Our Board of Directors

The Rustin Institute for Leadership Development is guided by a dedicated board whose experience and vision help shape our work. Rooted in Bayard Rustin’s legacy, they steward our mission with a commitment to justice, collaboration, and building a more equitable future.

  • A native Houstonian, Jackson Allers (he/him) is an Iraqi-Armenian filmmaker, radio broadcaster, podcast producer, sound designer, music journalist, DJ and community organizer since the early-1990s.

    Jackson is also the co-founder of the Houston-based grassroots internet radio station Ice House Radio {January, 2024) that has become a cultural landmark in the city.

    Jackson has spent the better part of 30-years documenting and orchestrating independent arts and culture movements wherever he's been based. That included a stint as the Chief of Radio for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (2004-2006), and 16 years in Beirut, Lebanon (2006-2022) where he was a foreign correspondent, events organizer, filmmaker, lecturer, all while producing award-winning content for the likes of VICE, Al Jazeera English, Oxford University Press, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, BBC Culture, Red Bull Music Academy, NY Times, Dublab, Radio Alhara, Movement Athens, American University of Beirut, the University of California Santa Barbara Global Studies Department, NPR, PRI. His radio documentary for BBC on the Arab hip-hop movement after the revolutions in 2011 is cited as one of the top 5 global radio documentaries on rap music.

    Jackson's co-founding of Ice House Radio represents the fulfillment of a life long dream of building a radio station in his hometown of Houston.

  • Jason Arnold (he/him) began his advocacy of the LGBTQ+ community during his college years when he since he snuck away from his hometown to drive an hour to visit Lodestar Books in Little 5 points, Birmingham, Al. He started his activism in 1991 working at the forefront of the HIV/AIDS crisis first as a volunteer and later volunteer coordinator for ASK, Inc. (AIDS Support through Knowledge) where he remained for the duration of his undergraduate degree completed in 1996.

    While in college he began working part time as a school for special needs children which would later transition in a leadership overseeing the residential program where he also worked as an advocate for clients on a state level. He has worked in the Multifamily Industry for more than 25 years, in various roles as a team leader, corporate trainer, and mentor, preparing the next generation of leaders. During his career, he has served on the boards of various statewide and regional multifamily organizations. He currently serves on his employers Inclusivity and Diversity committee.

    Jason is an LGBTQIA historian and writer working with various organizations to preserve Atlanta’s rich LGBTQ history, and celebrate queer men who identify with the Bear community via his work with Bear World Magazine, where he is a contributor. In 2022, he became involved with PFLAG Atlanta after the loss of his husband in 2020 to Acute Myeloid Leukemia, after his own year- long battle with nasopharyngeal cancer. While at PFLAG Atlanta, he has served as the co-Chair of community Outreach and Engagement, with Ann Vitale, from whom he succeeded as President in 2023. Together, they have spoken (virtually and in person) to people around North America and the world on topics such as Trans ally ship, the business and social cases for support via and data to show the significance the LGBTQ+ community plays in everyday life everywhere.

    His role as a public speaker with PFLAG, lead to his becoming a member of the Academia Society in 2025 after presenting during their Founders Day event. As a member, he serves as Parliamentarian along with co-chairing community engagement, a great passion of his. Jason is dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, and will soon begin a new project working the Women and Gender collections at Georgia State by securing the stories of every day LGBTQ+ Atlantans for their archives. He is a staunch supporter of animals, including his own pack of three and is a lover of all things in nature, hiking, plant, book, and automotive related.

  • Alexandra Stephanie Audate (she/her) is the Deputy Director of Georgia Equality. She earned a Bachelors Degree, a Masters of Laws Degree in Intercultural Human Rights and a law degree from St. Thomas University. She is licensed to practice law in the state of Florida. Prior to joining Georgia Equality, she worked as the managing attorney of the QueerMigration Law Group in Florida where she represented and supported queer and transgender immigrants.

    Her career in human rights advocacy spans over a decade and consists of legislative lobbying, policy writing, and coalition building. Prior to practicing law, she worked as a social worker providing direct service to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.

