Pride Foundation is pleased to welcome Gunner Scott as the Director of Programs. Gunner is a founding member of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, and its most recent executive director. Gunner will begin work at Pride Foundation in March.
“Gunner brings over a decade of experience leading change in the LGBTQ community along with extensive experience in training and curriculum development, program management, public education and legislative campaigns, fundraising, and communications. We are thrilled to welcome him to Pride Foundation’s family,” says Pride Foundation Executive Director Kris Hermanns. “With his deep understanding of our community’s issues and expertise in program development, Gunner will enhance our foundation’s leadership role in the Northwest.”
Gunner is a nationally recognized activist, educator, and community organizer on LGBTQ health issues, domestic violence, substance abuse, and access issues for the transgender community. In 2011, after five-year campaign, the Massachusetts legislature passed the Transgender Equal Rights bill; under Gunner’s direction, MTPC led the legislative campaign.
“I am excited to join Pride Foundation because I feel passionately about its regional vision and leadership. With the progress our movement has made, it is so important to focus on supporting those who live in rural and remote communities that often are not given the same attention as those on the coasts,” says Gunner. “I’m also motivated to help Pride Foundation further develop and expand programs that enhance the capacity and impact of the Northwest’s LGBTQ organizations and leaders, and that encourage cross-collaboration with other social justice movements. This effort will be essential to advancing LGBTQ equality across all the states that Pride Foundation serves.”
The Director of Programs is a new position at Pride Foundation that will provide strategic vision and leadership for the donor-supported LGBTQ community foundation’s programmatic efforts throughout the Northwest. The Director will oversee all aspects of grants and scholarships across five states (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington State) as well as develop strategies for special initiatives.
More about Gunner Scott:
Gunner holds a BA in Liberal Arts from Goddard College, where he completed the oral history project “Boston Area Transgender Community Leaders and the ENDA Crisis.” He has written articles for Boston Phoenix and Bay Windows newspapers, What’s Up magazine, and Sojourner Women’s Forum. He penned “Agitate and Activate,” the introduction to Pinned Down by Pronouns, a 2003 Lambda Literary-nominated anthology; he is a coauthor on the study and 2011 American Journal of Public Health article “Transgender Health in Massachusetts: Results from a Household Probability Sample of Adults.” Gunner has been on the Board of Corporators for Eastern Bank since 2010 and a founding member of the Trans Advocacy Network. He also currently serves as a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth and the Massachusetts Commission on Unaccompanied Homeless Youth. In addition to his social justice activism, Gunner is also passionate about saving wild lions from extinction and captivity.