Executive | Content | Finance | Operations | IT | Community Outreach | Community Networking | Exposition | Marketing | Sponsorship | Communications | Security | Public Speaking | Writer | Legal | Chicago | Colorado | Nashville | NYC | Philadelphia | Portland| San Francisco

Executive

O. Mac Chinsomboon
Executive Director
executive@gayconference.org
AIM address: Executive NGLAC

O. Mac Chinsomboon, is currently the Director of Investments for his family's real estate and business investment company. Mac is a former consultant to the Board of Directors of YPO, the world's preeminent consortium of CEO's on matters of strategy, alliances, and education. Mac also spent a short stint as an investment banker at UBS Warburg in London doing high-tech/telecom M&A, a long stint as a Manager at Andersen Consulting in the Chicago/Palo Alto telecom practice, and as an entrepreneur in San Francisco/Bangkok. While in business school and shortly thereafter, Mac was on the speaking circuit on the subject of new venturing and venture capital, and widely quoted in major publications. He had also been working on authoring a business book on the subject, but that project has been set on the back burner until the tides of the economy change. He holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a minor in Bio-Engineering and Pre-Medicine, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

Mac is on the Board of the Boston BayBlades, Boston’s gay and lesbian rowing group, as well as PrideSportsBoston, Boston’s umbrella sports group. Mac was a member of the inaugural organizing committee of the first annual Gay and Lesbian Business School conference that is now in it’s fourth year and has created tremendous community in the business world (see the www.NetworkQ.org project)

During the summer, spring, and fall, Mac is an active rower and rows port in both an 8- and 4-boat. He can also be found playing volleyball, mountain biking, SCUBA diving (NAUI certified), skydiving (yes, once in Hawaii and again soon), sailing, golf (horrid hacker), and various other sports. Mac actively runs along the Charles River and uses it as a form of relaxation and mental renewal. Having grown up in Denver, and having spent a significant time of his professional career on the west coast, during the winter, Mac hits the slopes to ski and snowboard. Mac just took up Muay Thai Kick Boxing at a local sparring gym. Mac addictively budgets for his "habit" of electronic gadgets (Palms, digi-cams, phones, video games, etc.) and sports equipment. Mac lives in Cambridge next to the Charles River, with a view that reminds him of why Boston/Cambridge is such an incredible city for athletics and intellects.

Why get involved? I say, get involved because you think it will be FUN and you can make a difference!

Content

Cliff Davidson
Content Director
content@gayconference.org

Cliff Davidson, age 21, is a senior at Harvard College. He will receive his B.A. in Government, and is writing his thesis on morality politics in the United States with specific reference to the pro-life split in the stem cell research issue. While at Harvard, Cliff founded an lgbt student group for undergraduates and has organized a number of panel discussions including one called "Sports and Sexuality: Voices from Harvard and the NFL." He is on the Board of Directors of Sexual Minorities in Athletics. He is from Albuquerque, NM.

Cliff's involvement with the conference is motivated by two factors. First, the acknowledgment and encouragement of openly lgbt athletes will improve the way we view gender in the United States. Second, the social networks formed through sports leagues and teams at the local level can be employed in efforts at social change, as well as in ways which benefit the community. As such, teams can become forces for social good (for lgbt folk and everyone else) while also serving as a venue for fun activities and socialization. Cliff's favorite sport to watch is hockey, and his favorite sport to play is soccer.

Rob Jagnow
content2@gayconference.org

Rob Jagnow, age 25, is a full-time graduate student at MIT, working toward a Ph.D. in Computer Graphics. In his professional life, he also spends time working with Pixar Animation Studios and Optobyte, a Swiss software company specializing in games and visual simulation. Rob has a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.S. in Computer Science from Texas Tech University, and has an Masters in Computer Science from MIT.

Rob has rowed actively for four years with MIT/Sloan crew and is currently the program organizer. He also rows with the Boston Bay Blades. He is very active with the MIT Outing Club, currently serving on the Board of Directors, and also acting as a trip leader and Winter School instructor. He has climbed many of the highest peaks in the continental United States and has visited most of New England's highest peaks, climbing up to 14 summits in a day on marathon expeditions.

In addition to rowing and mountaineering, Rob runs recreationally and participates in a number of other sports, including rock and ice climbing, cross-country and downhill skiing, and adventure racing.

IT

Amir Sharabi
IT Director
tech@gayconference.org

Community Outreach

Jason "JR" Badian
Community Outreach and Sponsorship Director
outreach2@gayconference.org

Jason "JR" Badian is an entrepreneur who received his MBA from Babson College. While attending Babson, JR won their nationally known & coveted Business Plan Competition and received $3 million in funding for this start-up, BrandAid Communications. In January 2002, BrandAid Communications was acquired. Today BrandAid is a publicly traded company (stock symbol BAMK.)

Prior to BrandAid, JR worked for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation as a strategic planner where he analyzed new business opportunities and helped guide the strategic direction within the firm.

In addition to his MBA, JR studied at Indiana University where he received his undergraduate degree double majoring in Finance and Marketing and also studied at the University of Tel-Aviv in Israel.

In 1993, JR led the University of Tel-Aviv basketball team to the finals in their country wide basketball tournament. JR’s greatest business sports achievement is that he signed a contract with the New York Yankees for Lou Pinealla to appear at a sports memorabilia conference he was promoting when he was only 16 years old.

Currently, JR focuses mainly on marketing and strategic planning for start-ups and established businesses and organizations. JR is an avid snowboarder and bodybuilder and plays basketball, softball, and football.

Dave Chen

Dr. Dave Chen was born in NYC and grew up in NJ. He graduated from the University of Rochester in upstate NY with undergraduate degrees in neuroscience and ASL & Deaf Studies in 1996 and a medical degree in 2000. He is currently a Neurology resident at Massachusetts General and Brigham & Women's Hospitals.

Dave has a deep-rooted love for running which was nurtured by many seasons of high school cross country and track. He also enjoys hiking and cross country skiing. With the rest of his free time, you can find him playing his piano, cooking (and, moreso, eating), and traveling to different countries around the globe. He has a number of more eclectic interests which he would gladly tell you about if you ask. David lives in Boston.

Lee Wolfer
Community Outreach

Harvard Medical School/Spaulding Rehab Hospital Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Residency; Steering Committee, Spaulding Rehab Hospital Adaptive Sports/Recreation Program; Head of Charles Regatta Charity Fundraiser 2002; Amazon Slam Team member.

Community Networking

Michael Lewis
Community Networking Director
networking@gayconference.org

Michael Lewis, age 27, has more than six years of experience as a technology solutions provider. He is a Senior Network Engineer at iCorps Technologies, Inc., an information technology consulting firm located in Boston. He has also worked in the nonprofit and university settings, including three years at Harvard University's Office for Information Technology. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in history and science.

Michael has studied Japanese martial arts for 3 years, and enjoys regular workouts at his gym. He also enjoys reading and music, and likes to get to the movie theatre as often as possible.

Mike Bryant

Age 31, currently pursuing a PhD in Sport Management at Florida State University, with emphasis on gay issues in sport. Research interests include the role of aggressive sports in the lives of gay men and male participation in gay sports leagues and organizations.

Other interests include examining the collegiate environment and marketing towards the lesbian and gay sport community. Hailing from Edmonds, WA (a suburb of Seattle), with a varied athletics background, is committed to athletics, especialliy with assisting in the continued growth of educational programs in Sport Administration, with particular emphasis on socio-cultural aspects and research, hoping to see more high schools and colleges implement diversity education and outlets for student-athletes and coaches.

Joel Seligman

Joel R. Seligman is executive director for university communications at Boston University, where he has worked in institutional advancement for the past three years. Joel is responsible for marketing communications, new media, and strategic communications. From 1991 to 1999, Joel held various positions in university and governmental relations at Cornell, and worked as a communications consultant for the Eastman School of Music, Northeastern University, and New England Conservatory. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in communication from Cornell.

Joel sings baritone in the Back Bay Chorale and serves on the group's Fundraising Committee. He also rows with Community Rowing and Boston Bay Blades. He is co-chair of the Cornell University Glee Club's Advancement Committee. Joel is a member of Trinity Church in the City of Boston, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Joel lives in Boston and Ogunquit with his partner, two cats, and a dog.

Sponsorship

Nir Liberboim, Jason "JR" Badian, Mike Balaban
Sponsorship Directors
sponsorship@gayconference.org

Communications and Public Relations

Ellie Schafer
Communications
communications1@gayconference.org

Mark Edward Goebel
Communications Director

Mark Goebel is a writer/journalist who has worked primarily for financial institutions during his career. Mark has authored numerous stories on sports. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Business Week, and New York Sports Scene -- where he wrote a monthly column for two years on “The Business of Sports.” His 1996 groundbreaking article questioning the financial feasibility and economic benefit to New York City of building a new stadium for the Yankees garnered widespread attention.

Mark has run in three marathons, including the 1990 Gay Games in Vancouver and the 1989 New York City Marathon in which he ran a career-best 3:29. He was media relations/communications volunteer for the 1994 New York Games.

He is also the author of numerous articles and speeches on international economic and business subjects, and was most recently managing editor of Citigroup World, the company’s 270,000-circulation employee newspaper.

Although he has lived in New York for nearly 20 years, Mark remains a die-hard fan of the teams representing his hometown, the San Francisco 49ers and baseball Giants.

Exposition

Stephen Chiong
Exposition Director
expo@gayconference.org

Steven Chiong, age 26, is currently a Brand Manager for BizLand.com, a high tech company focused on providing small business web hosting solutions. Previous to this position, Steven has held jobs as a Product Development Manager (Puma Sports), Financial Analyst (Ernst and Young), Special Events Coordinator (The White House), Communications Specialist (Democratic National Committee, Clinton/Gore 1996 Campaign), and internship positions with the Mayor's Office in Los Angeles, Ernst and Young in Prague, the Czech Republic, and the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. Steven's breadth of work has provided him with a strong foundation in business economics, as well as exposures to the world of events management, entrepreneurship, and political activism. Steven's political involvement has also allowed him the privilege to work under high profile individuals such as Former First Lady Hillary Clinton, Former Vice President Al Gore, California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. Steven graduated with an undergraduate degree in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998.

