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GLAD's Staff

Since 1978, GLAD has been pursuing equal justice under law throughout New England, with enormous success. Our legal victories have changed the landscape of the law regarding sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression. But more importantly, they have made a difference in the day-to-day lives of countless individuals.

Lee Swislow
Executive Director

Lee Swislow has served as GLAD’s Executive Director since 2005. Since coming to GLAD, Lee has worked to deepen the organization’s work throughout New England by building strong coalitions with state equality organizations to achieve shared goals. She is also strengthening GLAD’s presence and impact on national work and strategy.

Lee has a long history of non-profit management, primarily in hospitals and healthcare. Before joining GLAD, she held a five-year position as Vice President of Health Services and the Executive Director for the Sidney Borum, Jr. Health Center under the umbrella of The Justice Resource Institute. While at JRI she oversaw a broad array of services to underserved populations, with a focus on adolescents and young adults, and special services for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

Prior to JRI, Lee served as the chief operating officer and chief nursing officer at the Cambridge Health Alliance where she was responsible for clinical operations and support services, and oversaw a successful merger with Somerville Hospital in 1996.

As a registered nurse, she served on the frontlines during the early years of the AIDS crisis. “AIDS has always affected a diverse population and it has a devastating impact,” says Lee, who was the head nurse of Boston City Hospital’s AIDS Clinics (1985-1989). “It’s a significant piece of my life’s work. I am seeing ways that society and the community are trying to distance themselves from AIDS - distance themselves from the pain and pretend that it is no longer a threat. But, we need to be constantly vigilant.”

Lee has an undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree from Northeastern University, as well as a Black Belt in Taekwondo.

Bay Windows April, 2005: A New Leader for GLAD

Legal

Gary Buseck
Legal Director

As Legal Director, Gary Buseck supervises GLAD’s team of attorneys and sets legal strategy. He served as GLAD’s Executive Director for six years, and also served as Legal Director for Lambda Legal from 2003-2004. Before coming to GLAD, Gary spent twenty years in private practice, and co-founded a Boston law firm focusing on the gay and lesbian community. He received both a Masters in Religious Education and a J.D. magna cum laude from Boston College. He has served as an Overseer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, as a board member of Victory House, and a member of the Institutional Review board of the Fenway Community Health Center.

Bay Windows article on Gary Buseck’s temporary departure for Lambda Legal in 2004

Mary Bonauto, Esq.
Civil Rights Project Director

Mary Bonauto has been the Civil Rights Project Director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) since 1990. Her practice concentrates on impact litigation for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, as well as people living with HIV or AIDS. She has litigated widely in the state and federal courts and agencies of the six New England states since 1990 on issues of employment discrimination, custody, free speech and civil rights. In 1999, she and two Vermont co-counsel won a ruling that same-sex couples are entitled to all of the benefits and protections of civil marriage in the case of Baker v. State of Vermont. This ruling prompted the Vermont legislature to enact the nation’s first “civil union” law for same-sex couples. She was lead counsel in Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, which resulted in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declaring that prohibiting civil marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional.

Mary is a graduate of Hamilton College and Northeastern University School of Law. She serves as a Vice Chair of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee of the IRR Section of the ABA.

New York Times Magazine May 2004: Toward a More Perfect Union
Mary Bonauto featured in The Advocate, December 2004
The Boston Globe Magazine‘s People of the Year, December 2004

Bennett Klein, Esq.
Senior Attorney and AIDS Law Project Director

Ben Klein is a Senior Attorney and has been the AIDS Law Project Director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) since 1994. Ben has litigated cases in state and federal trial and appellate courts establishing legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and people living with HIV. He was counsel in Kerrigan & Mock v. Department of Public Health, GLAD’s 2008 victory in the Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage is unconstitutional.

