NYAC's Board of Directors is composed of individuals from across the United States, who bring a diverse blend of personal and professional backgrounds and experiences. The Board actively seeks applications from youth, people of color, and people of transgender experience. The following individuals are currently Directors of NYAC.

Selma Al-Aswad Dillsi
Seattle, Washington

Selma Al-Aswad Dillsi is an Arab-American activist, social worker and community member who uses radical activism as a means of challenging systems.  She is committed to encouraging herself and others to reflect critically about youth development work and the roles they can take to subvert adultism.   She is proudly a member of the Put {THIS} on the MAP Reteaching Gender & Sexuality education team where she uses media as a tool to educate and transform, particularly around the intersections of race, queerness, and pop culture. Selma also serves on the board of Seattle Young People’s Project.   Selma received her Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington in 2010 and currently works in addiction counseling.  She is active in Palestine solidarity campaigns and links reteaching gender and sexuality with decolonization and breaking borders and binaries of all kinds.

LaDawn Best
Long Beach, California

LaDawn Best is the Client Advocate of the Domestic Violence Legal Advocacy Project at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, a program that offers comprehensive legal services to LGBTQ survivors of domestic violence.  She is responsible for training domestic violence service providers on LGBTQ sensitivity and same-gender domestic violence legal issues, and has provided trainings to advocates statewide.  Prior to her work at the Center, LaDawn was the Girls Leadership Coordinator for the young women of color reproductive justice program at REACH LA, a non-profit organization located in downtown Los Angeles. She has served as a member of the community advisory board for Q-TEAM, a queer and trans youth of color multi-issue organizing collective, the Los Angeles HIV youth coalition, and was the co-chair of the Multicultural and Underserved Communities Committee of the Los Angeles City Domestic Violence Task Force. LaDawn is also a fellow of the California’s Women’s Policy Institute and plays drums in the band Assembly of Mazes.

Karama Blackhorn
Bothell, Washington

Brandon Lacy Campos
New York City, New York

Asha Leong
Ex-Officio Member
Interim Executive Director, National Youth Advocacy Coalition
Washington, District of Columbia

Gregory Cendana
Treasurer
Executive Director, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Washington, District of Columbia

Born in Guam, raised in Sacramento & a graduate of UCLA, Gregory is excited to be in Washington, DC pursuing his life’s passion for serving others & making this world a better place for everyone. He is the current Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO & is the first openly gay person to serve in this post. Prior, he served as President of the United States Student Association (USSA) where he was the first openly gay Asian American to be elected as a national officer. Gregory has a wealth of experience having served or currently serving on the boards of the National Jobs with Justice, Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, the Generational Alliance & the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. In 2009, he started his own consulting firm, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop Consulting, to support youth of color & LGBT youth leaders and organizations.

King Chan
Long Beach, California

King Chan is a Malaysian-Teochew descended advocate for human relations, multiculturalism, and LGBTQIA youth issues. Raised in Long Beach, King's introduction to grassroots activism began with a petition effort to stop demolition of his city's biggest library. He has spoken to various audiences on topics such as systems of oppression, crisis intervention, homelessness and youth legal rights. His philanthropic efforts include working with elected officials and partnering with Gay-Straight Alliance Network, the California School Boards Association, the Long Beach Unified School District, the Transgender Law Center, California Conference for Equality & Justice (CCEJ), and other non-profit/civil organizations. In addition he serves on the Trevor Project's Youth Advisory Council and assists Equal Action to promote an inclusive monthly open-mic night for LGBTQIA youth in Los Angeles County. Currently he interns for a municipal department and a non-profit organization, helping develop ways to improve neighborhoods, increase literacy rates, lower juvenile delinquency/gang activities, and mobilizing communities.

Ra'Shawn D. Flournoy
Prevention Coordinator, AID Upstate
Greenville, South Carolina

Radical, Revolutionary, Innovative,and Cutting Edge are some of the words often used to describe Ra'Shawn Flournoy. Flournoy serves as the Prevention Coordinator and Internet Outreach Specialist for AID Upstate in Greenville, South Carolina. He is also the Co-Founder of the Freedom Community Center, a 501 (c) 3, nonprofit organization dedicated to provide an array of individual-level, group-level and community-level programs and services targeting youth and young adults in the community. Ra’Shawn Flournoy is working on his first book entitled, “The Naked Truth”. He also serves as a member on the South Carolina MSM Workgroup Board.Flournoy is also the founder and senior pastor of Rebirth Outreach Center. Today, his ecumenical messages have been heard on the far shores of South Africa and England.