    She also worked as a community organizer and spent the last fifteen years traveling all over the United States advocating on issues related to 2LGBTQIA+rights, immigration, racial equity, police brutality, HIV/AIDS, disability rights, environmental racism and the school-to-prison pipeline. She is the author of the legal portion of the most recent edition of the Broward County Public Schools LGBTQ+ Critical Support Guide.

    Alexandra is a proud disabled immigrant from Haiti and is fluent in Haitian Creole, French, English and Spanish. During her spare time, she loves painting, going to the beach, reading and writing about Black feminist theory.

  • Kelly Banks (she/her) is a proud Black trans woman, entrepreneur, and advocate committed to uplifting marginalized voices and building community. With years of experience in both the culinary arts and community engagement, Kelly brings creativity, resilience, and leadership to everything she does. She is the founder of 2CakeGirls Bakery, a growing business known for its luxury desserts, and her work has been featured in Ebony Magazine.

    Beyond entrepreneurship, Kelly is deeply invested in advocacy. She uses her journey as a trans woman to fight stigma, promote visibility, and create safe, affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults. Her leadership extends into public speaking, mentorship, and grassroots outreach, where she focuses on empowering others to live boldly and authentically.

  • DeMarcus Beckham (he/him) is a Macon‑based organizer, historian, and co‑founder of Macon Pride, where he has helped build one of Middle Georgia’s strongest LGBTQIA+ advocacy networks. Drawing on his background in history and archives, he has led lobbying efforts for nondiscrimination protections across LGBTQ+, Black, and Brown communities, as well as statewide HIV prevention initiatives. His coalition‑building has been central to advancing the Macon Comprehensive Civil Rights Ordinance, bringing together residents, civic leaders, and statewide organizations to champion inclusive policy.  

    Beyond his LGBTQIA+ organizing, DeMarcus has founded and supported multiple community‑based queer organizations while advocating for harm‑reduction reform, workplace equity, and parental‑leave policies throughout Middle and South Georgia. His work reflects a deep commitment to justice, civic engagement, and expanding protections for marginalized communities efforts that have earned him recognition as one of Macon Magazine’s 5 Under 40 Young Leaders and the NewTown Macon Emerging Leader Award.

  • Born in Tallahassee and raised in Atlanta, Dr. L. June Bloch (she/they) is a professor, consultant, artist, and software builder. She completed her PhD at the University of Virginia in 2018 and has taught anthropology and ethnic studies in R1, liberal arts, and community college institutions.  As a postdoc at Brandeis University, she built new Native American and Indigenous Studies curriculum and programming from scratch – work she continued at Agnes Scott College and Cabrillo College. She has over fifteen years of experience conducting ethnographic, community-based, and mixed-methods research, funded through competitive federal and foundation grants and published in three of the four leading anthropology journals.  She served on Stonewall Sports–Atlanta's DEI Committee from 2023–2024, where she provided leadership in renaming the Women, Transgender, and Nonbinary division (a name since adopted nationally) and founding the affinity group structure.

    Her doctoral research grew from a critique of the gender binary in archaeology to a decade-long community-based project studying Indigenous landscapes, historical memory, and futures in the North American South. More recently, she led a team of student researchers at Agnes Scott studying coalition building in the Defend the Weelaunee Forest/Stop Cop City movement and published public-facing policy analyses of the genocidal impacts of anti-transgender legislation. Her research in critical AI studies emerged from institutional needs as a community college professor in California, where she taught two hundred students each semester in a two-person department tasked with meeting new graduation requirements in ethnic studies.

    Her first software builds were automations designed to redistribute her labor back to meaningful teaching rather than grading and behavioral management: whereas most education technology automates the most bias-prone aspects of teachers' jobs (scoring and academic integrity), her software uses contract grading to depart from authoritarian "banking" models of education that ingrain deference through external metrics of value. From there, her practice expanded to building accessibility tools for navigating schoolwork amidst prolonged trauma, a mixed-methods pipeline for processing handwritten student evaluations, and experimental approaches to integrating critical theories of power into AI infrastructure. She is particularly interested in the tension between the empowering and disempowering potential of AI, including its tendency to suppress community knowledge and how algorithmic bias surfaces in the small, open-source models that offer more accessibility and privacy for low-income communities.

