Tony Ferraiolo
Tony is the President of the Jim Collins Foundation, a registered non-profit which he co-founded in 2008 with Dru Levasseur to honor the legacy of New Haven, CT, based therapist Jim Collins. The Foundation provides national funding for the transgender community to assist qualified recipients with financial support for gender related surgeries. Tony also serves as the Co-Chair and Treasurer of the Foundation’s Board of Directors,
He is a former Board member for the Stonewall Speakers, and volunteers with the LGBT teen mentoring organization True Colors. In 2007 Tony founded Translation, the New Haven based support group for transgender teenagers, which he facilitates. A sought after public speaker at corporations, universities, and community groups, Tony is known for infusing his talks on transitioning from female to male, with insight and humor. To contact Tony Ferraiolo about speaking engagements please call 203-376-8089.
Contact Tony: tony@jimcollinsfoundation.org
Dru is Co-Founder and Vice President of the Jim Collins Foundation, and serves as an active member of the Board. He is the Transgender Rights Attorney for Lambda Legal, the oldest national organization pursuing high-impact litigation, public education and advocacy on behalf of equality and civil rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and people with HIV. Dru is a member of the LGBT Rights Committee of the City Bar of New York and serves on its Gender Identity and Gender Expression subcommittee. He is also a member of the Legal Issues Committee of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH). Prior to moving to New York, Dru initiated and co-organized New England’s first-ever Transgender Pride March and Rally, which was attended by a thousand people in Northampton, Massachusetts in June 2008. Dru received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from the University of Massachusetts and his J.D. from Western New England College School of Law.
Liz serves as the Secretary of the Foundations Board of Directors. She graduated from the Emory University Physician Assistant Program in 1994. After graduation she was employed by the National Health Service Corp and worked at a medically underserved primary care clinic in Tennessee from 1995 to 1997. In 1997 she relocated back to Connecticut and has since been employed by both the Quinnipiac Medical Internal Medicine, LLC in Branford and the Yale New Haven Hospital Emergency Department. Liz’s professional goal is to provide dignified, compassionate and quality care to all; straight, gay or transgender. She currently resides in Northford with her partner of 13 years and their 2 daughters.
Marci Bowers is a 1986 graduate of the University of Minnesota medical school where she served as Class and Student Body President. During her 20+ years as an Obstetrician/Gynecologist she has delivered more than 2000 babies and has served as Ob/Gyn Department Chairperson at Swedish (Providence) Medical Center and as the only physician member of the Washington State Midwifery Board. She took over the Gender Reassignment Surgery Department in Trinidad, Colorado in 2003 having been hand-picked by the legendary Dr. Stanley Biber. She has now performed more than 650 primary MTF vaginoplasties and performs more than 220 gender-related surgeries annually.
Jamison Green has been an inspirational leader in the transgender movement since its inception in the early 1990s. An internationally respected author, educator, and advocate for transgender health, civil rights, and social safety, his passionate speeches have been heard around the world. He serves on the boards of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the Transgender Law & Policy Institute, Trans Youth Family Allies, and Gender Education & Advocacy. His award-winning book, Becoming a Visible Man (Vanderbilt University Press, 2004), is used as a text in numerous universities. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has been an invited lecturer in over a dozen countries, and served as a policy advisor to governments, corporations, educational institutions, professional associations and religious groups. In 1999 The Advocate named him one of “the GLBT movement’s Top 25 Best and Brightest Activists,” and in 2009 he received a Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists for his contributions to LGBT mental health. He has enjoyed a 30-year career in technical publications, and presently works as both an independent scholar and policy consultant and as a protocol analyst at the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco.
Dr. McGinn is a plastic surgeon whose formal training was tailored specifically to transgender surgery in addition to all aspects of both General and Plastic Surgery. Since her own transition in 2000, she has been an activist and speaker on many aspects of gender variant issues. She is frequently called upon by television on print media as an expert in her field. She is the founder of Papillon Gender Wellness Center; a comprehensive gender support “co-op” that includes many professional services in addition to Plastic Surgery. Dr McGinn is on staff on two hospitals in the Philadelphia area and is often called upon by Universities and Medical Schools to help train students and faculty about transgender medicine. Her focus is not only on providing plastic and reconstructive surgery, but also to promote the importance of a holistic approach to the care of gender variant individuals to include preventive medicine, research, community outreach, primary care and therapeutic support systems. Of special interest to Dr McGinn are long-term outcomes to gender confirmation surgery and contra- hormone therapy as they relate to improved quality of life and sexual health for gender variant individuals. www.DrChristineMcGinn.com
Kim Watson has recently been appointed to be the chair-person for the New York City Prevention Planning Group in New York City’s Transgender Advisory Committee. Kim has recently completed being filmed for a documentary featuring non- smokers which was directed by Stephen Israel to be used as a learning tool for New York City’s LGBT Center smoking cessation project. She is the Founder of Community Kinship Life, an up-rising 501(c) 3 foundation (State incorporated) which provides a web site with resources on an international level. Kim is also a political activist and has worked with Trans Justice , a political group created by and for Trans and Gender Non-conforming people of color, a new project of The Audre Lorde Project which is a LGBTST People of Color community organizing center in New York City. Ms. Watson sits on several boards for HIV/AIDS along with other health related issues affecting the transgender community.
Rachel Pepper is a well known community activist and writer. She and her daughter recently moved back to the west coast after spending five years in CT where Rachel was the coordinator of LGBT Studies at Yale University. Currently, Rachel has gone back to school to get her Masters in Counseling in Community Mental Health. She hopes to work with gender variant and transgender youth as a licensed MFT upon graduation. Rachel is the author of three nonfiction books and the longtime book editor of Curve magazine. She lives with her daughter Frances in Oakland and San Francisco, California.
Nancy E. Kirk, LICSW is an experienced psychotherapist and Gender Specialist practicing in Western Massachusetts. She received her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work and was trained in gender issues by Diane Ellaborn, LICSW, an advocate and pioneer in the trans community. Currently in private practice, she sees adults and adolescents, couples and families, from all ends of the gender spectrum. She also specializes in treating mood and anxiety disorders, trauma, and addictions. Her therapy style, while informed by psychodynamic theories, is primarily relational with a strengths-based practical approach. Attending conferences, trainings, and peer supervision groups, she keep up to date on the most recent developments in caring for the trans-community as well as in her other specialties.
Vanessa Pomarico is a Family Nurse Practitioner specializing in Women’s Health. She is a guest lecturer for the Yale School of Nursing and Southern Connecticut State University Nurse Practitioner programs. She is a preceptor for their nurse practitioner students. She is the past president of the Mu Beta chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International and has also served on the board for the Connecticut APRN Society. Vanessa is the co-author of two nursing pathophysiology textbooks and has presented her lectures numerous times at a variety of schools and conferences on transgender health. She currently provides a full spectrum of health care at Medical Associates of North Haven.
justin adkins is a trans activist and website developer living in Williamstown, MA. In 2008 he joined Williams College as the Queer Life Coordinator where he coordinates LGBT programing, advises students and advocates for LGBT inclusive policies on campus and beyond. justin was part of the steering committee for New England’s first-ever Transgender Pride March and Rally in June 2008, which was attended by a thousand people in Northampton, Massachusetts. He serves on the boards of the Consortium of Higher Education Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Professionals, Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition, Bennington Pride, and on the advisory of THEO’s Place. A student of the Buddhist teacher Noah Levine, justin is the founder and facilitator of the peer led meditation group, Berkshire Dharma Punx, in Williamstown.