National nonprofit advancing equality for LGBTQ+ families welcomes accomplished leader, speaker and mother of twins to usher in new era in movement
New York, N.Y. – Speaker, writer, and LGBTQ+ advocate, Stacey Stevenson, has been named the new Chief Executive Officer of Family Equality, the leading national organization for LGBTQ+ families and LGBTQ+ people who wish to form families. This decision comes after a rigorous search process with consultants at Koya Leadership Partners.
Professionally, Stevenson is an experienced business leader with senior roles in Defense, Technology, and Finance. She was recently a Senior Managing Director at Charles Schwab and Co. While at Schwab, she tirelessly advocated for creating a safe and inclusive space for all in the workplace in her roles as local and national co-chair for Schwab’s Pride Employee Resource Group (ERG) and through the partnerships she established with multiple LGBTQ+ nonprofits. Family Equality is excited to further our DEI commitment with Stacey’s experience and proven leadership.
Stacey’s personal story is one of resilience that mirrors so many of the challenges that LGBTQ+ families face. She understands first-hand the adversity and trauma faced by our community. She was raised in a small Texas town where she was reminded almost daily that she would never amount to anything. As a teenager, she was pulled out of the closet and endured bullying and physical abuse leading her to drop out of school. At the age of 21, with a GED and $70.00, she decided to build a better life and move to Dallas, where she found an inclusive community, finished her education, built a career, and met her wife.
Like many LGBTQ+ couples prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality, she and her wife left their own country to marry in Canada, and when she and her wife decided to form a family, they were denied services by an adoption agency in Texas. These experiences have made her determined to create a world where every LGBTQ+ person who wants to start a family can. You can hear more about her family story in Family Equality’s Out in Texas series.
“We are thrilled to welcome Stacey’s extensive expertise to Family Equality,” says Erica Horton, Search Committee Co-Chair and Emeritus Board Chair of Family Equality. “With nearly four million LGBTQ+ millennials seeking to start or grow their families in the years ahead—and with a new Administration, Congress, and Supreme Court makeup—Stacey’s visionary leadership is exactly what is needed to usher in a new era in the movement for LGBTQ+ family equality.”
“As a country, we can no longer tolerate denying prospective parents the privilege and experience of raising a child. We can no longer justify denying a child access to parents’ love, and we can no longer rationalize denying basic safety and an affirming environment to LGBTQ+ children in the foster care system,” says Stevenson. “This is why I am honored to be joining Family Equality to elevate and empower all LGBTQ+ families and build upon the 40-year legacy of advancing lived and legal equality for LGBTQ+ families.”
“I am so excited for Stacey Stevenson to take the helm at Family Equality,” says Tom Swan, Board Chair of Family Equality. “Her success in the private sector—combined with her lived experience as a Black woman and LGBTQ+ parent of twin boys, and her passion for our mission of helping LGBTQ parents form families and advancing legal and lived equality for our families—makes her the ideal leader of Family Equality.”
Stevenson will officially join Family Equality on Wednesday, March 17.
About Family Equality
Family Equality advances legal and lived equality for LGBTQ+ families, and for those who wish to form them, through building community, changing hearts and minds, and driving policy change. Family Equality believes every LGBTQ+ person should have the right and opportunity to form and sustain a loving family, regardless of who they are or where they live. Learn more at familyequality.org.
# # #
Press Contact
Anna Libertin,
Chief Communications Officer (Interim)/
646-880-3005 ext. 157
communications@familyequality.org