  • Nehemiah D. Frank (he/him) is the founder, editor-in-chief, and publisher of The Black Wall Street Times, a Black-owned news publication based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, covering local, state, and national news. He is a founding union member of the National Parents Union, based in Boston, and serves on the advisory board of the LGBTQ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.

    A descendant of survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Frank played a pivotal role during its 2021 centennial. As both a descendant and the founder of Oklahoma’s largest Black-led news outlet, he helped elevate national awareness of the tragedy, pushing the public narrative to recognize it not as a "riot" but as a "massacre."

    Frank’s commentary and reporting have appeared in national outlets including TIME Magazine, Fortune, NBC, ABC, and MSNBC. He has delivered a TED Talk, spoken at SXSW (2022), and in 2023, addressed the United Nations General Assembly, drawing a powerful parallel between the banning of books by Black authors and the censorship that preceded the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

    That same year, Frank joined a panel at the Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard University, chaired by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. He is also the author of Greenwood 100, a written history inspired by The 1619 Project, chronicling 400 years of the Black presence in America and the Oklahoma territory.

    Frank is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and Harold Washington College.

  • Paul “Buc” Gittens (he/him) is an accomplished executive, retired United States Navy Chief Petty Officer, REALTOR®, travel broker, entrepreneur, entertainer, and community leader whose career has been defined by service, leadership, and an unwavering commitment to empowering others.

    After proudly serving more than 20 years in the United States Navy, Chief Gittens retired with a distinguished record of leadership in aviation operations, logistics, training, and personnel development. Throughout his military career, he led diverse teams, managed complex operations, and cultivated future leaders while earning multiple Navy Achievement Medals, two Navy Commendation Medals, and numerous other military honors. His lifelong dedication to service also earned him the prestigious Presidential Volunteer Service Award, presented by President Barack Obama for his extraordinary commitment to community service.

    Transitioning from military service into commercial aviation, Paul continued his passion for serving people through the airline industry, where he became known for operational excellence, customer advocacy, and safety leadership. His ability to remain calm under pressure and provide exceptional service further solidified his reputation as a trusted professional dedicated to creating positive experiences for others.

    Today, Paul serves as a REALTOR® with Keller Williams, where he specializes in helping buyers, sellers, investors, and veterans achieve their real estate goals. Combining disciplined leadership with genuine compassion, he is passionate about educating clients, building generational wealth through homeownership, and delivering exceptional service throughout every stage of the real estate journey.

    Expanding his commitment to helping others experience the world, Paul is also a professional travel broker who curates unforgettable vacations, cruises, destination celebrations, and group travel experiences. His attention to detail and personalized approach allow clients to travel with confidence while creating lifelong memories.

    Paul’s commitment to excellence extends into higher education. He holds dual Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees from Columbia Southern University, providing advanced expertise in executive leadership, organizational management, strategic planning, entrepreneurship, and business development. His academic achievements complement decades of real-world leadership experience across the military, aviation, business, and service industries.

    Beyond business, Paul has built an inspiring career as an entertainer, producer, motivational speaker, and advocate for community engagement. Performing under his nationally recognized comedy brand, “Who the Heck is Buc?”, he has entertained audiences across the United States and internationally. His unique ability to blend humor with authentic storytelling has made him a sought-after host, performer, and speaker. In 2017, he made history by hosting the first Pride celebration aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, demonstrating his enduring commitment to diversity, inclusion, and creating spaces where everyone feels seen, respected, and celebrated.

    Whether leading military personnel, advising homebuyers, planning extraordinary travel experiences, inspiring audiences through comedy, or mentoring future leaders, Paul Gittens exemplifies servant leadership in every endeavor. His career stands as a testament to resilience, integrity, innovation, and the belief that true leadership is measured not only by personal success but by the positive impact made in the lives of others.