Steven is involved with the Boston Bay Blades organization, Boston's gay and lesbian rowing group, and participates actively as well in the other sports across the city ranging from squash, tennis, speedskating, snowboarding, power yoga and golf. He has also done community service work for the "Knock out Autism Foundation", producing fashion and variety benefit shows to raise funds and awareness of autism. Steven's high energy is only countered by his enthusiasm for all kinds of activities that challenge him physically and mentally.

Security

Derek Langton
Security Director
security@gayconference.org

Derek Langton is a State Trooper for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and has been with the police force for eight years. Derek earned earned two medals of life saving and the prestigious Troop Commanders Commendation. Derek holds a B.S. in Criminal Justice. He play volleyball with the Cambridge Boston Volley Association, the city's gay and lesbian volleyball group. Derek lives in Boston.

Volunteers

Mendel Chuang
Volunteers Director
volunteers@gayconference.org

MIT: President of FAQS (Friendly Alliance of Queers and Straights), Coming Out Support Group Coordinator of GAMIT (GLBT at MIT), Vice President of the Undergraduate Association.

Community Outreach Steering Committee

New York City

Francisco Varela: nyc@gayconference.org

Francisco Varela, age 35, is a Manager at McKinsey & Company and works as a strategy consultant for Fortune 500 companies. In past lives, Francisco has been a marketing consultant (Chicago), a researcher in materials science (Argentina, Brazil), and lab energy plant researcher (Japan), and has awarded a number of fellowships, published more than thirty-five scientific  papers and presented results in over forty-seven scientific meetings. He speaks fluent Spanish and English, with good knowledge of Portuguese, French, and Japanese. Francisco holds a PhD in chemistry from La Plata National University in Argentina, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

Francisco has actively been involved with sports all of his life, and most recently when he lived in Boston, he rowed with the MIT Sloan Crew team on an 8-boat, and participated in the world-renowned Head of the Charles Regatta. He is an active runner and road biker, and plays volleyball, squash, sailing, SCUBA diving, snow skiing, and a variety of other sports in his free time. Francisco Varela now lives in New York City with his partner Michael.

Ruth Gursky: nyc2@gayconference.org

Ruther Gursky was the recipient of the Federation of Gay Games' "Tom Waddell Award for Outstanding Gay Games Participant" at Gay Games V in Amsterdam in August 1998. Ruth has been involved in NYC's lesbian and gay community for many years. In 1998, she re-organized Team New York and served as its female co-president, a position she continues to hold. She has also served as past women's vice-president of Front Runners NY, past secretary and board member of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, NY's lesbian and gay synagogue and she is an active member of LeGaL, NY's lesbian and gay bar association as well as other LGBT community organizations. Ruth has assisted in local fund-raising for Team NY and Gay Games since Gay Games III. She first participated in Gay Games IV held in NYC in 1994, where she became "hooked" on the Gay Games movement for life! In November 2001, Ruth completed her third marathon, fulfilling her dream to run the five boroughs in the NYC Marathon.

Jeff Kagan: nyc3@gayconference.org

Jeff Kagan is the Director of the New York City Gay Hockey Association(NYCGHA). He began ice skating in January 1993 at the age of 24. Nine months later, he joined the Sky Rink Adult Hockey League. After a disappointing season spent mostly on the bench, Jeff recruited about a dozen other players with similar hockey skills and formed the Tigers. It was on the Tigers that Jeff Kagan met Jeff Minck, a fellow gay hockey player, although the two of them would not realize the other's orientation until 1998.

In July 1999, Jeff Kagan and Jeff Minck co-founded the NYCGHA. There were 6 people at their first meeting. Today, there are close to 100 members and over 300 people on the mailing list.

Currently, Jeff is the Captain of two teams in the NYCGHA: the NY Lions and the Rockets. He lead the NY Lions to the Championship for the Summer seasons of '00 and '01. Jeff is also a very active board member of Team New York.

He serves on the Nominations Committee, the Communications Committee and the Membership Committee.

Will Smathers: nyc4@gayconference.org

Will has worked and traveled all over the world and has taken part in many sports, including cross-country running, equestrian sports, tennis, alpine skiing, swimming, karate and cycling. For several years he was the soccer coach at a private school in the Hudson Valley. Currently he is a member of the New York Front Runners and Fast ‘n Fab Cycling Club.

In addition to teaching graduate courses at NYU, Will is active with Team New York. He chairs the Communications Committee and the By-laws, Policy and Procedures Committee in addition to editing Team New York’s quarterly newsletter and maintaining its website.

Will is an active advocate of gay sports and athletic events and has twice done the Boston–New York AIDS Ride. As a maturing boomer, he is interested in increasing participation in and improving support for the masters category, as well as promoting better inter-age group interaction.

Mary Titus: nyc5@gayconference.org

Media Planner Bike New York.

Sports affiliation with Japan Karate Association, Ni Dan. BFA BMA from SVA 1979.

Editor of sportsfem.com and bikefem.com

Portland, OR

Andy Holder: portland@gayconference.org

Andrew Holder graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Political Science from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. A competitive swimmer since the age of eight, Andrew was a member of the Lewis & Clark College swim team for four years, captain of the swim team his senior year, a four-year varsity swimmer in high school, and a member of the Montana All Stars swim team. He is a recipient of the Truman Fellowship, the Phi Kappa Phi graduate fellowship, the NCAA/COSIDA Academic All-American award, and the Lewis & Clark College 1999 Student Athlete of the Year award.

Nashville, TN

John Hageman II: nashville@gayconference.org

Jon Hageman II, 37 yo from Nashville, TN, is owner of Microseal Technologies of Nashville. Jon lives in nashville with his partner of 2 years, Cliff Young, and their pets Fred, Lucy and Andy. Both Jon and Cliff have been active in amateur and professional sports for the greater part of their lives.

In 1980, Jon was a member of the Jr. National Table Tennis Team, 1982 was drafted by the St Louis Cardinals, 1990 became a member of the Professional Bowlers Tour, 1991 opened two bowling pro shops, 1990 began Kegler's Tournament Series (promoting bowling tournaments). 2001 founded the Nashville Storms Sports Group promoting gay/lesbian sports and recreation.

The Nashville Storms began as a single softball team to compete in Nashville's NAGAAA league. By October we had grown to 15 teams with over
100 participants in 3 sports competing in 6 different leagues. We participate in gay and non-gay leagues and tournaments. By doing so we try and create a bond from similarities with the non-gay sports community that allows the acceptance of our differences. Supported by more than 15 area businesses including Vanderbilt HIV Trails Unit.

Chicago, IL

Garrett Taliaferro: chicago@gayconference.org

Garrett Taliaferro, age 25, is an insurance broker at Cooney, Rikard & Curtin. For the two years, Garrett has been actively involved in Chicago's gay and lesbian community. Currently, he is a board member of the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association, the city's largest gay and lesbian athletic association serving over 2,000 members.

Garrett graduated with a degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. A four year member of the Pitt rugby team and lacrosse team. He enjoys tennis, football, volleyball, snowboarding and a variety of other sports. Garrett currently resides in Chicago.

San Francisco, CA

Ross M. Hayduk: sf1@gayconference.org

Inspired by the vision of Dr. Tom Waddell, founder of the Gay Games and the message of "Participation, Inclusion, & Personal Best" for all men and women in sports, Ross Hayduk joined Team San Francisco in preparation for the Gay Games VI. Since then, Ross has taken up four different sports with LGBT teams in the SF Bay Area (all this from a former couch potato!).

Ross attended the Sydney Games, participating in Touch Rugby and Track & Field. A member of the San Francisco Track & Field Club, Ross won a Silver Medal in Men's Hammer Throw.

As an active Team San Francisco Board member (serving since December 2000), Ross organized the Team's participation in the last two SF LGBT Pride Parades & Gay Games Opening Ceremonies, acted as Secretary for the Board in 2001, member of the communications committee 2001/2002, assisted with processing the Team's internet mail in 2002, and has worked with the consultants/directors of the new San Francisco LGBT Center to open the lines of communication for the future and continued involvement of gay sports with the Center. Ross has also assisted with Membership, Uniform, and Fundraising committees.

In addition to his duties with Team San Francisco, Ross has designed and led a 25 mile bicycle ride for the Different Spokes SF Cycling Club.

Currently, Ross is training with the SF Fog Rugby team during their pre-season and works as the club's Social & Event Coordinator.

Ross serves the GLAF as Community Outreach contact for Northern California.

Want to represent your city and help us spread the *network* in your city? Email us at info@gayconference.org 

Advisors and Concept Supporters

Eric "Gumby" Anderson, www.coachgumby.com

Coach Eric "Gumby" Anderson has a Bachelor's in Health Science, a Masters in Sport Psychology, a Masters in Sociology, and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California Irvine, where he teaches the sociology of sport, men and masculinities, small group behaviors, and men in society. He also teaches sport psychology and coaching psychology at Cal State University Long Beach. He researches issues relating to sport, gay athletes, Native American athletes, and contemporary masculinities. Gumby coached distance runners at Huntington Beach High school for 12 years before moving on to coach at Saddleback Community College for four years, and Irvine Valley College for a year. He currently works with individual athletes from weekend joggers to world class runners. In 1993 he came out of the closet as the world's first openly gay high school or collegiate coach and wrote an autobiography about the experience. Coach Gumby has authored three books: Trailblazing: America's First Openly Gay Track Coach ; Training Games: Coaching Runner's Creatively; and The Runner's Doctrine. He also serves as a Sport Psychology consultant, motivational speaker and lecturer, and he addresses homophobia and athletics as a consultant for NCAA division 1 universities. As an activist CoachGumby co-founded a chapter of GLSEN, The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educators Network in Orange County and co-founded a chapter of Front Runners Orange County. He also publishes a gay and lesbian electronic newsletter for gay youths in Southern California called The GumbyGazete. Coach Gumby lives in Southern California with his partner Grant Tyler Peterson since 1997. Together they have a dog named "Stride" love to attend theater, to travel, and occasionally to even run together.

Mike Balaban

Mike Balaban is a former investment banker who has worked primarily on European and Asian business for 20 years, most recently having worked in Japan as the head of a major security firm's Japanese equity capital markets business. Currently, he has his own strategic and financial consulting practice focused primarily on cross-border assignments involving Asian business.

Mike has participated in organized athletics since his adolescence, including high school and college football, pole vaulting at both those levels, rugby in college and afterwards, and the gay volleyball leagues, leading to a bronze medal in the latter sport at the Vancouver Gay Games in 1990. Mike "came out" when he contacted David Kopay, the only NFL player ever to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, in 1975-6 and David befriended him.

