Joel Burns MC-MPA '15 to be HGSC Annual Dinner Featured Guest
We welcome Joel as a powerful advocate for BGLTQ youth.
Joel Burns was a city councilman for District 9 in Fort Worth, Texas, and received extensive press attention in October 2010 after speaking at a council meeting about the issue of suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, as part of Dan Savage's It Gets Better campaign.
He announced on February 11, 2014, that he was resigning his seat on Fort Worth City Council to pursue a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he's currently pursuing his degree.
Joel was born at the Gladney Center for Adoption, just blocks from where he now lives. He grew up southwest of Fort Worth on the O.C. Armstrong Ranch. He attended Texas Wesleyan University, is a licensed Real Estate agent with Virginia Cook Realtors in Fort Worth, a member of the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors, and an alumnus of Leadership Fort Worth.
Prior to his election to the City Council, Joel served as the Chairman of the Fort Worth Historic and Cultural Landmark Commission and was the former Board Secretary for the Tarrant County Housing Partnership. As a council member, Joel serves on the Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, Housing and Economic Development Committee, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee, the following Tax Increment Finance District Boards: Downtown, Lancaster, Southside Medical District (Chairman) and Southwest Parkway. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau and Fort Worth South, Inc.
Joel and his partner of 18 years J.D. Angle live in the Ryan Place neighborhood of Fort Worth in a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark home they restored together.