Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus

Jane Aceituno has been passionate about queer activism since the time she came out and was kicked out of the house for being gay. Harvard was the first place she became active. At the College, she was an officer of what was then called BGLTSA nearly every year in college and co-chaired one year. Members of the Caucus provided incredible guidance and friendship during that time. Members of the Caucus helped her plan events for the campus such as an LGBT political conference and a conference on the biological roots of sexuality and gender identity.  In addition to providing guidance, the Caucus also provided financial assistance, making it possible to fly in and board top speakers for our events.  She wants to do my part to give back to the community in the way that the Caucus did then. 
Jane has been very active in the queer community.  In addition to activism and leadership on campus, she was active in queer Democratic politics, assisting in the campaigns of a few LGBT candidates.  She carried my commitment to queer activism to the Kennedy School, where she co-chaired the LGBTQ Caucus. She then went to Boston University School of Law, where I co-chaired the Outlaw student group.
Jane deepened her involvement in community queer activism when she graduated from law school and moved to San Francisco.  She served for four years on the LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.  She served one year on the Board of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club.  She was also active in two organizations that combatted smoking in the LGBT community.  In May, she was elected to the Board of the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF), the nation's oldest and largest association of LGBT persons in the field of law.

HGSC has served an important part in my connection to Harvard since my undergraduate days. For my undergraduate thesis in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, HGSC (then HGLC) assisted in my recruitment of alumni who had been on campus during WWII for an oral histories project on queer men. My interest in questions of diversity in college kept me on campus after graduating. I worked in the Office of Student Life and the Freshman Dean's Office, collaborating in the Working Group that Dean Evelynn Hammonds convened to assess BGLTQ student life, which eventually led to the founding of the Office of BGLTQ Student Life. I continued my academic research on sexualities on college campuses at Cambridge University (U.K.) through the support of a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship completing an M.Phil. in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies. Both my work in higher education and my research have instilled a strong commitment to building inclusive policies and practices on colleges. I now serve as the Assistant Director for Assessment at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education's Center for Minority Serving Institutions, where my work focuses on diversifying the K-12 and postsecondary teaching profession, with an eye towards the intersections of sexuality, race, gender, and class. Working alongside HGSC represents an opportunity to remain connected to the vibrant community of queer students and allies at Harvard. I am committed to supporting the many ways in which students and alumnae/i continue to transform Harvard Yard into a more welcoming space for all. I believe that recognizing the overall diversity of Harvard's campus is invaluable; equally important, I believe that HGSC can continue to work to showcase the plurality of experiences within its own membership. I'm looking forward to being part of this work!
Andrés Castro Samayoa is from Merliot, El Salvador.

Bryce Gilfillian graduated from the College in 2012 with a concentration in History and was a resident of Pforzheimer House. Since graduation, he has served as a Senior Admissions Officer for Harvard College, where he has created the College's recruitment and yield programming for LGBTQ students and also works as the Director of the Admissions Alumni/ae Network, coordinating the 10,000+ person global network of interviewers. Bryce received his Ed.M in 2017 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Education Policy. He also lived as a freshman proctor in Canaday F for four years, where he served as a CARE (Consent Advocacy and Relationship Educator) specialty proctor, where he worked to make the first-year consent curriculum inclusive of queer experiences and perspectives. Additionally, he served as the Chair for the Class of 2012's Fifth Reunion.

Lily Khadjavi graduated in 1990 (Dunster House) with a degree in mathematics. After a stint at the University of Oslo, she headed west to U.C. Berkeley for her PhD. She was a vice-chair of the undergraduate group -- then the BGLSA -- while at Harvard, led the Lavender Grads at Berkeley, and helped start the Faculty Staff Gay Straight Network at Loyola Marymount University, where she is a professor in the Department of Mathematics. As the faculty advisor for the Gender Sexuality Alliance at LMU, she won the "Advisor of the Year" award in 2002. During the fight against anti-marriage propositions in California, she served on the board of the Jordan Rustin Coalition (fex.org/grantees/jordanrustin-coalition), an African-American LGBT group based in Los Angeles. She currently serves on the board of Building Diversity in Science, based in the Bay Area, with a focus on retention of women and people of color in mathematics and related fields.

