Pride Foundation- LGBTQ Community Foundation

Please join the entire Board of Directors and Staff team in welcoming Kris Hermanns to the Pride Foundation family as the new Executive Director. We are completely thrilled!

Kris brings an incredible professional background steeped in education, LGBTQ rights and community-based philanthropy. She holds a deep passion for equality and Pride Foundation’s mission, a natural desire to listen and learn and a personal style that is about leadership, warmth and humor. She is a wonderful fit for Pride Foundation and it is a great honor to be able to bring her to the organization.

After an extensive and thoughtful national search – which yielded several very qualified candidates – the Board of Directors unanimously approved Kris as the new Executive Director. Kris will begin at Pride Foundation in early January 2012 – meeting our staff, regional leaders, grantees, scholars, donors and other friends throughout the Northwest. We’re truly honored to have her call Pride Foundation and the Northwest home. We can’t wait to share her with you!

“We are very excited for Kris to join the team,” says Doug Exworthy, a member of the Board of Directors and chairperson of the Executive Search Committee. “We were impressed by her community involvement and understanding of LGBTQ rights – she’s simply the perfect candidate to lead Pride Foundation into our third decade of working towards LGBTQ equality.”

For over twenty years, Kris has been a powerful advocate for the LGBTQ community and for diverse voices in philanthropy. For the last six years, Kris has been the Deputy Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) based in San Francisco. NCLR is committed to advancing the legal landscape for every LGBT person. There, she has provided strategic leadership toward core programming, stewarding supporters and ensuring smooth day-to-day operations. Before joining NCLR, Kris was Director of Special Funds at the Rhode Island Foundation where she spearheaded the creation and growth of Equity Action (a field of interest fund for LGBTQ concerns) and the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island. Prior to that, Kris worked for Brown University’s Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service, which builds partnerships between the university and local nonprofits.

I’d like to thank the Board’s Executive Search Committee and Interim Executive Director Marschel Paul for their hard work and focus to lead Pride Foundation through a timely and values-driven search process that sought-out and leveraged input from volunteers, staff, donors and partner organizations.

Most importantly, as we move to the start of our 27^th year, we are so incredibly grateful to have your trust, ongoing partnership and believe that together, we can achieve full equality for every LGBTQ person and family. That together, we will continue to build a thriving LGBTQ community across the region and nation. That together, this pathway is full of so many brilliant ideas, wishes and adventures we have yet to even imagine.

Thank you for being part of the Pride Foundation family – yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Joyce Allen is the outgoing President of Pride Foundation’s Board of Directors.