As we dive into 2019, I wanted to take a moment to reach out to Pride Foundation’s incredible network of supporters, partners, volunteers, scholars, and grantees to say hello and let you know how excited I am to be Pride Foundation’s new board president!
A little background on me:
I live with my wife and 3 year-old son in Portland, Oregon, and I’m honored to be the first board president living outside of Washington State to lead our organization. I’ve been on the board for four years, and I continue to be so grateful to each and every one of you for making our work and our community all that it is.
I grew up in Southern California and moved around the country while going to college and then law school. But I found my home in Oregon’s LGBTQ+ community in 2007 and was drawn to Pride Foundation because of the strong impact this organization was making across our region. Our commitment to the regional nature of our work and to every community in the Northwest is a vital part of who we are, and I’m dedicated to continuing and deepening this work.
I’m the founding attorney at Pirtle-Guiney Law LLC, where my practice focuses on business and employment law. I’ve been able to put my passion, legal background, and connections in Oregon to good use over the past four years with Pride Foundation, particularly through serving on the committee that negotiated the merger of Equity Foundation with Pride Foundation in 2016, and in my role as co-chair of the committee searching for Pride Foundation’s next CEO.
Why Pride Foundation matters so much to me:
As a queer Latina woman in an interracial and interfaith marriage, I look at my Mexican and Jewish son and am ever more thankful for Pride Foundation’s dedication to supporting our communities and all of the intersections of identity we hold. Our intentional and concerted efforts to center racial equity at Pride Foundation are ensuring our work is even more reflective of the dynamic and diverse communities we serve, and that it prioritizes the people and communities who, despite the advances we have made, continue to be most impacted by injustice, discrimination, and barriers to opportunities and resources.
A little about the next year at Pride Foundation:
We have a big year ahead of us at Pride Foundation, and I’m looking forward to this new chapter in our history. This year, we will welcome a new CEO and roll out our strategic plan for the next three years of the foundation’s work. We will continue responding to the needs and opportunities that emerge in our communities, and do everything we can to be proactive and forward-thinking to meet these challenges and innovate our approach to philanthropy. We will continue to transform our organization as we deepen our efforts to center racial equity and the experiences of LGBTQ+ people and communities who continue to be most marginalized and most impacted by injustice.
And, as always, we will keep building a world where all LGBTQ+ people can live safely and openly as their whole selves in every community we call home.
I look forward to continuing this work with each of you.
Brandy Pirtle-Guiney is Pride Foundation’s 2019 Board President.