She is committed to expanding the HGSC's efforts to become more supportive of all community members, especially in the wake of anti-trans measures in other states. As a New Englander transplanted to California, she is also interested in seeing how the Caucus can better engage alumni throughout the country.

Eleanor is an immunologist, finishing her postdoctoral fellowship at UMass Medical School.  She studied biochemistry at Harvard, and Biomedical Science at UCSF (PhD 2005). At Harvard, Eleanor was the co-chair of the then BGLSA spring 1993, and a Contact peer counselor fall 1994 through winter 1996. Since college, she has been involved with public health issues, both globally important infectious diseases (her PhD research was on tuberculosis) and the power of harm reduction to reduce stigma and improve health.  She has volunteered with the HIV Prevention Project needle exchange (part of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation) and the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center where she led a street outreach team. She currently volunteers with the Association of Women in Science. She is interested in online LGBTQ communities and the changing understanding of sexuality and gender identity. She grew up in New Jersey and Berkeley, California.

Jonathan Page graduated from Harvard College in 2002 with a concentration in History. Following his graduation from Yale Divinity School in 2007, Jonathan worked at Memorial Church as the Epps Fellow, a.k.a. undergraduate chaplain, from 2007 to 2010. While at Memorial Church, Jonathan worked as a proctor in Canaday A and was one of three LGBT designated proctors in the Yard. Jonathan also helped to organize the Harvard Right to Serve Tour, a protest against the now defunct "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Since leaving Memorial Church, Jonathan has taught at Groton School and served a church in Ames, Iowa where he wrote a regular column for the state-wide gay newspaper focusing on the intersection of religion and sexuality. Jonathan currently serves as the Senior Minister of First Congregational Church of Houston, Texas.

Kamille is currently the Program Manager for the FAS Office of International Affairs at Harvard. Prior to joining the International Affairs office, she worked at GSAS – first in Financial Aid, and then in the Office of the Dean. Kamille is also one half of the Unfriendly Black Hotties, a podcast about the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in higher ed and pop culture.

During her time as a student at Harvard College, Kamille was a resident of Lowell House and concentrated in the Comparative Study of Religion, focusing on Islam and the West. She was also involved in Model UN, Model Congress Asia, and various service organizations.

Tom is a lawyer, activist and community organizer. As an undergraduate, he was active in what was then BGLSA and concentrated in Social Studies, writing his Senior Thesis on ACT UP. After graduating, he spent a year in Eastern Europe studying emerging LGBTQ and AIDS movements following the fall of communism as a Pforzheimer Public Service Fellows. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, he is currently a Principal in the Los Angeles office of McKool Smith with a practice focusing on complex commercial, white collar, and international human rights litigation. His work has ranged from advising high tech startups to helping to recover nearly $1 billion for taxpayers from companies that defrauded the government. He co-founded Love Honor Cherish, the largest grassroots organization in California dedicated to achieving marriage equality, and led its efforts against Prop 8 and to put repeal of Prop 8 on the ballot. In addition, he frequently speaks on LGBTQ issues, serves on the U.C.L.A. Williams Institute Legal Council, and advises various candidates for office and elected officials.

While at Harvard, Lano was active in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, President of Winthrop House Committee, a producer for Harvard Radcliffe Summer Theatre and a researcher/writer for Let's Go (London). Currently, Lano is an attorney specializing in helping entrepreneurs succeed in their business ventures, with a focus on the entertainment industry and the fine arts, representing visual artists and others in the visual arts field. Lano focuses his practice on helping entrepreneurs create and execute the foundational documents that are key to running a successful business. Lano graduated from Loyola Law School (LLS) in Los Angeles, CA in 2012 with a JD (concentration in Tax Law). He continued at LLS to obtain an LLM in Tax Law with Honors and Distinction in January of 2014. During his time at LLS, Lano clerked at such organizations as the ACLU of Southern California, the LA City Attorney (Intellectual Property Counsel), LA County Public Defender, and the California Community Foundation. He holds an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, TX and a MA in Arts Entrepreneurship from the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU. During his time at SMU he also studied law and business abroad at Universtà Commericale Luigi Bocconi in Milan. Lano has also worked in non-profit fundraising, advertising and marketing including three years at Pallotta TeamWorks, the creator of the AIDSRide and Breast Cancer 3Day Walks, and two years at DDB Los Angeles, one of the pre-eminent advertising agencies in the country. Lano also has an A.B. (Bachelor of Arts) in Economics from Harvard College and plays an active role in the alumni community of Harvard, serving on the board of the Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus (as Co-President) and on the board of Harvardwood, the alumni community for Harvard entertainment alumni. He also volunteers for Lambda Legal, serving on the Los Angeles Leadership Committee, and serves on the board of LA Stage Alliance (the service organization for LA theater) and The Dream Makers Fund (a mentorship and job training program for youth).