Mike is currently a member of the board (and its co-head of Development) for GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network, which strives to make the schools a safer environment in which gay and lesbian youth can receive their educations.

Mike and his boyfriend Jeff live in New York City.

Nora Beck

Nora Beck is Associate Professor of Music at Lewis & Clark College and one of the College's Faculty Athletic Representatives. Nora played basketball for Barnard College (BA English), where she was Small School Second-Team All-America her senior year, three-year team captain and held 32 of 36 school records when she graduated. Nora received her Ph.D. in musicology from Columbia University in 1993. While primarily a scholar of medieval Italian music, Prof. Beck has also published on homosexuality and music in the Gay and Lesbian Newsletter of the American Musicological Society. She was named the College's Professor of the Year in 1998. Nora writes music reviews for the Oregonian and her stories appear in Phoebe, Artisan, and The Oregon Review. Her first novel FIAMMETTA was released in April.

Nora has worked closely with the NCAA, participating on several panels, including the first-ever discussion of homosexuality in sport at the 2002 NCAA Convention, and presentations concerning the negative effects of homophobia on student-athlete welfare at the 2001 National Convention of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Recreation and Dance, and the 2000 Meeting of the Association of Faculty Athletics Representatives. She wrote an editorial that appeared in the 8/14/00 NCAA News, "Time to stop hiding gay, lesbian concerns."

She has been asked by the NCAA to organize a panel addressing the issue of homophobia and student-athlete welfare for their D I, II, and III Management Council meeting this summer.

She is a cofounder of SMIA, Sexual Minorities in Athletics.

Chris Bergland

I was born in New York City in 1966. I managed to avoid any kind of competitve sports all the way through High School and college. Although I discovered jogging in my last year at boarding school I had already chosen a college that only offered intramural sports. So, I didn't actually do any racing until 1990 -- I was 24.

My first race was the "Fifth Avenue Mile" in Manhattan. I managed to finish it in 4:17, which was good enough for third place. It was a big turning point for me. I realized that I actually could run fast and be competive so I spent the next 2 years doing as many New York Road Running races as I could. 5k's, 10K's, marathons -- you name it. After a couple years of finishing in the top five of almost every race I entered I decided I wanted to branch out, so I started doing the Big Apple Biathlon series (running/biking). I did that for a couple years and again once I had mastered that I wanted a bigger challenge.

In 1994 I decided to teach myself to swim and start doing triathlons. My first triathlon was going to be the New York City Gay Games of 1994. But the swim was cancelled due to lack of ambulance support (lucky me!) and they made the race a biathlon, something I knew how to do very well, and I smoked the course and took home the Gold medal. In 1995 I entered tons of triathlons all over the Northeast.

I did my first Ironman distance race (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) that summer in New England and took 7th place overall. By 1997 I was totally into the Ironman thing and went to Australia and Hawaii world Championships for the first time. In 1998 I wanted more of a challenge so I focused on the Double Ironman (4.8 mile swim/224 bike/ 52.4 mile run) and took 3rd place. In 1999 it was back to regular Ironman -- Lake Placid & Hawaii. 2000 was a big year -- New Zealand Ironman, Germany Ironman and Hawaii plus I won the Triple Ironman (7.2 mile swim/336 mile bike/78.6 mile run) in a record breaking non-stop 38 hours and 46 minutes. 2001 brought 3 more Ironmans -- South Africa, Denmark (with Team USA) Hawaii and I won the Triple Ironman for the second time. This year I'm planning to go to Austria, Finland, Hawaii and do the triple for the last time.

I'm fully corporate sponsored by Kiehl's Since 1851.

Nancy Boutilier

EDUCATION

M.A., English and Literature, Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury, VT, 1990. A.B., English and American Literature, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA, 1984.

ADMINISTRATOR

Athletic Director at San Francisco University High School, responsible for a coed interscholastic athletic program fielding 19 varsity teams, named Cal-Hi Sports Div V California “School of the Year” in 2002.

TEACHER

Fifteen years in high school English classrooms at Univeristy High School (San Francisco, CA), Phillips Academy (Andover, MA) and Woodmead School (Bryanston, South Africa). Have served as dorm parent, Ninth-Grade Dean, advisor to various clubs including Gay/Straight Alliance, Department Chair. Experience teaching continuing education classes through the Harvey Milk Institute (Poetry) and the American Sports Education Program (Coaching Principles).

COACH

Fifteen years as girls’ high school varsity basketball coach. Have also coached (and played!) in the San Francisco Pro-am women’s league, and worked various basketball camps. Experience coaching interscholastic softball, lacrosse, and crew as well.

WRITER

Poet: Two collections of poetry, each a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry (According to Her Contours, Black Sparrow Press, 1992 and On the Eighth Day Adam Slept Alone, Black Sparrow Press, 2000). Poems and short stories widely anthologized. Journalist/Columnist: wrote regularly for San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter (1990-99), including a bi-monthly column “Dykeotomy.” Articles has also appeared in OUT/LOOK, Deneuve/Curve, Girlfriends, Lambda Book Report, GirlJock and various other publications.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

Involved in community organizations including, Harvey Milk Institute, OUT/LOOK Foundation, Apex Gay Sports Awards, Lavendar Greens, Bay Area Independent School Gay and Lesbian Teachers’ Caucus (founding member), Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center (LYRIC), and Independent School South African Education Program.

SPEAKER

Invited to speak on issues of gender, sexual orientation, body image, self-esteem, language, coming out, education and sport by a variety of schools and organizations including the Women’s Sports Foundation, Yale Law School, Association of Women in Sports Media, the Gay Lesbian Straight Teachers and Education Network (GLSTEN) as well as various schools and school districts.

HONORS AND AWARDS

2000 Lambda Literary Award, Finalist in Poetry

2000 Triangle Publishers Award, Finalist in Poetry

1998 Algonquin Regional High School, inaugural inductee to Sports Hall of Fame

1997 Fulbright Memorial Fund, Teacher Program in Japan

1994 Gold Medal in Softball and Bronze Medal in Tennis at Unity '94 Gay Games

1994 Cable Car Award, “Outstanding Columnist”

1993 LYRIC’s Community Service Award for work with at-risk youth

1992 Lambda Literary Award, Finalist in Poetry

1992 Cable Car Award, “Outstanding Columnist”

1987 Phillips Academy, Leicester Sherrill Award for excellence in teaching

1984 Eliot House/Harvard College, John Huston Finley Prize

1984 Harvard/Radcliffe College, Mary Padget Prize for contribution to women’s athletics

1984 Harvard Women’s Basketball, Most Valuable Player

1981 Radcliffe Internship/IBM’s “Women in Science” grant to work for Dr. Rose Frisch on a study of amenorrhea in women athletes

1980 Army ROTC, U.S. Army Award, Cadet of the Battalion, Fort Knox, KY

Nat Brown

- Lakeside School, 1967

- University of Washington (German), 1971

- Overlake School - Taught, Middle School Director,

- Dean of Students 1972-1987

- US Biathlon (tech coach) 1979-88, 1987 World Championships (silver, 20 km), 1988 Olympics

- US Ski Team (tech coach) 1987-93, several World Championships, 1992 Olympics

- Slovenia (tech coach) 1995 & 99 World Championships, 2002 Olympics (moonlighting... )

- Swedish Service Team, German service team 2002 Olympics

Three Olympics, seven World Championships, seven Jr World Championships, serviced 1 individual medal (silver), one relay medal (bronze), serviced 3nd best US Olympic finish ever (16th) and best Slovene Olympic finish ever (11th)

Author of The Complete Guide to Cross-Country Ski Preparation (The Mountaineers Books).

Coaching local juniors.

Owner, Operator Nordic Ultratune Systems.

Jim Buzinski

Jim Buzinski is co-founder of Outsports.com. Now at the Los Angeles Times, Jim was for 10 years was the sports editor of the Long Beach Press-Telegram. He was co-chair of the Los Angeles Sports Alliance for two Gay Games. He has competed in three Gay Games, winning a silver (1990) and gold (1994) in flag football.

Dan Buzutto

Dan Bozzuto is an 18 year old high school graduate who will be attending the George Washington University this upcoming year. When he was in high school, he was captain of the school's cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track teams. All the teams met much success, and he himself was a part of a 4x400 meter relay that was ranked eighth in New England. Dan decided that he did not want to spend his entire high school career closeted. Given the opportunity to speak to the entire school, Dan wrote and delivered a speech where he came out and described the difficulties that he endured. He met much support from the entire school and especially the track team. His story was later printed in a local newspaper and spread from there.

Helen J. Carrol

Helen Carroll, Athletic Diversity Specialist, joined NCLR in August of 2001 as a consultant to establish the Homophobia in Sport Project. She is well known in the university sports world as an acclaimed National Championship Basketball coach from the University of North Carolina Asheville. Helen left Mills College after 12 years as an NCAA Athletic Director to devote all of her efforts to the fight against homophobia in sport. Helen is a renowned national leader for the cause, and is featured in both Dee Mosbacher’s award-winning film, Out For a Change: Addressing Homophobia in Women’s Sport, and in author Pat Griffin’s book, Strong Women, Deep Closets. She has been a dynamic speaker on panels with the NCAA, Nike, U.S. Tennis Association, The New York Times, and many others. Along with directing the NCLR initiative, Helen spends time assisting in the Women’s Sports Foundation Education Fund Project to Eliminate Homophobia in Sport.

James McCall "Shamey" Cramer

Shamey Cramer is founder/Executive Director of Los Angeles 2006, Inc., a nonprofit organization established to foster national and international sports competition that was also a bidding finalist for Gay Games VII. As a member fo the Gay & Lesbian Sports Alliance of Greater Los Angeles, Shamey is overseeing Team Los Angeles for Gay Games VI-Sydney 2002.

The youngest of nine originally from Chicago, Cramer grew up in suburban Wisconsin. He spent the summer of 1977 living on a farm in Burgundy, France as a high school exchange student with American Field Service (AFS). He began his activism in the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgendered community in 1982 as Co-founder and Co-chair for Team Los Angeles that competed at the inaugural Gay Games in San Francisco. That fall, he joined the board of Christopher Street West and founded the Festival Games, which were four sporting events held in conjunction with the annual Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Pride Festival from 1983 - 1985. The Festival Games became the first known annual sports festival hosted by the lgbt community in North America. In 1984 he worked for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and the following year, Cramer returned to Chicago and captured the title of Mr. Gay Illinois 1986.

