MassEquality announces new Executive Director

Suffredini is "attorney by trade, activist by nature."

Kara Suffredini has been named MassEquality's new Executive Director, following the March announcement that Scott Gortikov planned to step down from the position. Suffredini will begin working with the organization on Sept. 7.

"I'm an attorney by trade, but an activist by nature," Suffredini recently told Bay Windows. Named one of the "Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40" by the National LGBT Bar Association, Suffredini comes to MassEquality with 12 years of valuable experience. Most recently, the 35-year-old was the Director of Public Policy and Community Engagement for the Family Equality Council (FEC).

"We are thrilled. Kara is a talented attorney and policy maker and she has extensive experience running statewide advocacy programs," Sara Whitman, Chair of the MassEquality Board of Directors, said in a prepared statement. "She is a visionary thinker and a highly regarded LGBT movement strategist. We are confident that Kara will bring us to the next level of LGBT advocacy in Massachusetts."

Suffredini has a clear plan about what that next level entails. "My goal for MassEquality is simple," she said. "I want this organization to lay the legal, policy, community-, and coalition-building framework to ensure that every lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender person in Massachusetts is protected from cradle to grave -- with equal rights and opportunities in school, in marriage and family life, in work and in retirement."

Suffredini's vision for the future of the advocacy organization has a two-tier approach. On the local level, Suffredini plans to continue meaningful collaborations with other organizations to fulfill the promises of equality and safety for transgender people and social equality for the LGBT community as a whole, and to act as an ardent watchdog for rights violations and discrimination. On the national level, Suffredini said, it's important to define the post-marriage equality context faced by a handful of states (Massachusetts included).

"As a long-time Massachusetts resident and the Executive Director of a national, non-profit educational and advocacy organization, I can think of no one better than Kara Suffredini to lead MassEquality in this next phase of its work," Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of the Family Equality Council, said. "I look forward to working closely with MassEquality to advance equality, ensure acceptance, and promote the vibrancy of the state's LGBT community."

Suffredini said that her plans for MassEquality include expanding the organization's grassroots presence, furthering pro-equality legislation, and strengthening their policy platform. Suffredini said that what is especially critical is not necessarily "what we do, but how we do it." Her methods include collaboration with other organizations, working to ensure the election of pro-equality legislators, and lobbying on the grassroots level. Suffredini wants to emphasize a celebration of "the vibrancy of the LGBT community" and all its diverse aspects, including LGBT seniors and LGBT people of color.

"Kara is a seasoned movement leader who knows how to build diverse coalitions," said Sue Hyde, Chair of the Board of Directors of the MassEquality Education Fund, and who worked with the new Executive Director when Suffredini was a state legislative director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. "That's exactly what we need to pass the Transgender Civil Rights Bill, to eliminate LGBT health care disparities, and to make our schools safer for all students."

Suffredini, who holds a law degree from Boston College Law School, lives in Somerville with her partner.