Orlando Gonzales
Miami, Florida

Orlando Gonzales is the past chairman of the board of SAVE Dade and SAVE Foundation in Miami, FL. He joined SAVE Dade as a volunteer where he chaired the Champions of Equality Awards successfully garnering greater financial returns in 3 years. Orlando served as interim executive director of SAVE Dade during a reorganization; primarily managing the executive director search and operations. An entrepreneur, Orlando has managed a business in scholastic journalism. He has exercised his interests and experience in fundraising and development, communications, and public relations with public service organizations. Human rights, the proliferation of art and culture, as well as the defense of the first-amendment are the social causes Orlando regularly champions. He’s a graduate of Georgetown University where he focused his studies in community service, race, culture, and women’s studies.

Chad Grandy
Vice Chair
Systems Administrator, SeeChange Health
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Chad Grandy joined the GLSEN Jump Start Leadership Team in 2004 as a high school student. While attending Central Michigan University, he served as a GSA officer and co-founded The Community, a LGBT community organization. Chad later served on the Triangle Foundation, now Equality Michigan, Board of Directors and helped launch a youth initiatives program which included Camping.OUT, a summer camp for high school aged LGBTQ youth. In 2006, Chad was a member of the first Soulforce Equality Ride, featured in the documentary Equality U, visiting twenty private Christian universities and military academies. As a part of the ride, he was arrested for civil disobedience at the West Point Military Academy protesting Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Chad lives with his partner in Minneapolis and works for a healthcare company as a systems administrator.

Lisbeth M. Meléndez-Rivera
Interim Executive Director, Unid@s LGBT
Principal, Intersections Consulting
Washington, District of Columbia

Lisbeth M. Meléndez-Rivera is a 25+ year veteran of the social justice movement. She has worked in Labor, Environmental Justice, Occupational Health and Safety, LGBT and Racial Civil Rights and last but not least youth rights. She lives in Metro DC with her wife of 10 years, her godson, and the animal farm. Finally, she cooks for relaxation, and it's glad her friends enjoy it!

Tanya Paperny
Secretary
New York City, New York

Tanya Paperny is a writer currently based out of New York City. She is a graduate student in Nonfiction Writing at Columbia University, an assistant web editor at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, and a member of the nonfiction board of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art.

Prior to moving to New York City, she lived and worked in Washington, DC as an organizer with Campus Progress, part of the Center for American Progress. There she mentored and trained youth activist working on LGBTQ issues, higher education access, and antiwar advocacy. Tanya has worked in radio journalism with WAMU-FM (DC's NPR affiliate) and KCSB-FM (Santa Barbara's community radio station). She now teaches creative writing to Harlem-area high school students and Columbia undergraduates and is a regular contributor to LitDrift, a literary blog.

Bamby Salcedo
Glendale, California

Joaquin Quetzal Sanchez
Oakland, California
   

Amita Swadhin
Chair
Project Coordinator of "Undesirable Elements: Secret Survivors", Ping Chong & Co.
New York City, New York

Amita Swadhin is an educator, media-maker, public speaker, writer, and nonprofit consultant dedicated to fighting interpersonal and institutional violence against young people. Her work is informed by her experiences as a queer woman of color, a daughter of immigrants and a survivor of child abuse. She is the Project Coordinator of Ping Chong & Co.'s "Undesirable Elements: Secret Survivors," a theater project featuring survivors of child sexual abuse telling their stories through dramatic narrative. She is also completing her MPA at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service, where she is a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Prior to enrolling at NYU, Amita spent eight years as an educator/youth organizer in New York City public schools and after-school programs. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Frank Walker
Executive Director, Youth Pride Center (YPC)
Chicago, Illinois

Frank Walker is the founder of Youth Pride Services based in Chicago, IL. YPS provides services to LGBTQ and heterosexual youth of color through its 5 brands: the award winning Youth Pride Center (YPC), its performing arts programming, YPC Entertainments; youth development programming, YPC University; creative writing, expressions and artistic programming through Frankie Magazine (distributed in 4 major cities), and hardship assistance, advocacy/research and youth speakers division, Frankie Foundation. YPC youth travel across the country and are nationally known for their presentations, graduation rate, dance teams, public speakers and organizing capabilities. YPS is a grassroots organization that raises its own funds through annual fundraising campaigns that are youth led and have been handed down from generation to generation. It is youth run, and has a nationally recognized youth government which is designed after the actual government with two houses, and an executive branch.

Daunasia Yancey
Senior Peer Leader, Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Youth (BAGLY)
Boston, Massachusetts