Metro Philadelphia LGBTQ+ Power Players 2022

Gina Cline (she/her) is the chief program and people officer at the American Reading Company. She is the child of a Philadelphia principal and a reading specialist, and was born into her work. Gina is a graduate of Friends’ Central School, Wesleyan University, and the University of Pennsylvania, and a mother of two. She knows what high quality education does to nurture people not only as readers, writers, scientists, and historians, but also as creative, engaged citizens ready to confront whatever unanticipated challenges the future might hold. Gina collaborates with districts across the country to ensure access to this type of education for all children. 

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
I am a long-time board member of Philadelphia Family Pride–we usually organize a group of LGBTQ+ families to walk together in the Pride March. Sharing that experience with our children, together as a community, always fills me with joy and sense of connection to our history.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Audre Lorde and Bayard Rustin. Lorde’s writing raised me–I learned so much about myself and my community from her work, especially that you can criticize things you love. In fact, it’s an act of love to ask a community to do better. Rustin was a strategic genius–I am inspired by his orchestration of the March on Washington and his effective implementation of wide scale nonviolent protest tactics.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
Seek out the organizations that are already supporting the LGBTQ+ community and support them. There are organizations all over the US, from national organizations like NCLR, Llamda Legal, the Trevor Project, or Transfamilies, to local ones here in Philadelphia, like Mazzoni Center, the Attic, or PFP–there are local organizations like these all over the country that are doing fantastic work. Seek them out because these organizations will know how to maximize the impact of your support.

Elizabeth Coffey Williams (she/her) is a trans actress who starred in two of John Waters’ films: Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble. She lives in the John C. Anderson Apartments in Philadelphia, an LGBTQ+-friendly senior living community. Elizabeth co-facilitates TransWay, a trans and gender non-conforming support group. 

Dr. Elan Cohen (he/him) is a principal investigator at Hassman Research Institute. He oversees the high quality conduct of Phase one to four clinical trials in the areas of psychiatry, human abuse liability, and normal healthy volunteers to explore the safety of medicinal compounds. Dr. Cohen is a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He has presented extensively and published in the implementation of systemic strategies to reduce the placebo and nocebo effects. 

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
Attending movies specifically focused on LGBTQ+ life. It is important to engage in this at all times, but it is arguably crucial during Pride month in order to reflect on where we came from as people, our struggles, and our heroes, so we never take for granted our human rights and what we all need to do to maintain those fundamental rights. 

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Anyone who has in any way taken a risk to help us get where we need to be regarding our rights. I think of, for example, many unsung heroines, such as Ana Brnabić, who is the first openly gay minister of Serbia (and the first ever for an Eastern European nation), which honestly in that arguably historically more conservative environment takes guts. We honor also Marsha Johnson, an American gay liberation activist and transgender woman and who was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. We need to remember these key figures and continually mirror what they did.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
There are overt as well as covert ways we can all have the LGBTQ+ population feel embraced–not merely accepted. These include those who identify as queer coming out in the workplace. We know this is not always easy, and nobody should ever feel pressured to come out, but simultaneously the power of a non-LGBTQ+ person seeing an out individual in the same way they would interact with colleagues cannot be underestimated. Perhaps more covertly, peers should never assume a gay person represents that entire population.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
There are countless ways, and it starts at the top. Supervisors should call out workers making derogatory comments about LGBTQ+ matters, and while this should be done respectfully, it needs to occur in public so all can understand such language will not be tolerated by the company. Having signs expressing that all are welcome in the workplace also go a long way regarding inclusivity. Do not use assumptive languages, like assuming someone’s partner is the opposite gender.

Ashley L. Coleman (she/her) has been a fixture in the LGBTQ+ community in Philadelphia for over 10 years. Ashley was a passionate high school educator in North Philadelphia and was proudly the general conference coordinator of the world’s largest trans-specific conference from 2016 to 2019. She is now the executive director of Galaei, and is excited to provide authentic, affirming services and education for QTBIPOC by QTBIPOC. Ashley is dedicated to creating opportunities, social progress, and amplifying the voices of those most marginalized in our communities.

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
The PHL PRIDE 50 Festival and March, which is a program of Galaei!

