We Do Exist: A Look into the Resilience of the Trans Community

As part of its 2022 Conversation Series, Leadership Oakland Alumni Association is bringing together leaders within the Trans and broader LGBTQ+ community for a night of discussion and a celebration of Pride.

We're honored to welcome our special guest speakers:

Blase Bova - Executive Director, Society of St. Paul of Alameda County

Joe Hawkins - CEO, Oakland LGBTQ Community Center

Janelle Luster - Program Supervisor of Trans Vision, Bay Area Community Health

Anjali Rimi - President, Parivar Bay Area

Hyder Shuja (LO 2020), Senior Manager, Debt Fund at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, will moderate this important discussion.

About our speakers:

Blase Bova has 24 years of nonprofit management experience with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Since 2013 she has served as the Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County. Previously she served as the Executive Director of the St. Vincent de Paul in Marin County, and as Director of Operations & Development at St. Vincent de Paul of Phoenix, Arizona, the largest St. Vincent de Paul in the US. Blase has a BA in Psychology and an MA in Sociology, both from the University of Missouri. She is a recipient of a National Merit Scholarship and a Virginia G. Piper Fellowship. She completed the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Joe Hawkins is a noted community organizer, LGBTQ advocate, non-profit executive, event producer, and social entrepreneur. In 2017, Joe co-founded and is the Executive Director of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, Oakland's first all inclusive, intergenerational LGBTQ service center. A military veteran, Joe’s service to the community has been recognized with numerous awards, including proclamations from five mayors of three cities and three governors in the state of California. Among his many accomplishments, Joe is a co-founder and former co-chair of Oakland Pride and was voted Grand Marshall of both the San Francisco and Oakland Pride Parades. He was one of the many early HIV/AIDS activists and appeared on numerous national talk shows to highlight the often overlooked, intersectional issues experienced by Black LGBTQ people. 

Janelle Luster (she,they) is an award-winning community organizer, transgender activist, and native of the San Francisco-Bay Area, currently serving as Program Supervisor of Trans Vision, a TLGB+ specialty clinic within Bay Area Community Health (BACH). Janelle has been organizing and advocating for the rights of transgender people, PLWHIV, and sex workers locally and nationally. Janelle currently sits on the Board of Directors for SF Pride as well as Oakland Pridefest, she is passionate about community building and bringing community together. Janelle identifies as a formerly incarcerated black transwoman, who has been impacted by the system due to the intersections of her identities. As such, she is dedicated to empowering those communities through access to services, resources, and social empowerment. 

Anjali Rimi is woman of Transgender, Southasian, Immigrant, and Hinduism experiences. With roots in India, she blossomed in Canada and belonging in the United States. Anjali is the president of America’s only Trans-led, Trans-centering South Asian Queer organization of Parivar Bay Area. Parivar Bay Area focuses on transgender Kinnar Hijra equity through health care access, economic justice and social inclusion within communities of colors while centering TGNCI+ folx of southasian diaspora. Anjali currently serves on the boards of Lyon Martin Health Services, LGBT Asylum Project and San Francisco Pride and on the Transgender Advisory Committee with the Office of Transgender Initiatives, San Francisco Mayor’s office. She holds an MBA and works as a business development executive in the wine industry with Constellation Brands.

About Leadership Oakland Alumni Association:

We are a nonprofit group comprised of alumni who are graduates of the Chamber's Leadership Oakland program. With nearly 30 cohorts completing the program since its inception in 1991, we've created a unique pathway to capitalize on the common experience and passions of those completing the LO program.  

Our mission is to connect, engage and continue to develop the alumni of Leadership Oakland to make a positive change for a more inclusive and equitable Oakland community.