Our Staff

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 ten million dollars for LGBT Organizations and political campaigns. Stratton lives in Miami with his husband of 19 years, Christopher Boykin and is the father of 16 year old twins, Ben and Sarah.

Joe Saunders comes to Equality Florida with a strong background in grassroots activism and community organizing. As Equality Florida's Field Director, Joe led the organization's grassroots and electoral programs and oversaw central Florida fundraising campaigns.   Today as Director of Civic Engagement Joe leads the Equality Means Business program and works to ensure LGBT participation in the political process.

In 2012, Joe was elected as the State Representative for Florida House District 49.  He along with David Richardson became the first out gay state legislators in Florida history.

In 2008 Joe served as State Field Director for VoteNoOn2, a campaign working to defeat FL’s so-called “Marriage Protection Amendment”. He served as the Campaign Manager for Equality is Gainesville’s Business, a successful campaign to defeat an anti-gay charter amendment that would have repealed of Gainesville’s LGBT protections. The campaign made history by breaking student-turnout and fundraising records.

A recipient of numerous awards and acknowledgements for his activism in the LGBT community, Joe has been recognized with a Young People For Fellowship, a Spectrum Award for Service and Leadership to the Orlando GLBT Community and in 2006 was selected as one of Watermark Magazine’s “Top 25 Leaders Under 25”.

Joe is a Political Science and Women's Studies and Legal Studies graduate of the University of Central Florida.   While at UCF Joe founded and served as the first president of the Florida Collegiate Pride Coalition, a network of LGBT campus groups that continues to be a strong statewide resource for students.

Michael Farmer joined the Equality Florida team part time in 2009 as our GSA Network Coordinator, and from the 2010 to 2012 Michael served as our full time Statewide Field Coordinator.  

In 2013 Michael moved into the role of Statewide Field Director replacing Joe Saunders who was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. In this role he leads EQFL's field staff working on our programs related to voter education, identification, and mobilization and building EQFL's member engagement. Michael will also leads our development programs and staff in Orlando, Sarasota, Jacksonville and Tallahassee. Michael is based in our Orlando office.

As Equality Florida’s GSA Network Coordinator, Michael trained hundreds of students and teachers across the state on best practices for making schools safe for LGBT youth and worked with students from Tallahassee to Key West to start Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in their schools.

During his time as Statewide Field Coordinator, Michael helped to increase Equality Florida’s pro-equality voter file by more than 20,000 voters, he raised Equality Florida’s profile at community events and he mobilized Equality Florida members and pro-equality voters to deliver victories for pro-equality and openly LGBT candidates all over Florida.

Michael began his advocacy as a 17 year old when he and a group of his friends started a Gay-Straight Alliance at Apopka High School in a conservative part of North West Orange County. While he was a student at the Valencia College, Michael served at the Valencia College Campus Organizer for the Fairness For All Families Campaign, a campaign to defeat a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality and civil unions in Florida. Michael went on to serve as the Orlando Area Field Organizer for the Fairness for All Families Campaign where he worked closely with the Campaign’s Field Director, Joe Saunders.

Michael is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and holds a bachelors degree in Political Science with a concentration on American Politics and Public Policy.

Ed Lally serves as Tampa Bay Development Officer for Equality Florida and is responsible for general and Florida Council memberships and fundraising in Tampa/St Petersburg. After a long-term career in banking Ed retired from Wachovia Bank to devote more time to LGBT causes. His activism in the community began in the mid-80’s when many of his friends were lost to the AIDS epidemic. Ed was one of the first board members of the Bay Area AIDS Consortium and later the Tampa Bay Aids Network (TAN) and headed up TAN’s annual giving programs and initiated fund-raisers such as TAN’s White Party and Life Dance. Recently recognized in Watermark Magazine as “The Constant Fundraiser” Ed has raised over $850,000 for various LGBT organizations over the years. He has also been active in the political fundraising campaigns for candidates that support LGBT rights and was a big brother in Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Tampa Bay for several years. 

Ed has worked as a fundraising volunteer for Equality Florida since 1997 as well as financial supporter. Ed’s goal is to increase and broaden Equality Florida’s membership and donation base in the Tampa Bay area which will allow Equality Florida to expand their efforts to make Florida’s laws, on both a state and local level, more inclusive of the LGBT community and as a result, a better place for us to live and raise our families. A Louisville native, Ed attended University of Kentucky and University of Louisville and relocated to Tampa in 1979. He and his husband, Phil Dinkins have been together 32 years and were married in Canada in 2003.

Row (short for Rowena) Iliescu is Equality Florida’s South Florida Development Officer, and oversees the Galas and fund-raising events in 5 regions: Palm Beach and Broward Counties, Miami-Dade, Naples, and Key West.  Row’s activism began as a volunteer in 2008 when she tirelessly canvassed voters at the polls on Amendment 2. 

Since joining the Equality Florida team, Row has developed our Membership Services Program with cheerful dedication, attention to detail genuine concern for our members. Working alongside Stratton in South Florida, Row has helped broaden our network of supporters among small businesses and ally communities, while strengthening our network through increased collaboration with local organizations, and the development of dedicated volunteer teams. 

Originally from Toronto, Row has been a weather refugee in Broward, and now Dade County for almost 20 years.  She arrived as a successful trainer and exercise rider of thoroughbred racehorses, but following a serious riding accident went back to school earning a Masters Degree in Social Work and beginning doctoral studies in HIV prevention.  Finding that she preferred fieldwork, Row worked in the non-profit sector as a therapist to children and families in the foster care system for ten years before joining the Equality Florida team, where she says she feels, “at home.”

Row is an avid outdoorsperson and very active, spending much of her leisure time mountain biking and exploring Florida’s trails.  In the future she hopes to combine her love of athletics and cycling, and her work for Equality Florida to develop sport-related outreach events.

Jess Osborn joins the team as our Statewide Outreach Coordinator based in our Orlando office. She will be responsible for mobilizing and expanding Equality Florida’s 165,000 supporters and pro-equality voters statewide.

Jess joins the team with a wealth of experience during her time as a student at the University of Central Florida. As a student Jess, as the Campus Program Manager for Fairness For All Families, the campaign to oppose the anti-marriage amendment in 2008.

After graduating, Jess went on to work for the Human Rights Campaign where she travelled the country as the Southern Regional Field Organizer. She mobilized HRC members on the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and she worked in states across the country on efforts to legalize marriage equality and defeat gay marriage bans.

Jess moved back to Orlando in 2012 to serve as the the Deputy Campaign Manager for the Campaign to Elect Joe Saunders. Joe went on to win his primary election by 30 points and his general election by 11 points and became one of Florida’s first openly gay state legislators.