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
The incredible Gloria Caserez; I try to make her proud every day.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
Donate unrestricted funds directly to smaller LGBTQ+ and QTBIPOC organizations. Create fellowships, pipelines, and true opportunities for folks in our community that are so often not given a seat at the table. Allow and even encourage your employees to unionize, create employee resource groups, and make collective change.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Take competency trainings, every year. Review your policies, paperwork, and marketing quarterly. Provide trans inclusive healthcare, and get rid of your dress codes. More than anything, remain open, willing to learn, and know you will make mistakes along the way. It is all about progress, not perfection.

Marc Coleman (he/him) is the president and founding CEO of The Tactile Group, a software company that develops custom web-based applications for the public sector. Marc has more than three decades of entrepreneurial experience in creative direction, design, business management, and client relations. Marc is an innovative leader who knows the power of building intentionally diverse teams. A Philadelphia native, he currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia where he chairs the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee.

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
The Festival in the Gayborhood after the first Pride March organized by the Philly Pride Collective was wonderfully inclusive this year.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Audre Lorde for intersectionality. Masha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera for the Gay Liberation Front. James Baldwin for the mastery of the written word. Bayard Rustin for the Freedom Rides. Billy Porter for the unapologetic sense of style.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
Support organizations, such as the Independence Business Alliance, that support LGBTQ+ business owners. Procure goods and services from LGBTBE certified businesses. Support organizations such as the William Way Community Center that preserve our history and provide space for us to gather as our full authentic selves.

Casey Cook (she/her) is the executive director of the Bread and Roses Community Fund, an activist, and a community organizer. Bread and Roses Community Fund advocates for social, racial, and economic justice. Her responsibilities include overseeing finances, raising money for operations and grantmaking, acting as a spokesperson for the organization, and developing partnerships with foundations and donors. Before joining Bread and Roses, she was the executive director at Prevention Point Philadelphia, where she provided harm reduction services. 

Dr. Erin Cross (she/her) is the LGBT center director at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has advocated for and expanded LGBTQ+ campus support for more than 20 years, most recently around inclusive healthcare and restrooms, implicit bias, and educating coaches and faculty about LGBTQ+ issues. She serves as the LGBTQ+ Faculty Working Group co-chair and increased center ties to West Philadelphia through partnerships. Outside of the center, Erin co-founded White Educators Committed to Anti-Racism and Equity to support white employees addressing racism. She also convenes the campus-wide DEI group, and teaches at the university’s Graduate School of Education.   

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
As an introvert, this is a hard one, but I am looking forward to the reimagined, more inclusive Pride March and Festival organized by the PHL Pride Collective this year.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you? 
Sue Rankin, who suggested I work at Penn’s LGBT Center knowing my heart was in LGBTQ+ and social justice advocacy, not my PhD program. Otherwise, there are so many unsung LGBTQ+ people making a difference who inspire me: the LGBT Center’s past and current student staff members, doctors who support trans kids, people who foster LGBTQ+ youth, lawyers fighting against “Don’t Say Gay” laws, those who center and elevate the voices of Black trans women and femmes knowing that if we do so everyone will benefit, etc. One person can make change, even if they never see it.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
Consistently think about who is missing in the boardroom, in your staff, in your communities, in your school board, and anywhere else. Chances are LGBTQ+ voices are not at the table. Ask yourself, why is that? Then create a culture where we belong, don’t just hire a few ‘acceptable’ tokens to check a box. Do the same for other marginalized people. We’re stronger and more successful when we work together.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Think about your staff and patrons through a lens of respect and stop making assumptions around gender identity and sexual orientation. Take a look at your forms, create all gender restrooms, examine your policies to see if they privilege heterosexuality, ask people’s pronouns, don’t assume family is biological, educate yourself, and be willing to learn from your mistakes. We all make mistakes; take the opportunity to learn and grow from them.

Michelle Davidson (she/her) is the founder and CEO of Thunder PR. She is a marketing, public relations, and communications professional, and has more than three decades of experience. Michelle previously led communications at a Pennsylvania-based healthcare company, where she created the company’s first inclusive marketing campaign that featured LGBTQ, multiracial, and multicultural populations. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Action Wellness, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit and HIV social service agency. 

Sakina Dean (she/her) is the founder and CEO of the LGBTQ Home for Hope, a not-for-profit shelter and recovery house for the LGBTQ+ community, and the CEO of Divine Light, Inc., a non-denominational outpatient addiction treatment agency. Sakina aims to aid those recovering from addiction, helping them reintegrate into society, and is a social worker, SCOH worker, mental health clinical, behavioral therapist, and intensive care manager.