.

Alain Raymond, North Florida Field Organizer

Alain has been an activist since 1995 when he came out at the age of 20 in Portland Maine and volunteered with the successful gay rights campaign in that year. He attended the University of Southern Maine as a vocal jazz major. He again volunteered in the 1998 for Maine Won't Discriminate; performing at fund raising events for the campaign.

After several years as a corporate trainer in Phoenix, Alain returned to activism in 2003 as a Field Organizer with Grassroots Solutions. His position allowed him to do both fund raising and field work with several different organizations, including: Equalty Florida, Equality Maine, DCCC, HRC, N.O.W, Alliance for Justice, and also worked again on the successful Maine Won't Discriminate campaign in 2005.

Joe Saunders, Central Florida Field Organizer

Joe is a recent graduate of the University of Central Florida where he received a Bachelors’s degree in Political Science. While at UCF, Joe was heavily involved in the UCF Gay Lesbian Bisexual Student Union (GLBSU), particularly focusing on engaging students on campus and across the state in GLBT advocacy and activism. During this time, Joe founded and coordinated the Florida Collegiate Pride Coalition, a network of Florida’s GLBT student organizations that has since held three state-wide conferences and worked to strengthen and empower youth leadership.

Since hired by Equality Florida Joe has filled dual roles as the organizations first Student Coordinator and as the Central Florida Field Organizer charged with opening Equality Florida’s first Orlando Office. Joe is incredibly excited to be a part of the Equality Florida team and looks forward to working with the Central Florida community to obtain equality and justice for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.

Tobias Packer, South Florida Field Organizer

Bio to follow

Mallory Wells - Public Policy Assistant

Mallory is currently a student at the University of Central Florida and is pursuing a degree in Political Science and African American Studies. Mallory has been heavily involved in the LGBT movement as the President of the Florida Collegiate Pride Coalition, as a board member of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Student Union at UCF and as a graduate of the HRC Youth College.

Mallory responsibilities will include tracking legislation and coordinating our statewide Safe Schools and Fair Adoption Coalitions. She will be based out of our Orlando office.

Casey Willits - West Central Florida Field Organizer

Casey has joined Equality Florida as the Field Organizer for the West Central Florida, which includes Sarasota, Tampa - St. Pete Area, and Pasco and Polk Counties. As a Field Organizer, Casey will be the first point of contact for everyone interested in finding out more about our programs or wanting to get involved. For the next year, Casey will be focused heavily on the Fairness for All Families Campaign to defeat the so-called "marriage protection amendment."

Casey comes to us from Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he started his activism as the founder of the first high school Gay-Straight Alliance in the state's history. He continued his activism by leading his college LGBT organization, hosting a statewide collegiate conference, and organizing the local Pride parade.

Casey passion for securing LGBT rights eventually led him to one of our sister organizations, Kentucky Fairness Alliance, where he recently worked as a Community Organizer and Interim Development Director.

Casey can be reached at casey@eqfl.org.

Thomas Barker - Special Events Coordinator

Thomas fills the newly created position of Special Events Coordinator for Equality Florida, with the goal of building and maintaining even closer relationships with our members, major donors and volunteer leaders. Thomas will focus primarily on building Equality Florida through our Area Receptions Program and other donor outreach efforts.

Thomas began his career in 1998 while working as a youth spokesperson for Governor Lawton Chiles' multi-million dollar youth empowerment program, The Florida Tobacco Pilot Program. Thomas helped develop Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT), a statewide youth organization that launched the anti-tobacco campaign called "Truth," which quickly became one of the most successful anti-tobacco campaigns in the country.

Following his work with SWAT, Thomas joined GolinHarris International, a highly regarded public relations firm with 30 offices across the globe. As the youngest employee within the agency, Thomas worked in the Miami-based Social Marketing Division and helped build statewide youth empowerment organizations across the nation.

Most recently, Thomas occupied the positions of Associate Publisher and Features Editor for Wire Magazine, a weekly high-end gay publication based in Miami Beach.

Equality Florida donors who need assistance with any aspect of their work with Equality Florida should feel free to contact Thomas at Thomas@eqfl.org

Mandi Beller - Membership Services Coordinator

Please join us congratulating Mandi Beller on her promotion to the newly created position of Member Services Coordinator. Mandi has been a member of the Equality Florida staff for over a year, serving as our Office Manager in charge of maintaining our database and processing member information and transactions.

In her new role, Mandi will focus solely on member stewardship, specifically responding to requests and inquires from Equality Florida members and she will be the primary contact of all of our Florida Council members.

Mandi also will coordinate membership renewals and will work closely with the Special Events Coordinator, assisting with the our Regional Receptions Program.

Please feel free to contact Mandi with any donation issues or membership questions at mandi@eqfl.org.

Gloria Bauta
Gloria joins Equality Florida as our GSA Network Coordinator. She is a native of Miami and recently graduated from Florida International University, majoring in with Women’s Studies program. Gloria has extensive experience providing leadership to Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs) at numerous universities throughout the country. She spearheaded the student movement for the creation of an LGBT Resource Center at FIU and served on the Task Force that advises the University’s Vice President on LGBT issues. She has also been involved in youth leadership development programs, such as the Barton Center’s Adventure Camp program.

Gloria combines her passions for leadership development and social justice in her role as GSA Network Coordinator. She will be working with high school students statewide to create a network for peer support, training and student empowerment.

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