After spending seven years working in entertainment administration in Chicago, New York and Aspen, Shamey returned to Los Angeles in 1992. He was Ceremonies Chair and a route designer for the first California AIDS Ride and was the Orange County Field Organizer for the "No on Proposition 22/No on Knight" campaign. He was producer-director for the Bruce Jenner 20th Anniversary Olympic Tribute held in Atlanta during the Centennial Olympic Games, and his screenplay, "Katie's Folly" was a finalist in the Outfest 2000 screenwriting competition.

Shamey's athletic background includes cycling, speed skating, wrestling and middle distance running. He was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1985 and a traumatic skiing accident in 1991 caused irreparable damage to his entire right leg, rendering him physically challenged. He joined the West Hollywood Aquatic water polo team in 2000 as a way to continue using sport as physical therapy and is looking forward to actually competing in the Gay Games for the first time in Sydney. His motto in life is: "Strength of character lies within the softness of the heart."

Diane S. Cutaia

Diana S.Cutaia is the owner and founder of Advance Sports Educational Services. In the last two years Cutaia has given numerous presentations and motivational talks to female athletes of all ages on topics ranging from sport specific skills to goal setting, team building and leadership.

In addition she has lectured community groups about providing positive experiences for girls involved in sport and Title IX. Recently Cutaia has lectured in High Schools in Title IX and its benefits. Cutaia also produced Coach C’s Skills ad Drills CD-ROM. The CD contains four videos that teach the fundamentals of shooting in basketball to girls’ ages 5-14years old. The CD also contains the history of Women’s Basketball and the S.T.A.R.R. goal-setting program.

Prior to Advance Sports, Cutaia was the Head women’s basketball coach at Norwalk Community College where she took the women’s basketball program to National Standing in only four years. Her Panthers finished the last three seasons ranked # 1 in the New England Region and among the top eight in the Nation. Coach Cutaia has earned regional and district Coach Of The Year awards for the past three years. An avid fan of women’s sports and passionate advocate, Cutaia joined the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1995. She credits the Foundation with her professional growth and education. Cutaia believes that when a woman enters the world of coaching she becomes an advocate and must embrace that role with passion and vigor.

She began the Fairfield County Committee on Women’s Sports in 1996, a Women’s Sports Foundation Community Action Program. Her CAP sponsored programs for National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and held an annual Health and Fitness Fair.

She believes that the time has come to give young girls not only opportunities to play, but to coach, to officiate and manage.

Gene Dermody

Gene Dermody is a former president of the Federation of Gay Games, and the current wrestling coordinator for the Sydney 2002 Gay Games. He has been an organizer, coach, and medalist in every Gay Games since 1982. He currently is one of the Federation contract negotiators for the Montreal 2006 Gay Games, and the Federation technical advisor.

Gene was born and raised in North Jersey, and is a graduate of St. Peter's Prep of Jersey City. Gene began wrestling as a 'walk-on' at New York University in 1966, and has not 'walked off' since. He was a high school chemistry/physics teacher and head wrestling coach for 13 years in northern New Jersey (Hawthorne, Paramus Catholic, and Leonia high schools), before moving to San Francisco for the first Gay Games in 1982.

He later became coach of the Golden Gate Wrestling Club (GGWC), an organization founded by several of the Gay Games founders, including 1968 Olympian Tom Waddell. Today GGWC is a San Francsico recreation program, sanctioned and charted since 1986 by USA Wrestling.

Recently, Gene has had two journalistic successes which have brought him notoriety. First was his personal remembrance of Father Mychal Judge of 9-11 NYFD fame, who was his pastor in the early 1960s. The second was a history of the Gay Games Movement published in an anthology "Out in the Castro: Desire, Promise, and Activism," which has been nominated for a 2002 Lambda Literary Award.

Gene has been a systems programmer with INDUS International of San Francisco for the past 10 years.

Robert Dover

A member of the United States Olympic Team in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000 with 3 Olympic Bronze Medals in Equestrian Dressage. Robert has been the team captain for The United States Equestrian team at all 5 games. As such, he has spent a great deal of time doing on camera interviews for many news and sports related programs. Robert has also worked on several documentaries including a PBS series prior to the Atlanta Games, as well as staring in a one-hour program on dressage for "Animal Planet."

He has been on Good Morning America, NBC Sports, and many sports programs in Europe. He has made "how to" videeos as well as being used for a video for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

Robert is fluent in German and French.

Robert has been an International Sports Ambassador for many years, making personal appearances both on TV and radio. He has commentated for many sports events and fund raisers.

Robert has been working under the tutelage of Linda Fionte Zerne at the actors studio in South Florida.

Kathleen "Kaki" Flynn

Kathleen "Kaki" Flynn began her career in sports, appropriately enough, as a ten-year old volunteering at a tennis match played by Martina Nav. Flynn also volunteered at the TPC Sawgrass, following golfing greats such as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicholas, and was a ballgirl for the now-defunct Jacksonville Tea Men professional soccer team.

Fast-forward twenty years, and Flynn has parlayed her lifelong love for sports into a successful career that spans ten years and includes internet marketing and design, public relations, events, marketing and journalism.

She has built websites for three major sports, including USA Swimming, USA Cycling, and US Speedskating, as well as the University of Florida Athletic Association.

Her public relations and journalism experience includes covering over a hundred major championship events in more than fifty sports.

Athletes she has worked with include Tiger Woods (golf), Brandi Chastain (soccer), Apolo Ohno (short track), Juli Inkster (golf), Karen Smyers (triathlon), the U.S. Women?s Softball Team, Sarah Hughes (figure skating), Jenny Thompson (swimming), Chris Witty (speedskating), and hundreds of other internationally renowned athletes.

Flynn was a featured columnist at the 2002 Olympic Games, writing the column "In Like Flynn" on athletes such as Kelly Clark (snowboarding), Ross Powers (snowboarding), and the U.S. Women's Hockey Team.

She has been on the staff for three major Games, including the Internet Marketing Team for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Her other events experience includes stints at the 2002 Women's U.S. Open (golf) for NBC, the 1999 ESPN2 Winter X-Games, the 1999 ? 2002 International Golf Tournament, and the Futures Tour.

Flynn is currently volunteering in publicity and promotions for Girlz in the Snow, a lesbian snowboarding event to be held in February 2003.

She also worked for Eurosport Soccer, where she served as a team sales account representative and traveled to soccer and lacrosse tournaments to run marketing initiatives.

She attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Journalism, and then transferred to the University of Colorado, where she graduated with a degree in Communications.

She was on the Carolina Rowing Team, and was the track and cross-country team captain in high school. She enjoys golf, snowboarding, mountain biking, soccer and rugby.

Flynn lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., with her black lab, Copper. The pair can usually be found on one of their endless searches for untracked powder and blue skies.

Dave Forbush

Dave Forbush is currently working as a field veterinarian for the Michigan Department of Agriculture. Prior to this, he worked as a veterinarian at the Detroit area horse racing tracks.

Starting in a limited way as a cross country ski racer, he created Forbush Corner, a nordic touring center, located in northern Michigan.link.

Dave still enjoys skiing, and likes to cycle, run and rollerski.

Ed Gallagher

Ed Gallagher, 45, suffered a spinal cord injury in 1985. A former college football jock at Pitt, he started writing, lecturing, acting, and hosting a TV talk show called Mister Ed's Corral. Ed speaks in schools, colleges, law enforcement agencies, and hospitals and is the author of three books. All of Ed's work is under Alive To Thrive, located in New Rochelle, NY. For details, see www.alivetothrive.org

From ESPN: Gallagher ``an offensive lineman for the University of Pittsburgh from 1977-79, jumps from a dam in 1985 12 days after his first sexual encounter with another man. He survives but is left a paraplegic. Gallagher says that before his suicide attempt, he had become unable to reconcile his image of himself as an athlete with gay urges. He later admits that the incident forced him to come to grips with his sexuality: "I was more emotionally paralyzed then, than I am physically now."

Jonathan Goler

Jonathan Goler is a Junior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working towards his B.S and M. Engr. in Computer Science. He has been swimming competitively for 10 years. Currently, Jonathan is Captain of the MIT Varsity team. As a swimmer, Jonathan constantly works on improving his swimming, winning "Most Improved" two years in a row, and is looking towards qualifying for nationals next year. Jonathan's specialties are the 50, 100 and 200 butterfly.

In addition to swimming, Jonathan also enjoys lifting, running and skiing.

Jim Graham, www.jimgraham.net

An Alabama native, Jim Graham has been eventing for close to 30 years. A member of the 1994 3-Day Team who rode at The Hague World Equestrian Games, Jim has also represented the USA at the Burghley and Rolex Kentucky CCI**** and CCI***, as well as Punchestown (Ireland), Fairhill CCI*** and Checkmate CCI***.

Jim is a US Pony Club A Graduate, an FEI “c” Judge, an AHSA “R” Judge and a Technical Delegate. He has trained with: Mark Phillips, Jimmy Wofford, Jack LeGoff, Bruce Davidson, Tad Coffin, Lars Sedarholm – The Best of the Best! All have something interesting to say and the theory blends into the making of champions.

In 1992, after narrowly missing the squad of USET horses that went to Barcelona, Jim re-grouped and with "Easter Parade", known as "Rosie" by his fans, Jim was then sponsored by Centel. This allowed them to move to England and train full time with Mark Phillips. This enabled this combination to be more competitive at the CCI**** level. While competing in England at numerous advanced horse trials and the Burghley CCI****, they were named to the Team to ride at the Hague. While "Rosie" and Jim had the ride of their career together there, Rosie was retired at the final trot up due to a pulled muscle.

This was a major disappointment as a team medal was surely lost. Back to the drawing board. More horses were bought and trained. Some were sold as they weren't scopey enough to do the CCI**** level. Others didn't have the mental focus to be pushed along. To date, Jim has several quality horses he is bringing along at various levels. (details on current horses)

Jim is not only known for his riding ability, but is also a very sought-after clinician as he conducts clinics on a regular basis throughout the USA. Jim has an ability to teach the horse and rider with his time-tested approach and theory that is, according to many of his students, "amazing". Many of the riders he sees in clinics come back to Jim time and time again.

In 1999, Jim coached the Area IV NAYRC CCI* Team to Gold in Wadsworth, Ill. Also, a combined team of Jim's Area IV CCI** riders (along with Area VI), his riders were on the CCI** Gold Medal Team. Numerous other students have gone on to the Advanced level. On the other hand, Jim enjoys teaching and training horses at ALL levels.

