Leadership - Los Angeles LGBT Center

Lorri L. Jean is nationally recognized as one of the most seasoned and effective leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights movement. OUT magazine has twice listed her as one of the 50 most powerful gay and lesbian people in the nation. In 2006, Los Angeles Magazine named her as one of the 100 most influential people in Los Angeles, and in 2014 it named her one of the ten most inspiring women in Los Angeles. Jean currently serves as CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the world's largest provider of programs and services for LGBT people.

Jean has been an activist on LGBT issues since 1979. She served as the lead plaintiff in the successful landmark lawsuit against Georgetown University to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. She also was the first openly gay or lesbian person in history to receive a top secret security clearance from the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1989, with her appointment as Deputy Regional Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), she became the highest-ranking openly gay or lesbian person in the Federal government (a distinction she held until 1993 when President Clinton appointed Roberta Achtenberg).

In 1993, Jean began her first six-year tenure at the helm of the Center (to which she returned in June 2003). She led the Center through a period of unprecedented expansion, dramatically increasing the number of clients and volunteers, the diversity and volume of services, the number of staff, and the size of the budget. She also oversaw the purchase and renovation of a $7 million facility and built the nation's first $10 million dollar LGBT organization endowment fund. During her second tenure, Jean has returned the Center to financial stability, dramatically expanded programming, and tripled the revenue budget to $97 million. She has also led the Center’s historic $40 million capital campaign to build the Anita May Rosenstein Campus, scheduled to open in early 2019.

From 2001 to 2003, Jean served as executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, leading an organizational turnaround that brought the Task Force to financial solvency and increased the annual revenues to what was then an all-time high. Among other program accomplishments, she focused the organization's political efforts at the state and local level by building a field organizing department which orchestrated the defeat of nearly all anti-LGBT ballot measures in the 2001 and 2002 election cycles.

Prior to 1993, Jean spent 10 years as an attorney with FEMA, including three years overseeing the disaster response and recovery operations of its largest region, where she was responsible for the management of a staff of 1,000 and a budget of more than $1 billion. Jean holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Science degree in communication from Arizona State University, and is a member of the bar in California and Washington, D.C. She and her wife, attorney Gina M. Calvelli, live in Hollywood and were legally married in September 2008.

Darrel Cummings works closely with senior management to ensure smooth day-to-day operations of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and holds final responsibility for the internal management of the organization. He also plays a leading role in directing the organization's external relations efforts, including its work in public policy advocacy, its participation in significant coalitions, its relationship with other community-based organizations, its private fund-raising initiatives and its efforts to obtain government funding.

Cummings has worked in non-profit organizations for nearly 3 decades and has held numerous paid and volunteer positions in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

From 1993 to 1999, he served as the deputy executive director of the Center and in that capacity served as the senior manager for all programs and related government affairs. During his tenure as deputy executive director, he oversaw the procurement of millions of dollars annually from all branches of government, the development of many new and innovative programs, and overall internal management of the Center's program and policy efforts. Cummings also provided national advocacy leadership related to the HIV/AIDS and social service needs of the LGBT community.

Before joining the Center as chief operations officer in June 2003, Cummings served for two years as deputy executive director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and previously held upper-level management positions in several organizations representing the needs and rights of low-income people, women, consumers and the LGBT community.

Bill McDermott leads the fundraising team responsible for raising nearly $12 million through special events, planned and sustained giving, membership, corporate sponsorships and more. Prior to joining the Center in January 2011, Bill served as the Director of Development for the Stonewall Community Foundation, the local LGBT Community Foundation in the New York region.

Not-for-Profit development work is Bill’s third career. He was a Roman Catholic priest in the diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis but left the church principally because of its anti-LGBT teachings and his desire to be true to himself. He was fortunate to enter the personal computer business at the ground floor in sales and marketing, first working for Tim Gill at Quark, Inc. then with Apple Computer, Inc. for 14 years.

It was after meeting Lorri L. Jean and getting a whirlwind introduction to all the services the Center offers that Bill received his job offer. He chuckles and says that he has worked for God, Steve Jobs and now Lorri and doesn’t know which was more persuasive. Bill says working at the Center has helped him capture a sense of personal inspiration similar only to what he experienced as a priest.

As a new-comer to Los Angeles, Bill looks forward to engaging and connecting with Angelenos and is already serving on an advisory committee with the Liberty Hill Foundation.

Mike Holtzman directly manages the Center’s finance, treasury, accounting, tax, grants, contracts, and risk management functions. He began his first tenure at the Center in 2007 as CFO and worked there for five years before joining Ease Entertainment as its CFO in 2013. He rejoined the Center in 2014.

Before joining the team at the world’s largest LGBT organization, Holtzman worked for five years at a publicly-traded temporary staffing company; the last two years he was CFO and Senior Vice President. He has also served as CFO for several start-up companies.

