Deputy Executive Director Roybal says Farewell to the Task Force
Long time movement leader to fill senior position at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Washington, DC, May 17, 2017 — The National LGBTQ Task Force (“Task Force”) is announcing that the organization’s Deputy Executive Director, Russell Roybal, is leaving the organization later this summer to take up a senior leadership position at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Roybal, a long-time lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) movement leader is a 12-year staff veteran of the Task Force, and served on its board of directors for 8 years prior to becoming a staff member.
“Russell is the embodiment of the Task Force’s investment in leadership and how someone can truly be their full self in this movement. He started as a participant in the Task Force’s Youth Leadership Training Institute in 1995, then attended every single Creating Change Conference since then. He became a board member, then a staff member, and in more recent years, my partner in running the organization. Russell is an extraordinary leader who brings a combination of deep movement experience, strategic thinking, a deep commitment to racial, economic and gender justice, and an invaluable sense of fun to work. One of the things I’ve always loved about Russell is he is brazenly, fabulously, proudly queer. Russell’s leadership has been seen beyond the Task Force, including his leadership of national organizations responding collectively to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando. The Task Force extended family will miss him deeply, but we are happy for him as he starts this exciting new phase of his life and leadership,” said Rea Carey, National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director.
“San Francisco AIDS Foundation is excited and honored to welcome Russell to the team,” said San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Joe Hollendoner. “Russell’s history with the Task Force and his tremendous leadership within our community gives me great confidence in his ability to help advance the San Francisco AIDS Foundation goals of building healthier communities, reducing new HIV transmissions, and improving the quality of life for those living with HIV.”
Roybal’s achievements at the Task Force include:
+ Evolving the Creating Change Conference into the premier leadership development and grassroots organizing and training engine for the LGBTQ movement;
+ Developing world-class leadership and grassroots organizing trainings;
+ Growing Winter Party Festival into the best event of its kind in the United States, setting attendance and revenue records in 2017, and providing millions of dollars in support over the years to the South Florida LGBTQ community; and
+ Creating the new Task Force Advocacy and Action Department to strategically meet the challenges of the post-Obama era while advancing freedom, justice, equality and equity for LGBTQ people and their families.
A noted fundraiser, trainer, and LGBTQ movement leader, Roybal’s career includes a six-year stint at the Gill Foundation. He is a former board member of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and a former board chair of the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT), a nonprofit group focused on building the fundraising skills of people of color and others working for social justice. He currently serves as a board member of the International Imperial Court System. The recipient of numerous awards, Roybal was most recently named a 2017 honoree for the California State Legislature’s LGBT Pride Ceremony, in recognition of his efforts in helping to “advance the cause of LGBT equality and for being an inspiration to the LGBT community and its allies…in California.”
“The Task Force is my longest relationship,” Roybal joked. “For the past 22 years, the organization has played an integral role in my life. The debt I owe to the organization for opening the door for me as young activist is one I don’t think I will ever be able to repay. I feel like I’m leaving on an upswing with the Task Force showing movement leadership during this Trump era with an extremely and diverse talented staff team — the majority of whom are people of color. If you ever wonder about the power and impact that an organization can have on a person’s life you have no further to look than the impact the Task Force has had on me. I am a product of this organization’s work and it is because of the Task Force that I’m ready for this new opportunity. I will always be passionately interested in the future of this great organization, as it continues to build grassroots power for the future,” said Roybal.
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Contact
Jorge Amaro: 213.842.7564