Pat Griffin, www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~griffin

Pat Griffin is a professor in Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She leads classes and workshops on sexism, racism, ableism, heterosexism/homophobia, and other forms of social injustice in education. Her research and writing interests focus on heterosexism and homophobia in education, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender teachers and students, and heterosexism and homophobia in athletics, with a particular interest in women's sports. Dr. Griffin has written a book entitled Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbian and Homophobia in Sports published by Human Kinetics, 1998. She is also co-editor of Teaching For Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook for Teachers and Trainers, Routledge, 1997.

For the past 20 years Dr. Griffin has led seminars on heterosexism/homophobia in sport at numerous colleges and universities as well as at coaches and athletic administrators’ association meetings around the United States and Canada. She has served as an expert consultant on homophobia and heterosexism in sport for the Women’s Sports Foundation, Out For a Change: Addressing Homophobia in Women’s Sports (an educational video), the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, the Massachusetts Department of Education, and for numerous articles in the press, on television and in periodical publications. Dr. Griffin has appeared on ESPN, HBO Real Sports, and ABC Sports Outside the Lines.

Dr. Griffin played basketball and field hockey at the University of Maryland and coached high school basketball and field hockey in Silver Spring, Maryland. She also coached swimming at the University of Massachusetts. She was a member of the U.S. Field Hockey squad in 1971. She won a bronze medal in the triathlon at Gay Games IV in 1994 and a gold medal in the hammer throw at Gay Games V in 1998. She has had short stories and first person accounts selected for publication in Sportdykes: Stories from on and Off the Field, Tomboys: Tales of Dyke Derring-Do, A Whole Other Ball Game: Women’s Literature on Women’s Sport, Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sports.

Bruce Hayes

Born March 8, 1963. Grew up in Texas and began swimming competitively at the age of six. Attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) on a full swimming scholarship. Member of the 1982 NCAA Championship Team at UCLA.

Winner of three United States Swimming national titles: 400 meter freestyle (1982); 200 meter freestyle (1983) ); 200 meter freestyle (1984). Member of 1982 U.S. World Championship Team that competed in the World Swimming Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Winner of three gold medals at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela: 200 meter freestyle, 400 meter freestyle, 4X200 meter freestyle relay.

Swam the anchor leg on the U.S. men’s 4X200 meter freestyle relay team that won a gold medal and set a world record at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Relay team was dubbed the “Grossbusters” by the press because of its narrow defeat (.04 of a second) of the West German team that included world record-holder Michael Gross (“The Albatross”). Relay team was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair with Raquel Welch in October 1984.

Winner of seven gold medals in swimming at 1990 Gay Games in Vancouver, Canada, and nine gold medals at 1994 Gay Games in New York City.

Holder of several master’s world swimming records in the 30-34 age group.

Professional: Executive Vice President, Healthcare Communications, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, New York City.

Kevin Jennings, www.glsen.org

Kevin Jennings is recognized as a leader in both the education and civil rights communities. Mr. Jennings spent a decade teaching high school history at independent schools such as the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island (1985-87) and at Concord Academy in Concord, Mass. (1987-1994), where he has also served as Chair of the History Department. In 1992 Mr. Jennings was named one of fifty "Terrific Teachers Making a Difference" by the Edward Calesa Foundation, and in 1993 he was selected as a Klingenstein Fellow by Columbia University for his outstanding leadership in independent school education. He is a frequent featured speaker at numerous public, parochial, and independent schools and colleges as well as at education conferences such as the National School Boards Association, the National Association for Multicultural Education, the National Education Association, and other organizations.

Kevin has become best known for his work to insure equal opportunity in K-12 education for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students, teachers, and families. After “coming out” in a chapel talk to the school community at Concord Academy in 1988, Mr. Jennings helped establish the nation’s first Gay-Straight Student Alliance at Concord and became a well-known spokesperson and writer on LGBT issues in schools. In 1990, he founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN, pronounced “glisten”), which brings together teachers, parents, students, and community members who are working to end anti-gay bias in K-12 schools. As the head of a then all-volunteer group in Boston, Mr. Jennings led GLSEN in its successful effort to make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against public school students and to establish a state-wide program called “Safe Schools for Gay and Lesbian Students” to combat anti-gay bias in its schools in 1993. Mr. Jennings became GLSEN’s first Executive Director in 1995, relocated its national headquarters to New York, and has led its rapid growth from an all-volunteer group to its status today as the fourth-largest LGBT civil rights organization in America. During the 2000-2001 school year, GLSEN supported programming in 47 states through offices in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. Mr. Jennings has traveled to 43 states on GLSEN’s behalf, and most recently presented at the American Council of Overseas Schools annual conference in Istanbul in March 2001 as GLSEN’s profile has now become an international one. Newsweek recognized Mr. Jennings’ leadership by naming him to its “Century Club” as one of “100 people to watch in the new century.” Mr. Jennings was also chosen by the White House to be a participant in the White House Conference on School Safety and the White House Conference on Hate Crimes. He is a frequent commentator in the national media, having appeared on ABC’s 20/20, NBC’s Dateline, and ABC’s Nightline, and is regularly quoted in print outlets such as the New York Times.

Mr. Jennings is the author of several books, including Becoming Visible: A Reader in Gay & Lesbian History for High School and College Students; One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories, a finalist for the 1995 Lambda Literary Award; and Telling Tales Out of School: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People Remember Their School Years, winner of the 1998 Lambda Literary Award. He is currently at work on an as-yet-untitled book on LGBT issues for parents to be published by Simon and Shuster in the fall of 2002. Mr. Jennings wrote and produced the historical documentary Out of the Past, which won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary.

Mr. Jennings graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, where he was chosen by his classmates to deliver the Harvard Oration at the 1985 Commencement. He received his M.A. from Columbia University in 1994, and in 1999 received his M.B.A. from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. Mr. Jennings’ upbringing, however, was far from such elite institutions. The youngest of five children born to a Southern Baptist evangelist, Mr. Jennings grew up largely in the rural South, often below the official “poverty line.” He became the first person in his extended family of 13 aunts and uncles and nearly fifty first cousins to attend college when he entered Harvard in 1981. Mr. Jennings remains deeply involved with efforts to create change in his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where his 76-year-old mother Alice is an active volunteer with GLSEN/Winston-Salem and AIDS Care Services of Winston-Salem.

Mr. Jennings currently lives in New York with his partner and their golden retriever, Amber. In his spare time plays left wing for New York’s gay and lesbian ice hockey team, the Lions, who will compete in the fifth international Gay Games in Sydney, Australia in November, 2002.

Corey Johnson

Johnson, while not considered an elite athlete, has inspired many with his story of coming out as an openly gay high school football captain.

Jim Johnson

25% owner of the Pittsburg Pirates, GLSEN Board member and donor.

Billie Jean King

As one of the 20th century’s most respected women, Billie Jean King has long been a champion for social change and equality. King created new inroads for women in and out of sports during her legendary career and she continues to make her mark today.

King, one of the most illustrious and celebrated tennis players in history, is recognized for spearheading the women's movement in tennis and for her life-long struggle for equality in women's tennis. King empowered women and educated men when she defeated Bobby Riggs in one of the greatest moments in sports history – the Battle of the Sexes in 1973.

In 1990, Life magazine named her one of the "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century". In 1994, she ranked No. 5 on Sports Illustrated's “Top 40 Athletes” list for significantly altering or elevating sports the last four decades.

King, who resides in New York, has been heralded as an ardent defender of equal rights for all. In 1998 King started the World Team Tennis Charities which was formed to inspire all humankind in the pursuit of excellence regardless of race, gender, physical or mental challenges, appearance, or sexual orientation.

In 1998, King became the first athlete to receive the prestigious Elizabeth Blackwell Award, which is given by Hobart and William Smith College to a woman whose life exemplifies outstanding service to humanity. In February 1999 King won the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for her fight to bring equality to women's sports.

Off the court, King remains active in a number of important causes. She serves as a director on several boards including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Women’s Sports Legends, Women’s Sports Foundation, LevelEdge.com and Philip Morris Companies. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Voxxy.com.

Although her place in tennis has certainly been secured as one of the all-time greats, King remains active in the sport she loves. King, who has coached Olympic and Fed Cup teams, led the U.S. squad to the 1999 Fed Cup title. She has also done tennis commentary on HBO, CTV, ABC, CBS and NBC.

On the court, King left a lasting and indelible mark. She won a record 20 Wimbledon titles with six of them in singles (1966-67-68-72-73-75), won the U.S. Open four times (1967-71-72-74), the French Open in 1972 and the Australian Open in 1968. She was ranked No. 1 in the world five times between 1966 and 1972 and was in the Top 10 a total of 17 years (beginning in 1960.)

King is the only woman to win U.S. Open singles titles on all 4 surfaces on which it has been played (grass, clay, carpet, and hard.) She’s also one of only 8 players to hold a singles title in each of the Grand Slam events.

King has had a long and impressive career of firsts. In 1970, King was one of nine players who broke away from the tennis establishment and accepted $1 contracts from tennis promoter Gladys Heldman in Houston. The revolt lead to the formation of the Virginia Slims Tour and Women’s Tennis Association. In 1971, she was the first woman athlete to win more than $100,000 in any sport. In 1974 she became the first woman to coach a professional team with men when she served as player/coach for the Philadelphia Freedoms of World TeamTennis.

She is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the National Women's Hall of Fame. She is the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. King is the co-founder of World Team Tennis.

Bill Konigsberg

Bill Konigsberg is a sports writer/editor at ESPN.com. He was nominated for a 2001 GLAAD Media Award for his article "Sports world still a struggle for gays" (to be awarded in June 2002). The May 2001 article was his way of coming out not only to the public (he is one of an extremely small number of openly gay male sports editors in the U.S.) but also to his co-workers at ESPN, which turned out to be an extremely positive and educational event for him. He has been involved in public speaking on the issue of gays in sports numerous times since then.

Konigsberg attended Columbia University and became involved with sports after graduating in 1994, when he simulated the remainder of the strike-shortened baseball season on a computer program and wrote daily articles about it for The New York Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, and Miami Herald. He's written for The Denver Post and in 2002 will move on, leaving ESPN after three years to write for the Associated Press. An amateur athlete as well, Konigsberg played softball in the 1994 Gay Games in New York, and has played in four Gay World Series.

