Funders for LGBTQ Issues is excited to announce the newest members of its board and leadership. At Funding Forward 2025, we celebrated our outgoing Chair, Cynthia Renfro. As Cynthia shared from the Funding Forward stage, it was a monumental term to have both Funders for LGBTQ Issues President and Board Chair be Black queer women to usher the organization into a new strategic plan in 2024. Their shared leadership was more than symbolic—it was transformational, setting a new standard for representation, equity, and bold action in the philanthropic sector.

As we turn the page, we’re not slowing down—we’re continuing to break barriers, expand our reach, and lead with purpose and empathy in collaboration with the new executive committee.

Join us in congratulating Jonathan Jayes-Greene, Incoming Chair, and Glo Ross, Incoming Secretary, on their new roles. We look forward to their new term, alongside Paulina Helm-Hernandez, Vice Chair, and Karen Appelbaum, Treasurer, as well as the incoming Executive Committee at-Large members, Ana Conner and Katie Carter.

In these critical times, we are thankful to have dedicated movement leaders, philanthropy changemakers, and an inspiring group of experts as an extension of our team. We thank our board for their service to date and their continued service. We’re also excited to welcome Lisa Owens, Hyams Foundation and Zev Lowe, Tikkun Olam Foundation as new members, bringing in their expertise in the philanthropy field and beyond. 

Our work wouldn’t be possible without the continued support of our outgoing members, Judy Yu, Desiree Flores, and Kelli King Jackson. We wish the best of luck as they transition from the board.

Learn more about our new board members and executive committee by reading their bios below, and follow our updates on our social media channels.

CHAIR
Jonathan Jayes-Green (any pronouns)

Democracy Fellow, Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance & Innovation; Founder & Principal, Transcendent Futures

VICE CHAIR
Paulina Helm-Hernandez (she/her/hers)

Program Officer, US Southeast, Foundation for a Just Society

Paulina is a queer artist, trainer, political organizer, and strategist from Veracrúz, Mexico, who has made the US South her home for more than two decades. For eleven years, she was the co-director of Southerners on New Ground, a social justice advocacy organization supporting LGBTQ people in the US South. Prior to that, she coordinated the Southern regional youth activism program at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Paulina has a background in farmworker and immigrant/refugee rights organizing, anti-violence work, and gender and sexual liberation work that centers people most affected by poverty, war, and racism. Paulina is a founding member of Mijente and Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective, and is always exploring ways to deepen political unity with people and institutions willing to demand and organize for collective liberation.

SECRETARY
Glo Ross (any pronouns)

Program Officer for the US Social Justice program at the Arcus Foundation

Glo currently serves as the program officer for the US Social Justice program at the Arcus Foundation. Glo lives in Atlanta, GA (unceded Muscogee Creek land), where they have organized around issues of community safety and police accountability. In previous roles, Glo has supported participatory grantmaking at the Trans Justice Funding Project and the Sex Worker Giving Circle at the Third Wave Fund. Glo has also supported community-based organizations in capacity building and campaign strategy development as an independent consultant and served as a lead organizer at FIERCE, building power among LGBTQ youth of color in New York City.

TREASURER
Karen Appelbaum (she/her/hers)

Operations Director, Northwest Area Foundation

Karen has been at the Northwest Area Foundation since 2008. As the Operations Director, she leads the Foundation’s office management and information technology departments. She oversees policies, processes, and procedures and directs all activities associated with the Foundation’s facilities management, emergency preparedness, business continuity planning, information governance program, and technology systems improvement initiatives.
She has held many operations-related roles in her career spanning the non-profit, corporate, and higher education sectors.

In her spare time, Karen volunteers weekly for a non-profit in the Twin Cities that prepares and delivers free, nutritious meals to individuals living with life-threatening illnesses. She also enjoys spending time in nature, walking her black Labrador retrievers, bicycling, and tackling Sudoku puzzles. She and her spouse have two daughters.

Executive Committee at Large Member
Katie Carter (she/her/hers)

CEO of Pride Foundation

Katie has spent nearly the past two decades working within social change organizations and philanthropy, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+, racial, and gender justice. Originally from the Midwest, she moved to Portland, Oregon in 2008 to contribute her passion for social change with her skills in organizational development, fundraising, communications, and strategy.

Katie relocated to Seattle in 2019 to become the CEO of Pride Foundation after being on staff for 5 years. In her role as CEO, Katie supports the foundation’s efforts by building community and institutional partnerships, developing creative communications strategies, and mobilizing resources to affect change in the Northwest. Prior to her current role, Katie was the Director of Strategic Priorities and before that the Regional Philanthropy Officer in Oregon. She currently serves as the Vice President for the Grantmakers of Oregon and SW Washington Board, joined the Board of Funders for LGBTQ+ Issues in 2024, and serves on the Community Foundation Committee at Philanthropy Northwest. In all of her work, she actively engages in transforming philanthropy to be regenerative and ultimately in service of social justice movements.

Executive Committee at Large Member
Ana Conner (they/he/she)

Director of Culture, Operations, and Finance at Emergent Fund

Ana is a longtime organizer, resource mobilizer, and philanthropic leader with over a decade of experience in fundraising, organizational development, strategic communications, and executive leadership in social justice philanthropy. They are the Director of Culture, Operations, and Finance at Emergent Fund. Before Emergent Fund, they were Co-Director at Third Wave Fund, where they spent half a decade resourcing and supporting youth-led, intersectional gender justice activism and organizing. They have also worked at Borealis Philanthropy and Astraea Foundation. Ana is currently the Board Chair for the Transgender Law Center and Board Secretary of the Hope Steven Community Garden and their HDFC Cooperative.

Lisa Owens (she/her/hers)

Executive Director at the Hyams Foundation 

Lisa joined the Hyams Foundation as the Executive Director in January 2021. Hyams supports Massachusetts-based racial justice organizing groups working to build power and transform systems.  Lisa sees her role as organizing funding partners to make consistent, meaningful investments in building movement infrastructure and to increase the resources that grassroots organizing groups and coalitions have to advance their strategies.  

She brings over 30 years of experience building local grassroots organizations and supporting local and national movements.  She previously served as the Executive Director of City Life/Vida Urbana, a prominent housing justice group that organizes communities against displacement and builds collective power for systemic change. A movement builder and popular educator, Lisa has taught courses on community organizing and nonprofit management at local universities.

Zev Lowe (he/him/his)

Executive Director of Tikkun Olam Foundation, Inc.

Zev is the Executive Director of Tikkun Olam Foundation, Inc., a time-limited family foundation with a mission to improve health, justice, and equity for all individuals. They do this primarily by funding programs focusing on trans and queer liberation and reproductive justice.

Previously, as Executive Director of the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund, Zev grew the organization’s annual fundraising and grant-making from $9+ million to $17+ million. Under his leadership, the organization elevated the voices of community partners, underwent a digital transformation, and began to utilize data for informed decision-making.

Prior to that, Zev spent a decade working at the intersection of technology and international development across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

With an academic background in Computer Science, Anthropology, and Finance, Zev is happy working at the intersection of these fields, translating and bridging between them to support an organization’s mission. He enjoys bringing stakeholders together to create a shared vision that is bold yet pragmatic. He’s also skilled at the scrappy nuts-and-bolts of scaling up: rapid prototyping, testing, and learning, and then creating enduring structures, systems, and processes.