BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Oliver Webb (he/him), Chairperson
Area of Focus: Accessibility Advocacy, Housing Advocacy, Security, Mental Health
This is the second Board he has served on. He was born in Washington and spent most of his life here, with the exception of a few years spent in other West Coast States as a child during the school years (summers spent in Washington). He graduated with honors from North Seattle College (2009) and was offered a partial academic scholarship to Seattle University’s Social Work program. While there he directed and produced the Vagina Monologues using Eve Ensler’s Trans Spotlight piece and had all proceeds go to NW Network. He also founded and ran Domestic Violence Awareness Week, which ran the week of Valentine’s Day. He interned at Roots Young Adult Shelter and as a Jump Start Team Lead while continuing to work full-time. He worked for many years as a Social Worker with both at-risk youth and the homeless population of Seattle before sustaining a workplace disability that ended his career. He has spent nearly three decades in activism and volunteering, much of that spent in Seattle’s Queer community including volunteering with Lifelong AIDS alliance, Seattle Pride, Gender Justice League, Gender Diversity, Alki Beach Pride, TDOR Seattle, and leading a security team which assists in securing Pride celebrations and other Queer events. He has worked as an Accessibility Coordinator and Advocate and is passionate about the rights of people with disabilities. He is currently helping with the Trans Jail Coalition, to help ensure incarcerated Trans individuals are treated with respect and dignity, as well as, given the proper care they deserve.
Awards: SGN Reader’s Choice Awards 2021 Best Community Organizer, Tacoma Pride Awards 2022 Pearl Award, ST. Oliver The Pineapple Papa (The Sister’s of Perpetual Indulgence Mother House of Washington), Karina Samala Trans America Award (International Court Council U.S.A, Canada, Mexico)
MJ Ayala (they/he), Vice Chairperson
Area of Focus: Parenting, Divorce Advocacy
They were born in New York and raised in Florida for most of their life. They are a recent transplant to Washington State, having fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest while on vacation more than a decade ago. Finally deciding to make their dreams come true they relocated with their two children in the summer of 2021. . Both an advocate for and part of the LGBTQ+ community for over 20 years, they came out as Non-Binary in 2020. After relocating, they began looking for community to find support with and serve. Both social justice and community service are strong passions of theirs, and finding a community with similar goals has always been important to them. They’ve been involved with various organizations and projects throughout the Central Florida area over the past 15 years including Come Out with Pride, The Princess Project, Zebra Coalition, Baby DJ, and Step Out. After rallying community support and organizing memorials after the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, they began working with other lgbtq+ organizations in the Central Florida area volunteering time and resources.
Professionally MJ has a background in event logistics and design, having planned and designed a wide range of events from large scale corporate functions for Universal Studios to weddings to corporate retreats. In their spare time they enjoy gardening, being out in nature, and spending time exploring their new home in the PNW with their children. They’ve discovered a safe and welcoming environment within DAPS and look forward to growing in their community outreach work along with the organization.
Briar Gandy (they/them), Treasurer
Beginning with membership in their high school’s GSA as a “straight ally”, through involvement with the Seattle bisexual organizations, they have always had a desire for creating community.
An early after voting member of DAPS, they found needed community and support through the Zoom meetings early in the COVID-19 pandemic. An enjoyer of recreational math, they are excited to turn their skills and passions towards creating a stable financial future for DAPS.
They also enjoy speculative fiction and more fiber crafts than strictly necessary. Briar lives in Bellevue with their husband and two strange cats.
Jenna McMichael (she/her), Secretary
Jenna grew up in southern California, always believing that the state was too hot to sustain human life. She moved to Washington in 1998 to go to college, and fell in love with this place. Since 2003 she has worked for the University of Puget Sound as a web content manager. She has also worked as a writer, producer, and occasional actor for the geek film companies Dead Gentlemen Productions and Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, and co-authored several role-playing games for Dead Gentlemen Productions and Margaret Weis Productions.
Jenna and her wife live in Tacoma with two weird cats and a fetch-obsessed black lab. She enjoys video games, so-bad-it’s-good sci-fi, and inflicting the Star Wars Holiday Special on unsuspecting friends. Joining DAPS has helped Jenna discover a sense of community that was missing from her life. She is excited to join the DAPS board, and looks forward to helping the organization grow, and helping other trans folks find their missing community.
Astro Pittman (they/them), Member-At-Large
Area of Focus: Harm Reduction, Mental Health
They were born in Italy, raised in Texas, and has called Seattle home for over 13 years. Astro is completing their senior year at Seattle Central College in the Applied Behavioral Science baccalaureate program and has applied to the 2021 Master of Social Work program at University of Washington. Astro works with at-risk youth as a drug and alcohol counselor, focusing on Queer, homeless, and POC youth. Astro is the President of Seattle Central’s LGBTQ+ student club, Queer Cooperative; a fully professed Guard with the Sisters of the Mother House of Washington (Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence); an award-winning journalist and editor-in-chief of Seattle Central’s newspaper, The Seattle Collegian; an advocate for the transgender sex worker and Queer recovery communities; Board Member at Large with Diversity Alliance of the Puget Sound (DAPS); and the founder of Transgender Day of Remembrance Seattle (TDORSeattle), the Cis Ally Trio (Cissy), and SeattleTransVisibility.org. They are also a regular guest panelist and speaker for various workshops and events spotlighting LGBTQ+ topics. Astro’s mission is to blend these spheres of service and activism into a collective vehicle for social welfare, anti-oppression, equity, and justice in their communities. Developing research, training, and curriculum specifically tailored to the needs of the LGBTQ+ recovery community is their passion and calling, and they have especially focused on the specific needs and challenges of transgender individuals in their research. Their most closely held dream is to create and run a treatment and recovery center for Queer individuals from all walks of the rainbow; where they receive targeted, trauma-informed, identity-affirming, and community-focused support from excellent clinicians who identify with their struggles through lived experience.