Dave Kopay

His book "The David Kopay Story: An extraordinary self-revelation" has long inspired gays who struggle with their sexuality. Kopay played pro football for the 49ers, Lions, Redskins, Saints and Packers from 1964-72 and came out in 1975. He still is active as a speaker and lives in Los Angeles.

Bendan Lemon

Since being appointed editor in chief of Out magazine in April 2000, Brendan Lemon has helped restore the magazine's status as a leading voice in gay journalism. Under his tenure, the magazine's circulation and newsstand sales have both seen significant gains. And the quality of Out's journalism has improved, a process recognized when the publication received a 2002 Maggie Award for Most Improved Magazine, beating out competitors with much bigger budgets. The magazine's presence in other media has also increased, sometimes as a result of stories that Lemon himself has written. For example, his column about his affair with a famous, still-closeted major league baseball player caused a media frenzy in the spring of 2001, landing Lemon on CNN, ESPN, and many other media outlets.

Even before coming to Out, Lemon -- who grew up in South Dakota and attended the University of Iowa -- had a rich and varied career in journalism. From 1989 to 1997, he was an editor at The New Yorker. He served editor in chief Robert Gottlieb as the head of the magazine's Goings On About Town section, and Tina Brown as both cultural editor and Talk of the Town Editor. In addition, he worked closely with the magazine's main photographers -- Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, and Helmut Newton.

As a writer and reporter at The New Yorker and later as a contributing editor at Interview, Lemon has spent time with dozens of newsmakers and celebrities, from Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise to Tiger Woods and Princess Diana. As a contributor to the gay newsmagazine The Advocate, Lemon wrote many features and opinion columns; among the celebrities who have come out for Advocate cover stories while his tape recorder was rolling were k. d. lang, Tom Ford, and David Geffen.

Lemon's first novel, Last Night, was recently published by Alyson. He is also the American theatre critic for the Financial Times, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times.

Ilana Lobet

Born in a territory called Gemena, where she learned wilderness survival by paddling, swimming, trekking, and biking for years through remote equatorial Africa. Her family eventually fled Zaire to Brussels, where Ilana studied the classics, Latin and Greek. There she attended Olympic- and Army-run training camps, specializing in track-and-field, swimming and diving. Ilana is also a former working resident of a kibbutz in the north of Israel and a moshav in Dahab by the Red Sea.

Ilana has extensively hiked the Ardennes, climbed and spelunk-ed her way throughout the French Alps, explored at length the Sinai -- and trekked for months alone and with expeditions through the remotest regions of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Also an accomplished long-distance cyclist, Ilana joined Rodger McFarlane in Team Urban Edge, and cross-trained with exemplary dedication for one year in preparation for Eco-Challenge Morocco 1998, and raced with Rodger
representing the USA. Ilana has since dedicated her training and competition to ultra running events at the masters' level. She will again represent the USA in the 2002 Eco-Challenge Fiji this fall fully sponsored by Subaru.

At 50, Ilana is fitter and healthier than ever, and obliterates most common notions of what a woman that age can do.

She is proprietor of the Ilana Lobet Framing studio, serving many of Manhattan's most demanding dealers, decorators, designers, and artists. She also operates an art gallery by the same name there. Ilana speaks native French and native English, as well as conversational Spanish. Ilana formerly served as a Red Cross disaster service squad leader; she is former co-chair of the 101st Street Block Association on Manhattan's legendary Upper West Side. She co-founded PACT with the 24th Precinct, a partnership with the police and community to reduce neighborhood crime. She volunteers weekly as a patient advocate at the Callen-Lorde Health Center, a low-cost, high-quality clinic serving gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered New Yorkers.

Dave Lohse

Dave Lohse, 46, is currently in his 25th year of service in the athletic communications office at the University of North Carolina. He was the assistant director of the office from 1977-90 and has served as associate director since 1990.

Lohse, a native of Griffith, Ind., graduated as valedictorian from Griffith High School in 1973. He went on to Purdue University where he was named Phi Beta Kappa while earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1977. As a undergraduate he worked three years as a student assistant in the Purdue athletic communications office.

The following fall Lohse began his professional tenure at UNC. Over the years he has won over 100 awards for his writing and publications from the College Sports Information Directors of America. Lohse's true love is Carolina's 25-sport Olympic sport program. Over the years he has primarily worked with the sports of men's and women's soccer, swimming and diving, tennis and lacrosse. He serves as the Tar Heels' public address announcer in all those sports as well as handling the day to day communications duties for women's soccer, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's fencing, men's tennis and men's lacrosse.

Lohse's life in sports is featured in the book Jocks by Connecticut author Dan Woog. Lohse has served as the press officer for diving and yachting at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, associate communications director for the 1994 Gay Games IV in New York City and as press venue chief for aquatics at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta amongst the many appointments he has received from the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Lohse's passions are progressive politics, viewing classic cinema, studying history, enjoying the Broadway stage, lifting weights, playing trivia games, vacationing in Provincetown and cheering to the bitter end for his beloved Chicago Cubs.

Donna Lopiano, website

As Executive Director of the Women’s Sports Foundation, a charitable, educational organization dedicated to increasing opportunities for girls and women in sports and fitness through education, advocacy, recognition and grants, Dr. Donna Lopiano has committed her life to helping women break through the glass ceiling in sports. The Sporting News ranked Lopiano #92 of the “100 Most Influential People in Sports” (2001) and The Sports Business Journal lists her among the “Top 10 Female Sports Executives” in the nation.

The Foundation’s educational programs have flourished under Lopiano’s leadership, increasing its educational reach through the publication and distribution of 37 publications and 15 print and TV Public Service Announcements. In 2002, the Foundation released a national branding campaign which deatured two print, one TV, and one radio Public Service Announcement. Under her guidance, three national research reports on critical issues in women’s sports have been completed and are available to the public. The research reports are: The Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Health Risks and the Teen Athlete, a study of the linkages between adolescent health and sports participation; The Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Sport and Teen Pregnancy, a study of connections between athletic participation, sexual behavior and teen pregnancy; and the Gender Equity Report Card, a study of NCAA institutions’ participation statistics, sports programs and budget allocations. Under Dr. Lopiano’s leadership, the Foundation developed www.WomensSportsFoundation.org , the number one resource for women’s sports information on the Web.

The Foundation staff has expanded from eight to 21 employees, while the internship program has grown from six interns per year to 45; increasing the number of women who are able to achieve their goal of working in the sports field. In her tenure, the annual budget has increased from $1.4 to $7.2 million and the Foundation has awarded more than $4 million in grants for youth teams, schools, coaches training, and future Olympians.

Dr. Lopiano is a highly regarded speaker and writer, focusing much of her time on issues relating to Title IX. Her dedication and effort in the pursuit of gender equity in sport are admired by many. Dr. Lopiano travels throughout the United States participating in forums, focus groups, and as a guest lecturer to educate the public on gender equity and issues facing women’s sports. She also has testified in many court cases and appeared before Congress on numerous occasions.

She currently sits on the advisory board of 30 local, regional and national organizations including the United States Olympic Committee’s Board of Trustees. Dr. Lopiano has appeared in hundreds of publications including The New York Times, Sports Law Monthly, Chronicle of Higher Education and USA Today, along with television appearances on 20/20, CBS Saturday Morning, the Today Show, Good Morning America and CNN news programs. She annually grants more than 100 media interviews.

Prior to serving at the Foundation, Lopiano was the director of intercollegiate athletics for women at the University of Texas at Austin for 17 years, serving from 1975-1992. Prior to that, she served as the assistant professor of physical education, assistant director of athletics and head coach of volleyball, softball, and basketball at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York from 1971-1975. Lopiano began her career as a teaching assistant, women's intramural director, and women's intercollegiate volleyball coach at the University of Southern California from 1969-70.

Margo R. Machen

Margo Machen was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1963. She spent most of her childhood growing up in eastern Pennsylvania on a small farm. While she was in high school her family moved to Michigan where she remained until 1998. She attended Michigan State University, where she earned varsity letters in both track and field and swimming. She excelled in the heptathalon and freestyle sprint races respectively. She was a member of the 1981 Big Ten Track and Field Champion team, and her efforts contributed to the team victory. After she completed her eligibility in varsity athletics, she turned her attention to playing rugby. Over a 14 year career as a flanker on the rugby pitch, she earned positions on the Midwest-Select-Side team 12 years consecutively and was a member of the Women's US National Rugby team 6 years. As a member of the national team she had the opportunities to represent the United States in international victories.

Margo also excelled in academia, attaining two doctoral degrees, one in Veterinary Medicine and the other Molecular Genetics. In addition she completed a residency in Large Animal Internal Medicine while working on her PhD. She currently is an Assistant Professor at Tuskegee University, School of Veterinary Medicine.

Her love for the outdoors has led her on a number of solo expeditions throughtout the United States. These expeditions have helped her to develop both survival and landnavagation skills. It was on one of these expeditions that she developed an interest in sled dog mushing, in Alaska. In the summer she can be found on just about any body of water that will support a kayak.

In the fall of 1999 she discovered the Eco Challenge on television, and decided that adventure racing was the ultimate in combining all the sports she loved. It was another year before she found the Atlanta Trailblazers Adventure Racing Club and became acquainted with Chris O'connell and Mike Ciaviatta. Since that time she has been a member of Team Anhinga and is totally hooked on the sport.

Brian Marshall

Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada.

Member of numerous age-group national teams. Attended Stanford University, 1984-89, BA/MA.

Two time Pac-10 winner, two time All-American (4th, 4th) Pac-10 Championship Meet Record of 7'6" (still holds) 1988 Olymic Team member for Canada 1991 (?), Vancouver Gay Games, Decathalon 1992-94 gay masters swimming, Ottawa.

Worked for Athletics Canada, Canada's sport governing body, 1991-94, as the Manager of the National Team Program. Attended Anderson, UCLA, 1994-96, MBA. Since worked for American Airlines (Revenue Manager), Princess Cruises (Air Planning Manager) and currently with one of the few remaining Dot Com's.

Carol Matsuzaki

Carol Matsuzaki is the Head Women's Tennis Coach and Assistant Professor of Physical Education at MIT. She has been at the helm of the Women's Tennis program at MIT for 4 years. She began her tennis career as an undergraduate at MIT, picking up the racket in a physical education class. Carol was a quick study and steadily improved, making the varsity team where she was the No. 1 singles player her senior year.