After earning his MBA from Harvard Business School, Holtzman worked in international finance at Toyota and ARCO. Prior to earning his MBA, he worked for Deloitte Haskins + Sells in the audit and tax departments. He’s a CPA (inactive status).

Jim Key is a veteran activist and marketing communications specialist responsible for all of the Center's internal and external communications, including community relations, media relations, publications, marketing and promotions. He re-joined the Center in 2004, having previously served as director of communications from 1994-1998.

Most recently Key was a vice president with Edelman, the world's largest independent public relations firm, where he developed and managed communications programs for healthcare companies. Prior to joining Edelman he was corporate communications director for VaxGen, a biotechnology company that was the first to advance an AIDS vaccine to the final stage of clinical testing. He began his career in communications as a Marine Corps journalist and public affairs specialist.

During his first stint at the Center, Key worked with local, national and international media to promote public understanding of the diverse LGBT community, heighten awareness of the issues affecting LGBT people, and promote the work and programs of the Center. He also supported the organization's public policy department by working with the press to hold political officials publicly accountable for their actions or inactions on legislative and policy issues that affected LGBT people.

Most notably, Key helped create public awareness of the growing incidence of HIV infection among gay youth by working with MTV, the major TV networks, the Los Angeles Times and other media to develop responsible stories that humanized the issue. When a White House report on youth and AIDS failed to specifically address gay youth, Key organized a news conference that resulted in national news coverage that pressured health officials to address the issue. Key was also a leader in promoting public support for same-sex marriage by publicizing the first "Freedom to Marry" day in Los Angeles, generating supportive media coverage in print and broadcast media throughout the country.

Key is a recipient of several public relations awards, including "Best Integrated Campaign - 1998" from Healthcare P.R. & Marketing News for the opening of the Center's Lambda Medical Group, "Best Newsletter" award of merit from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)—Los Angeles for the Center's Vanguard and "Best New Media" award from PRSA—San Diego for his work on behalf of Gateway computers.

Personally and professionally, Christopher Brown has been a dedicated, longtime advocate for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the LGBT community as a whole.

Professionally, Brown has more than 28 years of experience working in public health at both state and local levels of government and in the non-profit arena. Before joining the Center, he served as the assistant commissioner of the STI/HIV Division with the Chicago Department of Public Health for more than 10 years. Before moving to Chicago, he worked with the Arizona Department of Health Services (Phoenix) for seven years as the chief of the Office of HIV/STD/Hepatitis C Services. Prior to this position, he held various positions with progressive responsibilities over an 11-year period with the Pima County Health Department (Tucson) in the HIV and STI programs. Brown has bachelors’ degrees in biology and psychology and masters’ degrees in public health and business administration.

Brown has served on various government commissions, and boards of directors for local and national AIDS service organizations. He is currently a member of the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV. He is a past board member of the CAEAR Coalition, the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) and The AIDS Institute. Over the past two decades, Brown has received numerous awards for his advocacy and services to the HIV/AIDS community.

Personally, Brown has been living with HIV since 1983. He has a true understanding of the HIV epidemic and its impact on our families, communities and society as a whole.

Kristin Flickinger works closely with the Chief of Staff to ensure smooth day-to-day operations of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and provides executive oversight of the Center’s client-facing programs and AIDS LifeCycle, the Centers largest fundraising and educational event. She also leads efforts for special projects of organizational significance.

In her initial role with the Center, Flickinger spent four successful years as the Southern California Director of AIDS/LifeCycle.

Flickinger came to the Center with a varied background in law, fundraising, political organizing, production, and travel writing. She holds a J.D. from Willamette University College of Law, and a B.A. in Business from Lewis & Clark College, and is a member of the Oregon Bar.

Alan Acosta is responsible for spearheading implementation of key elements of the Center’s strategic plan. He also oversees Legal Services, Senior Services and Cultural Arts & Education.

Acosta came to the Center from Stanford University, where he served as Associate Vice President and Director of University Communications. As associate vice president, Acosta was the chief university spokesperson and oversaw the Stanford website, news and media relations, external and internal communications and video production. Acosta also served as a resident fellow at Stanford’s Chicano/Latino theme dorm, Casa Zapata, and worked closely with the senior executive staff on a wide array of strategic management and communications issues.

Prior to his tenure at Stanford, Acosta was the deputy city editor of the Los Angeles Times; during his tenure at the Times, he shared in two Pulitzer Prizes awarded to the staff for coverage of the Los Angeles riots and the Northridge earthquake. He also worked as an editor and reporter at the Orange County Register, the Dallas Times Herald and the Hartford Courant.

Acosta has taught journalism at the University of Southern California and creative nonfiction writing at Stanford. He has co-chaired the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and has served on the executive boards of numerous other organizations, including the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists' Association and Kitchen Sisters Productions. He also served on the Center’s board from 1991 to 1996.

Acosta earned a bachelor’s degree in politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and received a master’s degree in journalism, with honors, from Columbia University. He lives in Los Angeles with his longtime partner, Tom Gratz.