Task Force names Stacey Long and Sarah Reece to key positions
The Task Force has named Stacey Long as director of the Public Policy & Government Affairs department and Sarah Reece as director of the Academy for Leadership and Action.
Task Force Deputy Executive Director Darlene Nipper says:
Both of these dynamic women bring significant expertise, energy and vision to the leadership team at the Task Force. With Sarah’s experience working in the south and Stacey’s background working with marginalized communities, we look forward to their unique contributions to the Task Force’s mission and the LGBT movement.
Stacey Long comes to lead the Task Force’s Public Policy & Government Affairs department after two years as the organization’s federal legislative director and chief lobbyist. Her work is dedicated to advancing LGBT equality through a progressive social change agenda that includes among other things ending discrimination in employment, housing, health care, education as well as securing protections from violence and hatred. Long is a well regarded lawyer and received a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies from Vassar College; a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School; and a Nonprofit Management Executive certificate from the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.
Task Force’s Public Policy & Government Affairs Director Stacey Long says:
At the Task Force, we are building LGBT political power at the federal, state and local level to fight inequality, win legal protections and achieve safety and economic security for LGBT people and families. I have spent most of my professional career in the nonprofit and public sector — fighting for those who have been marginalized in some way. Given what we know about the legal, economic and social disenfranchisement of LGBT people, this continues to be important. I know that we have to work in tandem with the people whose lives are most impacted by policies that negatively affect them. As director, I will take responsibility for creating space at the table for voices that are too-often ignored, rendered to more quiet spaces or outright excluded.
The Public Policy & Government Affairs policy priorities under Long’s leadership include our “Count me in” campaign calling for LGBT data collection in federal government surveys; our administrative advocacy to implement LGBT-friendly policies across federal agencies; our work for the passage of federal employment legislation that is gender-identity inclusive; and our demand for policies that increase economic security for LGBT people across the life-span.
One of the key priorities at the beginning of the next year will be the National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change’s first-ever federal lobby day. Learn more here.
Sarah Reece is now director of the Task Force’s Academy for Leadership and Action after a decade at the Task Force teaching, training and speaking to people about tested campaign strategies and organizing models gained from her nearly 20 years of work in the trenches of LGBT and progressive candidate and issue campaigns.
Task Force’s Academy for Leadership and Action Director Sarah Reece says:
It is because of the lessons learned at home, as well as mentors and organizations, including the Task Force, who invested in my development as a leader and manager that I have the humbling opportunity to serve the Task Force as the director of the Academy for Leadership and Action at such an important time in the LGBT and progressive movements. It is that very investment in long term leadership development that is the bedrock of our movement’s ability to meet the heavy demands in the months and years to come. I can think of no other organization that is better suited and no other team that is more uniquely qualified to provide the intentional support to cultivate values-based leadership to wage winning campaigns, build capacity and infrastructure. The Task Force shares a worldview that prioritizes working in collaboration and at the intersections of economic justice, marginalized populations and building political power from the ground up.
Reece’s two biggest leadership roles in the LGBT movement were being the campaign manager for the 2004 Kentucky “NO on the Amendment” campaign and as the statewide field director for the 2008 California “NO on Proposition 8” campaign. Under her leadership those efforts collectively raised over $2 million, mobilized over 50,000 volunteers and identified nearly 200,000 pro-LGBT voters.
Prior to joining the Task Force in 2002, Reece was the district scheduler for U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), the legislative assistant to Louisville, KY., Councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh and a program manager for the political consulting firm, The Clinton Group.