Until 2015, Jim served as Senior Clinical Instructor in the Transactional Law Clinics of Harvard Law School. In that capacity, he supervised, mentored and taught Harvard Law School students as he and they provided legal services to businesses and other clients, including home buyers, community development organizations, charities and other non-profit organizations, composers and artists. Before joining the Harvard Law School clinical program, Jim was the General Counsel of Skyworks Solutions, a publicly traded semiconductor manufacturer, after many years as Senior Attorney in the legal departments of EMC and Data General Corporation (information technology companies).

Before going in-house, Jim practiced with WilmerHale and other Boston law firms, where he concentrated in real estate development and financing, zoning and environmental law, as well as general corporate practice.

Jim has served on the Wellesley Wetlands Protection Committee, as well as other boards, and has lectured and written for both Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (Chapter 1, Constitutional Limitations on the Zoning Power in The Massachusetts Zoning Manual, MCLE, 1985- 1995) and for the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium.

In college, Jim was Chief Engineer at WHRB-FM and active in college theater. In law school, Jim worked both with Harvard Voluntary Defenders and with the Greater Boston Legal Aid Society.

Warren Goldfarb, AB '69, PhD '75, is the W.B. Pearson Professor of Modern Mathematics and Mathematical Logic, in the Philosophy Department at Harvard. He is one of the founders of the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus, was an HGLC Director for many years and continues as a Director Emeritus. Additionally, Warren has been the President of The Open Gate since its inception in 1986 and is a Board member of The Gay & Lesbian Review / Worldwide. He lives in Cambridge.

Bob was a member of the HGLC Board of Directors from 1997 to 2001, and was Co-Chair of the Caucus from 1994 to 1997; he is currently a Director Emeritus of the Board and a Board Member of The Open Gate Foundation, Matthiessen Campaign Committee. He worked at Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale ) for 31 years, as a lawyer for 15 years and subsequently in Information Technology. He also co-founded FreshAddress.com and created MemDir.org . He works part time as a computer consultant, and is a multiple-prize-winning independent video producer. He lives in Cambridge .

Robyn,www.robynochs.com, has been part of the Harvard community since 1983. She retired from her work in Romance Languages and Literatures in 2009. In addition to past service on the board of HGSE, she was a co-founder of the LGBT Faculty & Staff Group, and the Trans Task Force, and was a co-facilitator of monthly LBTQ Women’s lunches for Harvard staff and faculty. Off campus, she is co-founder of theBisexual Resource Centerand theBoston Bisexual Women’s Network. She is editor of the 42-country anthology,Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World. She has taught in the field of gender and sexuality studies at Tufts University, MIT, and Johnson State College in Vermont, and she currently travels the U.S. (and beyond) speaking on bisexuality and the other middle sexualties, identity and labels, coalition building, marriage equality, and other social justice subjects. An advocate for the rights of people of ALL orientations and genders to live safely, openly and with full access and opportunity, Robyn’s work focuses on increasing awareness and understanding of complex identities, and mobilizing people to be powerful allies to one another within and across identities and social movements.

Tom has been an HGSC Board member since 1998 and is a former president of the Caucus. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Gay & Lesbian Review and in 1995 became the first openly gay Elected Director of the Harvard Alumni Association. Tom has been volunteering for Harvard for the past 35 years. Professionally, Tom is a consultant in computer games and he lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Juan Bastos, a noted portrait artist.

Rhonda has been a member of the Caucus for many years and is past-president of the Board. During her undergraduate years, Rhonda had leadership positions in several gay and lesbian organizations that have morphed into the current QSA. She is a Director of Engineering at athenahealth Inc. Rhonda also serves on the Board of The Open Gate.