Rea Carey
Executive Director

Rea Carey is the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Carey has had a longstanding relationship with the Task Force as a colleague, consultant and supporter. She was one of the lead trainers in the Task Force’s successful Youth Leadership Institutes in the late-1990s. From 2002 through 2003, she worked as a consultant to help the organization develop its strategic plan, which involved in-depth discussions with staff, board and stakeholders. From September 2003 through January 2004, she served as the Task Force’s senior strategist, charged with shaping its response to the nationwide marriage equality struggle. She joined the staff full time in February 2004 as the deputy executive director and served as its acting executive director from April 2008 through June 2008.

In her role as deputy executive director, she was the driving force behind the creation of the Public Policy & Government Affairs department and the Movement Building department. She also orchestrated the focusing of the organization’s resources behind a few key goals, including the creation of the Academy for Leadership and Action; re-envisioning of the annual National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change; winning marriage in Massachusetts and California; fighting for a gender identity-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act; and increasing the amount of government funds for the LGBT community.

She has 19 years of experience in nonprofit start-up, development, program oversight and management including through her own consulting firm. Her expertise includes major donor and foundation fundraising, strategic planning, staff and board development, capacity building, coalition work, leadership training and program development. She has worked extensively in HIV/AIDS prevention and in the LGBT community as one of the co-founders of Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence and the founding executive director of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. In 1999, the Advocate named Carey one of its “Best and Brightest” for individual contributions to the LGBT rights movement.

Carey served on the board of directors for Sapientis, which advances the social and economic development of Puerto Rico by developing leaders who improve public education. She has also served as an advisor to major donors and foundations and has served on the advisory boards for such wide-ranging publications as Teen People magazine and the Georgetown University Journal of Gender and the Law. She earned her master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.