Carol has been named the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for three straight years (1999, 2000, 2001). She also steered the Engineers to their third-straight NEWMAC Conference Championship title.

Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Carol was an All-City basketball player, team MVP, scholar-athlete, and team captain of her high school team. She came to MIT in 1991 majoring in biology and literature. In addition to varsity tennis, Carol played JV quash. She captained the tennis team from 1994-1996 and was the 1993 NCAA team MVP and the NEW 8 Player of the Year in 1995.

Upon graduating in 1996, Carol became the assistant coach of the team until her appointment as head coach in the Spring of 1998.

Carol received her graduate degree in Sports Psychology from Boston University in 1997. In 1999 she guided 2 members of her team to the NCAA Championships and All-America status. In 2000 she guided the MIT team to its second ever berth in the NCAA Team Championships.

Alicia McConnell

Director of Athlete Development at the United States Olympic Committee, internationally ranked squash player, Board Member of Inside/Out Youth Services in Colorado Springs, CO.

Mike Messner, website

Michael Messner is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on sex and gender, masculinities, and sport. He has conducted several studies of gender in sports media for the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, and for Children Now. His books include Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity (1992), Paradoxes of Youth and Sport (2002), and Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports (2002). He is a past president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport.

Ryan Miller, website

Being the emerging sport, albeit Xtreme in many ways, snowboarding has its share of unique personalities that engage and keep both fellow competitors and fan’s interest. The physical demands and mental agility, the acrobatics of freestyle, to the bone bruising, shoulder to shoulder contact of boardercross, to the speed and thrill of racing, there is endless fascination and interest for everyone.

Someone who is riding swiftly into the International and Olympic spotlight is Ryan Miller. Born outside of Philadelphia, PA, he was lucky to live close enough to a ski area that at age 5, he was introduced to skiing. As he grew older, he was able to be on snow up to 7 days a week learning the critical skills and challenges of the sport. At age 10, Ryan was introduced to a snowboard for the first time and within 5 years was teaching both skiing and snowboarding at the same ski area.

Ryan’s drive and determination, in the competitive academic arena, earned him a B.A. in Economics from Usinus College in 1998. Simultaneously he remained very active in the sport; earning PSIA certifications in skiing & snowboarding, heading up several snowboard schools, and starting to compete regionally. The 1995-1996 season was his first year of regional competition, during which he finished 3rd overall in the alpine combined events and went on to USASA National Championships to earn a 12th place finish overall. The next 4 seasons would see him finish the season ranked 1st regionally and consistently within the top 20 at USASA National Championships.

In the 2000-2001 season, Ryan decided to move from the regional to the international level of competition by joining the FIS tour. Teaming up with Mike Mallon and the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Snowboard Team (USSA 2000 Coach and Team of the Year respectively), he went on to post promising results in his first season. Putting together 2 top 15 finishes, 4 top 20 finishes, and 3 top 40 finishes, he was able by the season’s end to place 2nd on the ISF US points list, and move from being unranked to 36th on the FIS US points list.

Yet there is something else that truly separates Ryan from the competition. In a time of political correctness in every facet of one’s life, Ryan personally stands out as an openly gay professional snowboarder. He takes great pride in being a dedicated and polished athlete on the slopes and a positive role model with his lifestyle off the hill. Ryan’s desire is to serve as an inspiration to young gays and lesbians, not only in competitive sports but in all walks of life; a group that does not have many peer models to pattern their lives after.

Truly it is the same spirit and energy that drives Ryan. Presenting himself as an openly gay athlete while entering the prime of his career, Ryan wishes to stand as a point of reference, particularly for gay youth, that homosexuality and athletics can successfully coexist in today’s predominantly heterosexual professional sports industries.

Ric Muooz

From the Commercial Closet (link) "Richly shot, this commercial follows real-life, openly gay athlete Ric Muooz of Los Angeles as he runs through a park. Text tells us 80 miles every week. 10 marathons every year. HIV positive." It ends with the familiar "Just do it" tagline and the well-known swoosh logo. The advertisement is the first and only commercial by a marketer so far to actually use HIV/AIDS as a theme. Nike could have easily been criticized for insensitively using the disease to sell sneakers. Instead, it was widely acclaimed. But no other marketer has dared try this territory again."

I am indeed, still running. That's always the first question I get when someone hasn't seen me in a while, "Still running?" At the time the HIV Runner ad appeared in Feb. '95, I had run just over 70 marathons. That total has now grown to 131, the most recent of which was April's Boston Marathon (a race I've completed for 11 consecutive years). I've also graduated to the longer distances, i.e., distances longer than the marathon's standard distance of 26.2 miles. I've managed just six of those, the distances thus far being 50 miles (three times), 56 miles (twice) and my longest race to-date, 62 miles, that came in the fall of 99.

Of all the ads they've produced, it's been very clear to me over the years that the HIV Runner ad is one Nike is especially proud of. The ad went out of circulation a few months after its intial airing and went on to be aired in Great Britain and Japan after the U.S. run ended.

Michael Muska

Athletics Director, Oberlin Colleg.

Dave Pallone, www.davepallone.com

Dave worked for 18 years as a professional umpire, 10 of which were with the National Baseball League. As the third youngest umpire in baseball history, Dave demonstrated courage, professionalism and the ability to stand in the middle of adversity through many of baseball's high profile and controversial events.

He is the author of the 1990 New York Time's best-selling autobiography, Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball, which offers a revealing look at baseball through the eyes of a gay man. Dave has given over 700 interviews for television, radio and print media. He has been a frequent guest on "Larry King Live," and has appeared on "The Phil Donahue Show," "The Today Show," "CBS Morning," "Charles Grodin," "The Geraldo Rivera Show," "The Tom Snyder Show," and several others. Dave hosted his own sports radio talk show in Boston, Massachusetts, and has also contributed to USA Today. Dave has been a keynote speaker at conferences, diversity trainer on sexual orientation for corporations, and has brought his work on sexual orientation sensitivity to many university and college campuses.

Making history on October 11, 1995, Dave and tennis great Martina Navratilova appeared on stage together for a candid conversation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It was the first time that two prominent, openly gay people in professional sports appeared on stage. Featured in the August 18, 1998 issue of the Advocate Magazine, Dave is called "a legend" in the sporting arena; Dave was also featured in the December, 1998 ESPN documentary "Homophobia in Sports". Dave has been selected by GENRE Magazine as one of the 100 men of the century. Dave was recently featured in the August 2000 issue of the Catholic Digest. Dave was recently featured on ESPN's Outside the Lines, and was a recent guest on BBC Radio.

Through his diversity work with corporations, universities, colleges, a variety of organizations and the general public nationwide, Dave has made a significant contribution to society by educating and enlightening people in the reality of sexual orientation. He sheds light on this not-so-openly-discussed topic that demands immediate attention in the workplace and on campus.

David Plummer, website

David Plummer is Associate Professor in Public and Community Health at the University of New England in Australia. He is a medical specialist in infectious diseases (FRCPA), sexual health (FACSHP) and health sociology (PhD). He has diverse research interests which focus on public health, community health, and sexuality, gender and health.

David has published a range of books chapters and papers. He has a special interest in bullying and the impact of homophobia among young men and boys - particularly in sports, peer groups and at school. He has written a book on the subject titled "One of the Boys - masculinity, homophobia and modern manhood" published by Haworth Press, New York in1999.

He is a member of the peak ministerial advisory body, the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis and Related Diseases. He sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Centre for HIV Social Research. He is a member of the Indigenous Sexual Health Advisory Committee in the Commonwealth Department of Health. He has been involved in a range of international health projects and was a member of the International Health Advisory Committee for AusAID in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.

Laurie Priest

Laurie Priest is currently the Chair of Physical Education and Director of Athletics at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. Prior to coming to Mount Holyoke in l989, Laurie served for seven years as Director of Athletics, Assistant Professor and Swimming coach at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

Priest has been active professionally on the state, regional and national level and served in l989-90 as the President of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport. She served on the NCAA Women's Committee on Committees from 1991-94 and served as its Chair in 1993-94. Priest also served from 1993 – 96 on the Executive Council of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. She has most recently served (1996-2000) on the Executive Board of the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA) and currently serves on the Board of Governors for the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

She has published numerous articles and is a frequent presenter at conferences. In the spring of l991, she was awarded the Mabel Lee Award from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and in 1992 was inducted into the Northeast New Agenda Hall of Fame. In 1997, she received the Massachusetts Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Merit Award for outstanding leadership in women's athletics.

In recent years, she has focused much of her outside professional work towards combating homophobia in intercollegiate athletics. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and has published articles on this important social justice issue.

She received her B.S. in Physical Education in 1977 from the College of Wooster (Ohio), and her M.S. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Maryland-College Park.

When Laurie is not at Mount Holyoke, you will find her hiking with her two black labs, riding her motorcycle or sea kayaking the islands of Maine.

Jim Provenzano, sportscomplex.org and www.myrmidude.com

Known to San Francisco readers since 1996 for his Sports Complex column in the Bay Area Reporter (www.sportscomplex.org), Jim Provenzano has written hundreds of interviews with GLBT athletes from around the world, ranging from former Olympians to recreational seniors. His goal is to reclaim athletics as a safe space for all people. Recent articles include dozens of stories for several web sites and publications about athletes from around the world who participated in Gay Games VI in Sydney, Australia. Provenzano medaled in wrestling at Gay Games V.

Jim Provenzano's debut novel, PINS, about gay high school wrestlers, has become an acclaimed hit, called "a full-fledged miracle of writing." His commissioned stage adaptation of PINS had its world premiere in fall 2002 at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre Center. PINS will be translated into German in 2003.(www.myrmidude.com)

Provenzano's short fiction has been published in sixteen anthologies. A former theatre and dance performer, he received a BFA in Dance from Ohio State University, an M.A. in English from San Francisco State University, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey and Pennsylvania state arts councils, for theatre, dance, music and video work.

Ryan Quinn

Born: Anchorage, Alaska 6-10-1981.

Lived in Palmer, Alaska all of my life until college. While in high school at Colony High I did both cross-country skiing and running. At state championship competitions my best places were 2nd (5 times) for skiing and 3rd for running. Skiing was the main sport I focused on starting at the begining of high school and from 1996-2000 I skied for the Alaska team at the US Junior National Championships. My best finish was my last Jr National race, a 10k freestyle in Jackson, NH, which I won.