Kenzie McMillan (she/her), Member-At-Large
Kenzie was born, raised, and currently still lives in rural north east Oregon with her two cats, Tegan and Sara. After returning to college in her early forties, she graduated with high honors from Blue Mountain Community College in 2011 with degrees in Civil Engineering and Drafting. COVID isolation allowed her to come out to herself after being completely closeted for 40 years. Fortunately for her, that same isolation had caused DAPS to take support groups online and a lucky turn of events allowed her to connect with DAPS from hundreds of miles away. Support from those group sessions and from the DAPS members allowed her to navigate socially transitioning and coming out while working at a conservative engineering firm. As a Board Member-At-Large her goals include continuing to return support to current and future DAPS members and helping to extend the reach of DAPS to eastern Washington and north eastern Oregon with a particular emphasis on helping those who are coming out later in their life.
Fran Rourke (they/she), Member-At-Large
Areas of Focus: Health Care, Harm Reduction
As trans non-binary person, Fran was born in Chicago and grew up in Detroit. She has also lived for a time in Boston and Los Angeles. They worked for over thirty-five years as a Registered Nurse, ending her career at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. They earned a Master of Arts degree from Arizona State University in English Studies, where her study of concentration was gender theory. She currently works as an Emergency Medical Technician for a Seattle area ambulance company and coordinates first aid and medical backup for Pride events. They have also volunteered at Ingersoll Gender Center and still volunteer at Peoples Harm Reduction Alliance. She has done presentations on gender theory and transgender health care for Health Care for All – Washington and for the staff and faculty at Shoreline Community College. They also worked for four years as a writing tutor at Shoreline CC. DAPS is an important part of her life, and they look forward to serving on the board.
Our Board meetings are the final Saturday of each month at 2pm on Zoom (unless announced as otherwise). All meetings are open to the public, If you would like to have your business or organization speak at the meeting please reach out to info@diversityallianceofthepugetsound.org at least 1 week in advance so you can be added to the agenda. There is a community forum for general inquires and comments.
If you would like to join the Board please contact our Chair(s) chair@diversityallianceofthepugetsound.org with the position you are interested in and a letter of interest and qualifications that make you the best candidate for that position. We strongly encourage trans and gender diverse BIPOC individuals from across the State to apply.
FUNDING BOARD
Jesse Bohlin (they/them)
For the past two years, they have served as the Fund Development Manager at the YWCA Pierce County, a domestic violence agency located in Tacoma, Washington. In the past, they have worked as a Volunteer Coordinator for the YWCA and served as a Community-Based Research Liaison through AmeriCorps VISTA at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. With four years of experience in the non-profit sector, Jesse is a strong advocate for the power of community in fundraising and including those most impacted in the conversation. Currently in their second year pursuing a Master of Social Work at University of Washington Tacoma, they hope to use the skills gained through this program to further community centric fundraising ideals and advance equitable, liberation-centered practices within the nonprofit sector.
Jillian Whitton (she/her)
Jillian was born and grew up in Yorkshire, England, and has been living in the Seattle area since the mid-1990s. She has worked for many years as a biostatistician and data analyst.
Jillian came out to herself, and to the world a few months later, in 2019. Finding her feet in the community was interrupted by the pandemic, but she’s now proudly and joyously trans and queer, and living her life fiercely.
She lives in South Seattle with her wife, who she married in a big queer Vegas ceremony in 2021. Her passions include cooking well, playing guitar badly, listening to music, science, and speculative fiction.
Current Openings
Board of Directors
Board Co-Chair: This is a non-voting position on a 7 member Board. This position oversees the Board and the organization as a whole, and maintains its compliance. To apply click HERE or email our Board Secretary for accessibility assistance or questions at secretary@diversityallianceofthepugetsound.org
Board Member At Large: This is a voting position that oversees the running of the organization, the specific position will be built off skills and org needs. To apply click HERE or email our Secretary for accessibility assistance or questions at secretary@diversityallianceofthepugetsound.org
Funding Board
Board Member: This is a non-voting position that does not govern the organization. This position is responsible for finding and procuring grants, donations, and in-kinds for programming, events, and the organization as a whole. Individuals with grant writing, fundraising, and in-kinding experience are encouraged to apply. To apply click HERE or email our Treasurer for accessibility assistance or questions at treasurer@diversityallianceofthepugetsound.org