    Paul continues to build a legacy rooted in service, education, entrepreneurship, and community—proving that leadership has no limits when purpose, passion, and excellence work together.

  • Jad-Évangelo Nasser/جاد ناصر (he/him) is a Lebanese-born Business Strategist, Educator and Filmmaker (with partial Palestinian roots and cultural intersection with Haiti) who brings 10+ years of global experience in advertising, marketing, media production and higher education for a variety of international markets (Middle East, North Africa and North America). With fluency in 5 languages (including French, Spanish, Arabic and Haitian Creole) and accolades, appearances and features with The Black Wall Street Times, Prime Video, IMDb, AdAge, Fox News 61 and Arab America, Jad-Évangelo focuses on DEIJ strategies at the core of global learning, intersectionality and cultural connections.

    While immersing himself in multiple communities and bridging cultural connections, Jad strongly amplifies stories of the world and shines light on experiences of queer-identifying folks in different countries as well as the integration of immigrant experiences in the US. He believes that the power of global narrative in queer communities are vital to understand global resilience of marginalized countries and leverage that learning into modern-day equity, justice and social impact practices in the US. He has extensive experience as a public speaker, curriculum developer, business consultant and facilitator working with NYU, Fulton County Public Arts, The Diversity Movement, FHL bank and others.

    With a MA from Parsons School of Design/The New School and an award-winning film, Once Upon a Color, he currently teaches classes and designs academic curriculums at West Virginia University, South University, Post University and University of North Texas. He also serves as a Global Inclusion expert with his own consultancy, J-E Cultural Consulting.

  • Dr. Jean Ferguson Ruffin (she/her) is Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of the Department of Leadership, Research, and School Improvement at the University of West Georgia, where she prepares educational leaders committed to organizational excellence, ethical decision-making, and meaningful systems change. Drawing on a career that spans law, public service, P–12 education, and higher education leadership, she brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to leadership development and organizational improvement.

    Before joining the University of West Georgia, Dr. Ruffin served in a variety of leadership roles across education and government, including as an attorney with Georgia Legal Services, in district-level educational leadership, and as Associate Superintendent of Schools for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. These experiences continue to inform her teaching, scholarship, and commitment to developing leaders who serve with integrity, courage, and purpose.

    Dr. Ruffin’s scholarship focuses on leadership preparation, organizational culture, ethics, and the development of educational leaders equipped to strengthen schools and communities. She is the author of scholarly work on leadership and educational practice and is recognized for building innovative graduate programs that connect research with real-world leadership challenges.

    As a member of the Rustin Institute Board of Directors, Dr. Ruffin is committed to advancing the Institute’s mission of cultivating principled leaders who strengthen communities through service, collaboration, and democratic engagement.

  • Adina "D" Russell (they/she) is a lifelong activist, visual artist, and experienced advocate hailing from Jamaica, New York, with deep familial roots in the West Indies and Latin America. D has spent the majority of their personal and professional life leading social justice initiatives and participating in movement work. The origins of their activism began when they taught foundational civic engagement elements to K-5 students in the DC public school system through the Kid Power DC program, and reinstituted Project Nur—a university chapter that hosted events and facilitated conversations focused on fostering Interfaith Dialogue between Muslim & non-Muslim communities during the height of the 2017 Muslim travel ban. 

    After relocating to Georgia in 2019, the very month Georgia's abortion ban passed into law, D became more intentionally involved in the reproductive justice movement through Women Engaged, an organization advocating for access to equitable and safe reproductive care by disseminating information on all candidates' abortion care policies in districts with low voter turnout. They worked at the ACLU of Georgia for the next 5 years coordinating their fundraising efforts while the organization led the legal battle against the six-week ban in the Georgia Supreme Court. They now sit on the board of Access Reproductive Care Southeast, an abortion fund that supports individuals seeking abortion care through funding and logistical support to ensure Southerners receive safe and compassionate reproductive care including abortion services.