Ben was lead counsel in Bragdon v. Abbottt the first HIV discrimination case to be heard by the United States Supreme Court. The case involved a Bangor, Maine dentist who had a written policy of refusing to treat any patient who had tested positive for HIV. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 1998 established nationwide protection against discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act for all people with HIV. Ben also won a decision before the Massachusetts Division of Medical Assistance Board of Appeals in 2001 ensuring equal access to liver transplants for HIV-positive individuals under the Commonwealth’s MassHealth program.

He is a 1982 graduate of Oberlin College and a 1987 graduate of Boston University School of Law. Prior to joining GLAD, Ben was a litigation associate at the Boston law firms of Kotin, Crabtree & Strong (1990 - 1994) and Gaston & Snow (1987 - 1990). He has been involved in several Boston-area community organizations, including as a “buddy” for the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, a Board member of the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association and a founding member of the Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth (BAGLY).

Read more about the 2008 Connecticut marriage equality victory

Read about Ben Klein’s U.S. Supreme Court Win in The New York Times, June, 1998

Jennifer Levi, Esq.
Transgender Rights Project Director

Jennifer L. Levi is one of our nation’s leading experts on transgender legal issues. During the ten years Jennifer has been with GLAD, she was lead counsel in a number of precedent setting cases establishing basic rights for transgender people. These cases include: Doe v. Yunits, in which Jennifer represented a transgender student denied the right to attend school because of the clothing she wore; Rosa v. Park West Bank, which established key protections for transgender people under federal law; Beger v. DMA, which resulted in a reversal of Division of Medical Assistance’s refusal to cover breast surgery for a transgender woman, among many others. Jennifer was also co-counsel in the case of Goodridge v. Dep’t Public Health which established the right of same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts.

Jennifer is a Professor of Law at Western New England College. She serves on the Legal Committee of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and is a founding member of both the Transgender Law & Policy Institute and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.

Jennifer is a graduate of Wellesley College (1985) and the University of Chicago Law School (1992). She has also taught law at the Chicago-Kent Law School and is a former law clerk for Judge Michael Boudin at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Jennifer Levi interviewed in Tapestry Magazine in 2005

Nima Eshghi, Esq.
Staff Attorney

Nima Eshghi joined GLAD’s legal staff in 2006.  She is a member of the DOMA team as well as co-coordinator of GLAD’s Youth Initiative.  Additionally, she works on a wide variety of matters including in the areas of family law, schools, and access to health insurance and other employment-related benefits.

Before GLAD, Nima was the Director of Professional Development at Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge.  Prior to that, she represented families living with HIV/AIDS as staff attorney and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Legal Services Center. Nima began her legal career as a law clerk to Chief Justice Herbert P. Wilkins of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and has also has worked as a litigation associate at Foley Hoag.

Nima served on GLAD’s Board of Directors from 2004-2006. She has a B.A. from Smith College, a Masters in political science from the University of Washington, and a JD from Northeastern University School of Law.

Karen Loewy, Esq.
Staff Attorney

Karen L. Loewy joined the GLAD staff in 2001. She works on a broad variety of cases on GLAD’s docket, from successfully resolving the first case under New Hampshire’s prohibition against sexual orientation discrimination in public accommodations, to helping secure parental rights for a lesbian co-parent in Maine, to assisting a group of Connecticut educators in obtaining insurance benefits for their partners. She was also co-counsel in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, in which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that prohibiting civil marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional.

Karen is a graduate of Brandeis University and Fordham University School of Law, where she was a Stein Scholar for Public Interest Law and Ethics.

Janson Wu, Esq.
Staff Attorney

Janson Wu joined GLAD’s legal staff in May 2006.

Before coming to GLAD, Janson worked as a coordinating attorney with Tri-City Community Action Program, a multi-service, anti-poverty organization, where he provided legal services to low-income individuals. Prior to that, Janson was an associate at the litigation law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges in San Francisco. In California, he volunteered on an LGBT anti-violence hotline, for the Lawyer’s Committee of Civil Rights, and for the AIDS Legal Referral Panel. He is a member of the bars of Massachusetts and California, and serves on the board of Coro Allegro, Boston’s only LGBT chorus.