I graduated from Colony High School in 1999 and that fall came to Salt Lake City and the University of Utah to study business and compete for the University's ski team. My college skiing career has seen gradual improvement since my freshman year. It was a big step to come from racing in high school and always being first or second place to racing the college circut where the top guys are in their mid-20s and from Europe and Scandinavia. But that forces you learn a lot and I've improved from top-20 finishes my freshman year to top-10 results this last season. At NCAAs in early march I was 7th in the 10k classic race.

I have one year of racing eligibility left at Utah, but I'll probably have to take an extra semester to finish my Business Administration degree. After college I'm planning on continuing to race and train to try for the 2006 Olympics in Italy.

I came out to my team a year ago (spring 2001). I recieved an amazingly positive response from the team and, since then, others in the skiing community. I've never really been interested in activism because my sexuality has not been a big deal, but since my experince w/ coming out in my sport and interactions I've had with the gay community and the athletic community I think there is room for more awareness in sport. I think gay athletes have unique situations being in a very competitve (and often homophobic) environment, while having mostly straight friends. It makes it difficult to balance a social/dating life with athletics and I know I usually feel more out of place in a group of gay friends than in a group of straight athletes.

Lowell Selvin,website

Lowell Selvin

president and chief executive officer

PlanetOut Partners, Inc.

As president and CEO of PlanetOut Partners, Inc., Lowell Selvin raised the largest amount of capital ever for a gay and lesbian identified business, led a successful merger between two rival powerhouses, and emerged from the dot-com fallout of 2001 with a successful global media, products, and services company serving more than 6 million unique visitors every month.

PlanetOut Partner?s world class investors include JP Morgan Partners, AOL, the Mayfield Fund, IDG Ventures, the NY Times and Yahoo!. In 2001, Lowell led the merger of the Gay.com Network and PlanetOut.com, quickly integrating the properties into one of the largest online services of any kind in the world. He now champions the Company?s dual missions: first, serving the unique needs of the global gay and lesbian community and, second, building economic value by providing an international gateway to the GLBT community for Fortune 500 partners. PlanetOut Partners offers full-service online portals in five languages with offices in the U.S., Europe and Latin America.

Lowell has twenty years of deep, varied experience in rapid growth, start-up and turnaround business management and consulting, from start-ups to the Fortune 500. His clients as board- and executive-level market and business strategist included Johnson & Johnson, Hilton, MGM, Earle M. Jorgensen Steel and others. In the early 1980s through a high-tech start-up eventually sold to Equifax, Lowell developed innovative, award-winning information and product tracking systems for Levi Strauss, Nike, Reebok, Chrysler, and other Fortune 500 companies.

He co-founded and served as executive vice president and board director for Degree Baby Products, which gained 5% U.S. market share in four years and was successfully acquired by Johnson & Johnson. He has served as chairman and CEO for the direct sales company, Arbonne International, and as a practice director and firm-wide leader for Andersen Business Consulting in the entertainment, hospitality, and multi-media industries. He developed and co-wrote the firm?s Global Best Practices in Strategic Planning and in Marketing and Sales Strategies.

Lowell is active in the Young Presidents Organization and is a founding member of its first Gay and Lesbian Focus Forum. He is involved in numerous charitable causes, including serving as a long-time member of the Board of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, the largest agency of its kind in the world. He founded the Arbonne Children's Trust and helped to found Congregation Kol Ami in Los Angeles. He serves on the Advisory Boards of Wendy's Hope and the San Francisco LGBT Center, and on the Capital Development Committee for the Human Rights Campaign.

Lowell has been featured in Fortune magazine, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, Business Week, Advertising Age and numerous other media, both as the leader of PlanetOut Partners and as a broader authority on business practices.

Lowell is an avid distance cyclist, mountain biker, martial artist and fly fisherman. He is also a fitness and nutrition expert. Lowell competed at the high school level in track, soccer and swimming.

Lowell lives in San Francisco, CA, with his life partner of twenty-three years, Gib Winebar.

Matt Skallerud,

Matthew Skallerud, founder of Hyperion Interactive Media (H.I.M.), began his career in the gay & lesbian marketplace when he founded Gay Wired, Inc. He successfully led Gay Wired into one of the premiere and dominant gay websites worldwide, translating that success to LesbiaNation.com and QTMagazine.com (gay travel site) and setting the foundation for what GSociety, Inc. is today. In 2002, he launched GaySports.com, a web site focused exclusively on gay & lesbian sports.

Mark Tewksbury,

Tewksbury was never closeted but publicly came out in 1998 and is now a sought-after speaker.

Patricia Nell Warren, A list of her books

Patricia Nell Warren was born in 1936 and grew up on a large cattle ranch near Deer Lodge, Montana. She has been writing professionally since the age of seventeen. Her literary themes most often encompass the issue of individual liberty versus authoritarian culture and oppressive religion. In over forty years, her subjects have ranged from women, Goddesses, Earth, human rights, youth, gay life, mixed-blood people and American history, as well as wild animals, eco-agriculture and commentary on current events.

Warren has published eight novels, three of which were best-selling originals with Wildcat Press. Her newest major work is The Wild Man, published in April 2001. Warren's gay novels have become essential gay literature for bookstores, libraries and university courses worldwide. Warren has also published two mainstream novels, The Last Centennial and One Is the Sun as well as four books of Ukrainian poetry.

Her most successful novel, The Front Runner, was first published by William Morrow in 1974, and has become the most popular gay love story of all time. This landmark classic about the gay relationship between an ex-Marine track coach named Harlan Brown and his Olympic athlete, Billy Sive, has sold an estimated ten million copies worldwide and appeared in many editions in nine languages (English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese and Latvian, with the Spanish-language translation forthcoming from Editorial Eagles in Spain. According to independent publishing magazine ForeWord, it is still the #1 best-selling gay book overall, and was recently picked by Book of the Month Club for its "Best of the Paperbacks" series.

Warren has also writes a deal of short nonfiction. Her articles and essays have appeared in Los Angeles Times, Reader's Digest, San Francisco Chronicle, Persimmon Hill, The Advocate, Gay & Lesbian Review, Genre, Philadelphia Gay News, Des Moines Register, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Woman, Mythosphere and numerous other publications.

Warren's activism started during the 1960s, with her efforts, while a Reader's Digest editor, to have American media recognize the individuality of Ukrainians and other ethnic groups in the USSR. In the 1970s she moved on to women's rights, where she was the plaintiffs' spokesperson for Susan Smith v. Reader's Digest, a landmark lawsuit that resulted in a class-action victory for women. As a former amateur athlete, she helped lead a group of women distance runners who forced the AAU to change discriminatory rules in the mid-70s.

Today Patricia Nell Warren focuses on free speech and issues confronting our youth. In 1996-2000 she served on the Gay and Lesbian Education Commission of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the district's Human Relations Education Commission. She is one of several dozen plaintiffs in ACLU v. Reno and ACLU v. Reno II, important lawsuits seeking to stem federal censorship of the Internet. She is also an investigative journalist who specializes in public-health issues, with a controversial monthly column in A & U, the U.S. AIDS magazine. Warren lectures nationwide, and conducts writer's workshops.

Dan Woog, www.danwoog.com

Dan Woog is a journalist, educator, soccer coach and gay activist. His articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Sports Illustrated and USA Today. He is a contributing writer for the Advocate magazine, where he has written on such topics as marriage and monogamy in the gay world, and his particular interest, the special problems of gay youth. He is the author of 11 books, including two collections of his most popular newspaper columns.

His first book on gay topics, School's Out: The Impact of Gay and Lesbian Issues on America's Schools (Alyson Publications, 1995), examined that complex and highly charged issue through the eyes of teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, librarians, parents and students, while Jocks: True Stories of America's Gay Male Athletes (Alyson, 1998) shined a light on one of society's last remaining closets: the sports locker room. His third book on gay issues, Friends And Family: True Stories of Gay America's Straight Allies, was published in 1999. It spotlights the wonderful contributions of straight allies in areas ranging from religion, politics and the military to education, HIV/AIDS and cyberspace. His most recent book, Gay Men, Straight Jobs, looks at three dozen men, in professions ranging from truck driver, firefighter and Christian bookseller to physician, news anchor and country music singer. He is also the author Dear Dan, a humorous look at hypocrisy in the gay and straight communities.

It took many years for Dan Woog to come out of his own closet, however. For years he hid his homosexuality from students, athletes, colleagues and readers. That dishonesty made him, he says, "a poor role model, a dishonest writer and a not very happy human being." His books and articles celebrate the power of openness, and the many positive aspects of gay and lesbian life.

Dan Woog speaks nationally on gay issues. He has addressed audiences as diverse as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (which named him Youth Coach of the Year in 1991), the Brown University Commencement Forum (his alma mater, during his 20th reunion), the Northeast Bar Association, the New Mexico Coalition, the Anchorage Education Association and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Dan Woog has spent nearly 25 years at Staples High School in Westport, Conn., where he works closely with the English department. He is also the assistant soccer coach at Staples, as well as a founder and faculty adviser for the Gay/Straight Alliance, the first such organization at a public school in the state of Connecticut. Dan Woog is also a founder and co-facilitator for OutSpoken, a county-wide support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning youth. In eight years, he says, over 800 young people have attended meetings. And, he points out, "That's just the tip of the iceberg."

Cyd Zeigler

Cyd was most recently a creative executive in the music programming department at Disney Channel where he oversaw concert production, music video programming, and all music programming for Disney Channel original movies and series. Before that, Cyd worked in content development at Disney Channel. While there, he oversaw over two dozen projects including the production of special promotion projects, the development of movie scripts, the post-production of movies, and special movie premiere events. He also managed a team of ten project analysts who offer feedback and opinion on movie projects; and, he manages music supervisors for original movies. He has also been the key point person for synergy between the development department and the other departments at Disney Channel. Before development, Cyd was in the Sales & Marketing Department at Disney Channel during a period of network rebranding and restructuring as the network transitioned from a premium pay channel to basic cable.

Before Disney Channel, Cyd got extensive organization building experience as the Founder and President of Theta Delta Chi Fraternity at Stanford University for which he was named Man of the Year in the International Fraternity's Western Region in 1995. While at Stanford, Cyd was also the hosting President of the 1994 California College Republicans Convention in Sacramento and served as a public speaking instructor in the Engineering Department for two years. He graduated from Stanford in 1995 with a B.A. in Communication. His greatest sports accomplishment was leading his high school track team in scoring three consecutive years. Cyd is 28 and lives in Los Angeles.

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