Leadership - Los Angeles LGBT Center

Joe joined the Los Angeles LGBT Center team in July 2021 as the Executive Director, formerly serving as CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), and before that he was chief of staff and first deputy commissioner at the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), the nation’s third largest health department.

Joe has been part of the LGBTQ movement since coming out as gay at the age of 16. With more than 25 years of movement leadership, he has proven himself to be a trusted collaborator and ally to all members of the LGBTQ community.

During Joe’s tenure at SFAF, he spearheaded the adoption of a five-year strategic plan that prioritized the expansion of health and social services and established racial justice as a fundamental principle to guide the organization’s growth. In addition, Joe grew revenue by 84 percent and significantly increased corporate and private donations to support the organization’s life-saving services.

Prior to SFAF, Joe served in leadership roles at the CDPH and managed the department's operations and strategic initiatives to advance the city's public health agenda and improve the health of Chicago residents. During his tenure, CDPH was named "Health Department of the Year" and was the first large health department to receive accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board. Prior to his work in the public sector, Joe was in executive leadership roles at Chicago's two largest private HIV services providers: as senior vice president at AIDS Foundation of Chicago and as vice president / chief program officer at Howard Brown Health Center.

In 2004, Joe was the founding director of the Broadway Youth Center (BYC) the first center of its kind for LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. In 2010, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation named him a Community Health Leader for his leadership in the creation of the BYC.

Joe earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in social work from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a focus in community development, public policy and organizational leadership. He continued his postgraduate education by completing public health independent coursework at DePaul University and is a 2016 fellow of the University of Chicago's Civic Leadership Academy.

Joe comes to the Center - and Southern California - with his husband, Bill, and their two dogs, Thor and Bolt.

 

Prior to joining the Los Angeles LGBT Center in August 2020, Ricardo DeLeon served as Chief Operating Officer of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), the nation’s largest non-profit organization that supports Hispanic Americans pursuing higher education. Prior to HSF, he spent more than 25 years with Procter & Gamble in senior finance positions. Born and raised in Texas, DeLeon received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.

He has served on a number of boards primarily of youth-serving nonprofits and spent three years as president of the Association of Latino Princeton Alumni.

As Chief Human Resources Officer for the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Sharon is responsible for managing all operations of the Human Resources Department for a staff of nearly 800 employees, including organizational development, strategic planning, recruitment/hiring, benefits administration, personnel policies and organized labor relations. She has worked for the Center since 2007 and also currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors for Christopher Street West Association/LA Pride.

Sharon’s story begins in Louisiana where she grew up in the rural South in a small, one stop light town. Right out of high school she joined the United States Navy Reserves and served with honor while attending the University of Louisiana Monroe. During this time, Sharon began a journey of self-discovery freely expressing her true gender identity. Sharon graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration/Pre-Law.

Her early career included restaurant management, legal services, academia and non-profit. In 1997, she was a City Council candidate for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, making her the first openly transgender candidate to run for public office in the state. Sharon became a national speaker on transgender rights after being terminated from Fayetteville State University, a historically black university, for being a trans-woman. Sharon was on the leading edge during her speaking engagements at colleges and universities on the importance of including gender identity and gender expression in their anti-discrimination policies.

In 2010, she co-wrote the ground-breaking recommendations for “Model Protocols – Police Interactions with Transgender Individuals” which was later adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department as policy. In 2018, Sharon Co-Chaired the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County HR Roundtable. Today, she serves on the Board of LA Pride and participates in LGBTQ competency trainings with various organizations on best practices in navigating change in the workplace, with a specialized focus on helping healthcare organizations improve delivery of services to the LGBTQ community.

Terra Russell-Slavin is Director of Policy and Community Building at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the world’s largest provider of programs and services for LGBT people. She works to advance LGBTQ rights in accordance with the Center's mission to build a world where LGBTQ people thrive as healthy, equal and complete members of society. Terra began her career at the Center in 2006, and was previously the Center’s Lead Staff Attorney in which she was responsible for overseeing the delivery of comprehensive and holistic legal services for LGBTQ survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Terra is also co-chair of the LGBT Subject Matter Committee of the National Taskforce to End Sexual and Domestic Violence and was a leader in the efforts to obtain, as part of the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the first ever non-discrimination provisions in federal law based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Terra received the Los Angeles County Betty Fisher Award for phenomenal leadership in the field of domestic violence and has been recognized by the National LGBT Bar Association as a Best Attorney Under 40. Terra is a graduate of Pitzer College and Northeastern University School of Law.

 

 

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.