Janson is a graduate of both Harvard University and Harvard Law School.

Amanda Hainsworth
Senior Legal Assistant & Special Projects Liaison

Amanda joined GLAD in 2006. She graduated with honors from Brown University in 2005 with a B.A. in Gender Studies. Amanda’s senior honors thesis, “Policing Sexuality: The Historical Foundations of Abstinence-Only Sex Education” won the Joan W. Scott Award for outstanding thesis. Prior to coming to GLAD, Amanda was the Assistant Child Advocate at the Women’s Center of Rhode Island where she worked on program & curriculum development and volunteer program coordination. Amanda also worked as a research assistant in Brown’s Department of Sociology and served on the Rhode Island Food Stamp Advisory Committee. Amanda grew up in East Providence, Rhode Island and she enjoys longboarding and her pet coyote, Wiley.

Jamal Brown
Legal Assistant

Jamal joined GLAD in 2008, after earning BA degrees in Government and Women’s & Gender Studies from Dartmouth College. Outside of the classroom, Jamal was a tireless advocate for LGBT inclusion both in higher education and in the workplace: as president of the Gay-Straight Alliance, he challenged the maintenance of the college’s ROTC program despite the Department of Defense’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy; pioneered the college’s first-ever week-long Pride celebration; and assisted in implementing policies geared toward recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce as an intern at Credit Suisse LLC. As an alum and co-Head Agent for the Class of 2008, Jamal is expressing his continuing love for Dartmouth by fundraising for the Dartmouth College Fund through 2013.
Jamal competed on the men’s Division 1 Track & Field team, and wrote a feature article for Outsports.com detailing his experience as an openly gay athlete. He was honored in the 2008 edition of Out Magazine’s Out 100, honoring the men and women who shaped LBGT culture for the year.

Sara Carian
Legal Assistant

Sara joined GLAD in 2008.  She graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in 2008 with a degree in English.  She also studied Shakespeare and other old, dead, English authors for a year at Oxford University in England.  While at school, Sara led the English as a Second Language tutoring wing of the Writing Workshop and an improvisational comedy group.  In her last year at Williams, Sara participated in behavioral game theory and computer science research, presenting her original work on fair division solutions at the SIGGRAPH I3D conference and implementing a program to help biologists identify individual spotted salamanders.  She is very excited to be working with her heroes at GLAD.

Public Affairs & Education

Carisa Cunningham
Director of Public Affairs and Education

Carisa Cunningham is a long-time non-profit communications professional specializing in AIDS, public health, and LGBT issues. She has been director of public relations for AIDS Action Council (Washington), Wheelock College, and AIDS Action Committee (Boston), and worked in public relations for Gay Men’s Health Crisis in the 1980s. She most recently worked for the Harvard AIDS Institute in Botswana, handling communications surrounding the first HIV vaccine trial to take place in Southern Africa. She is a graduate of Oberlin College, and has taught non-profit public relations at Boston University’s College of Communications.

Bruce Bell
InfoLine Manager

Bruce Bell oversees the Legal Information Hotline, which provides information and resources to people throughout New England regarding legal issues related to their sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression. Before joining GLAD in 2004, Bruce spent 33 years at Cape Cod Community College-the first 11 as a mathematics professor and the last 22 as Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences. He is a graduate of both Clark University and Brown University. He is also a volunteer for the Gay History Project.

Ruthie BenDor
Webmaster

Ruthie joined GLAD in 2007. As webmaster, she updates, maintains, and extends the capabilities of GLAD’s website. Prior to working at GLAD, Ruthie was the IT Manager at MassEquality.