    In early 2026, D founded an operations strategy firm, Russell & Co, Admin Partners that supports organizations in stabilizing and developing internal operations, focusing on human-centric workflow restructuring and long-term operations sustainability planning. D's vision is to create a future they have yet to see: one where every advocate on a mission-driven team, regardless of size or budget, is supported by strong and adaptable infrastructure - lightening workloads and enabling visionaries to recenter their focus on the work they do best. In their personal life, D is a mama to a wonderful toddler, four feline furbabies, and three chickens, alongside their lifelong partner Nolan.

  • The Rev. Dr. Mashaun D. Simon (he/him/they) is a preacher, public speaker, award-winning journalist and scholar, author, thought leader, and cancer survivor. The author of Faith Deconstruction For Dummies (Wiley Publishing), and a native of Atlanta, Georgia, he is committed to community curation and bridge building. This commitment is shaped by both personal and ministerial experience and shows up in his writing as well as his academic work. Recently, he completed the Doctor of Ministry degree program at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, where he focused his research in Black church history and culture, church hurt, and Black LGBTQ+ grief.

    He is the recipient of the Peter Gomes Award for Transformational Leadership and Service in Church, Community, and Academy from the Black Church Studies program at Candler School of Theology. He is also the recipient of the George and Sally Telford Award given by Columbia Theological Seminary to the student who shows exceptional ability for congregational leadership with an emphasis on social justice issues and vision for the church. 

    In addition to the DMin, Mashaun holds a professional writing degree from Georgia Perimeter College, a Bachelor of Science in Communications from Kennesaw State University, and a Master of Divinity from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.

  • Carlo Velayo (he/him) is an award-winning, independent producer who uses storytelling to inspire narrative change. Carlo has produced two scripted feature films, Isabel Sandoval's “Lingua Franca” (2019, Venice Days) and Jessica M. Thompson's “The Light of the Moon” (2017, SXSW Audience Award Winner). In the non-fiction space, Carlo was an Associate Producer on Cheryl Furjanic's “Back on Board: Greg Louganis” (2014) and Senior Producer on Michele Josue's Netflix Original documentary series “Happy Jail” (2019). He is collaborating again with Michele on the Oscar-qualified “Nurse Unseen” (2024) and a documentary about Jollibee, as well as Andy Warhol’s “Ladies and Gentlemen” series. As an interactive and digital media producer at the American Museum of Natural History, Carlo collaborated with First Nations and Native American communities, scientists, and curators, expanding his appreciation for interdisciplinary storytelling and the role of media in education.

    Born in the Philippines, raised in Sydney, Australia, and now based in the United States, Carlo brings a global perspective to all his collaborations. He received a Master of Liberal Arts (Cultural and Environmental Heritage) from the Australian National University and a double BA in Communication (Media Arts and Production) and in International Studies from the University of Technology, Sydney. As a recent transplant to Atlanta, Carlo is proud to be an exploratory committee member on the long-overdue Atlanta LGBTQ+ community center. He also serves on the advisory board of the LGBTQ+ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

  • Jenna Ortiz Wright (she/her/hers/ella) is an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) practitioner, coach, operational strategist, and systems guru. A management consultant focusing on EDI techniques for a better workplace, Jenna is a skillful facilitator who leads with empathy, vulnerability, and real-life experience.

    She has consulted for many organizations, big and small, private and public. These have included non-profits, tech organizations, academia, advocacy organizations, and more. She brings a wealth of experience to all her projects and understands that every organization enters its DEI journey from a unique place, and no two projects are the same.

    In addition to DEI facilitation and strategy support, Jenna is a Certified Professional Diversity Coach (CPDC). She understands that in order for intentional organizational change to be successful, organizational leaders must undergo their own individual EDI and identity journeys. Jenna is skilled and equipped to support them with her coaching practice. As a CPDC, Jenna relies on empowerment coaching techniques to dismantle barriers that prevent leaders from moving forward and empower them with the tools to be strong, empathetic leaders within their organizations and communities.

    She received her Bachelor of History, focusing on International Social Justice, from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Jenna went on to obtain her Master of Arts in International Affairs from The New School Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Organizational Development and Leadership through the Forbes School of Business and Technology at the University of Arizona Global Campus.