Alison Cashin
Manager of Public Education

As GLAD’s Manager of Public Education, Alison finds, researches and writes the stories of people who are - or will be - affected by GLAD’s work. GLAD uses these stories to raise public awareness about our issues, to educate our constituents, and generally to support our litigation and legislation.

Prior to GLAD, Alison worked in communications for Boston University and for YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities in New York, NY. She has worked as a freelance writer and editor, and as a civil rights advocate for prisoners.

Alison is an honors graduate of Boston University’s master’s program in Journalism. Her degree culminated in a fellowship with the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria, where she researched and wrote about post-Communist Eastern European journalism. She is a 1997 graduate of Vassar College.

Alton Croker
Public Affairs Associate

Alton joined GLAD’s staff in the summer of 2008.  He earned BA degrees in Religion and English Literature from Wright State University in Dayton, OH in 2006, and an MA in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire, specializing in International Relations and Political Theory.  His master’s thesis, “Peace on G-d’s Terms: The Ideological Project of Christian Zionism,” examined the organization and mobilization of Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian communities as an interest group coalition.  Alton’s LGBTQ activism includes serving as Director of Diversity Affairs for WSU Student Government and co-founding UNH Stonewall Grads.  Alton loves football, especially the Florida A&M Rattlers, the Ohio State University Buckeyes, and the Cleveland Browns – GO BROWNS!

Noreen Giga
Bilingual Outreach Educator

Noreen joined GLAD in August 2007. As GLAD’s Outreach Educator, she responds to InfoLine calls from Spanish speakers and those with HIV-related concerns and questions. Additionally, she participates in outreach programs with LGBT and HIV service organizations throughout Massachusetts and the surrounding area. Noreen graduated from Emory University with a BA in Spanish and International Studies.

Amanda Johnston
Web and Publications Manager

Prior to joining GLAD in March 2007, Amanda served for six years as the Managing Director of The Boston Jewish Film Festival, where she oversaw all print and electronic communications. She first discovered the power of the internet in the mid-90s through her work with the Austin, Texas-based grassroots media training center Women’s Access to Electronic Resources, and through her work designing the first website for the Feminist Bookstore Network. Amanda is a performer and Board Member with the dance company Big Moves Boston, a former Board Member of Women in Film & Video/New England, and has coordinated the Boston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts since 2005. She holds a Masters Degree in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Development

Janet Lawn
Director of Development

Janet Lawn joined the GLAD staff in February 2002 as Director of Development. Working from a vision of strengthening GLAD’s capacity for success, Janet seeks to involve a broad array of GLAD’s many donors and constituents in understanding and supporting our work. Janet oversees individual, corporate, foundation and special event fundraising, as well as publications and outreach and development of new supporters. Janet has a strong background in non-profit development and management including positions at The Horizons Initiative, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, RESOLVE and the Office for Children. She holds a BA from Binghamton University and a Graduate Certificate from Tufts University.

Brianna Boggs
Development Officer, Equal Justice Council

As Development Officer, Brianna raises money through foundation and individual support.  She connects GLAD’s community of supporters to our groundbreaking work, helping them to accomplish their goals for equality through annual and planned giving.  Brianna has a fundraising background in opera and abortion access and holds a degree in Women’s Studies from the Ohio State University. She joined the GLAD staff in 2005. 

Beth Grierson
Manager of Development Operations

As Manager of Development Operations, Beth is primarily responsible for direct mail, list and database management. She also oversees and coordinates information technology within the department. Ms. Grierson holds a Masters Degree from Boston College, and for the past eight years has been involved in running “Wilderness Heals,” a fundraising hike for the Elizabeth Stone House. She joined GLAD in 1998.

Melanie Larsen
Development Assistant

Melanie first got involved with GLAD when she served as the Special Events intern during the summer of 2006. After graduating from Colby College in May 2008, Melanie re-joined GLAD’s development team. Melanie graduated from Colby with a Government major and an Italian Studies minor.

Marie Longo
Associate Director of Development

Marie joined GLADs development team in 2005, bringing 20 years of revenue-generating experience from a variety of nonprofit and for-profit environments. As Associate Director, she is responsible for growing the number of mid-level donors, and for setting overall strategy for special events, direct mail and day-to-day operations. Prior to joining GLAD, she was Director of Annual Programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and before that, Deputy Director of the Federal Club at the Human Rights Campaign. She has also held marketing, sales and strategic planning positions within the hotel, technology and real estate industries. Marie earned her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her masters degree in arts management from The American University.

Robbie Samuels
Special Events Manager

Working with the rest of the development department to keep our major donors invested in and informed about GLAD’s work, Robbie utilizes his extensive event planning experience to improve upon GLAD’s successful annual events. His background, prior to joining the staff in June 2005, includes organizing on the grassroots, regional and national levels with positions at OUT IN LI, Empire State Pride Agenda, Sustainable Long Island, Fenway Community Health, AIDS Action Committee, The Task Force and The Theater Offensive. His other passions include being a strong advocate for building an anti-racist LGBT movement, his work with the National Organization for Men Against Sexism’s Boston chapter and educating about trans experiences as an openly trans staff member. He holds a BA and an MSW from SUNY Stony Brook.

Molly Shangraw
Database Coordinator

Molly graduated from St. Lawrence University with a BA in Anthropology and Global Studies in 2004. Prior to joining GLAD in 2007 she ran a successful campaign for a Massachusetts State Representative and organized for marriage equality in Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Jacob Barela
Special Events Assistant

Originally from Southern Idaho, Jacob first came to GLAD as an intern during the summer of 2008. He is currently a 3rd year student at Emerson College with a major in Political Communication and a minor in Women’s & Gender Studies. Jacob is highly involved with the Multicultural Student Affairs office at Emerson, where he works to educate campus student organizations on diversity issues.  He is thrilled to be at GLAD and plans to continue working within the Queer community after graduation.

Laura Hill
Development Assistant

Laura joined GLAD in 2008 after graduating from Wellesley College. She left that fall to begin her Ph.D. in English and American Literature at Brandeis University, where she still attends. Her academic interests include twentieth-century American literature, gender studies, and disability studies. After leaving GLAD, she stayed on as a volunteer. She began work again as a part-time development assistant this May, helping with database-related tasks. Laura is very excited to be back on board.

Administration

Eva Boyce
Chief Financial Officer

Eva has worked part-time as GLAD’s Chief Financial Officer since 2005. She has over 25 years of combined experience in public accounting and non-profit financial management, with organizations including Mass Housing Partnership Fund, Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts and Touche Ross & Company (currently Delloite & Touche). Eva enjoys working with people from a variety of backgrounds, and is committed to sharing her financial and technical knowledge. She holds an Accounting degree from Boston College School of Management, 1977.

As President of ENB Financial Management, Eva provides financial services and training to small businesses and non-profits. Current & past clients include: Multicultural AIDS Coalition; AIDS Action Committee; JRI Health - Management Assistance Program, and U Mass Boston - Small Business Development Center.

Eva is a member of the National Association of Black Accountants and has served on the Boards of Elizabeth Stone House, Victory Programs, and Casa Myrna Vasquez. She loves music, art, and dancing and is an excellent cook, specializing in barbecue.

Marcos Carreño
Operations Manager

As GLAD’s Operations Manager, Marcos manages information technology, human resources, and office administration for the organization.

Marcos joined GLAD as a volunteer in December 2003 and became a full time staff member in June 2004. He has both a Bachelors and Masters in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Carol Marton
Business Manager

Carol has been working as GLAD’s part-time Bookkeeper for more years than she can keep track of, and came on part-time staff as the Business Manager in 2006. She handles payroll, benefits, accounts payable and manages GLAD’s bank accounts, along with a variety of other work in the fiscal department.

In her other life, she is a musician.