Staff

Pronouns: She/They Hala is the Communications and Storytelling Officer at Funder for LGBTQ Issues. Before joining the team Hala was the Digital Communication Manager at Outright International for 4 years working on digital campaigns, content creation, and website management. Hala has over 11 years of cumulative experience in the digital and communications field at nonprofits and agencies. Before moving to New York in 2016, Hala was a lead strategist at a digital innovation agency in Dubai and Beirut and she worked on managing various accounts, growing their online presence, managing client relations, and creating marketing experiences. In addition to her communication […]

Shaena Johnson is a former GUTC Fellow and brings years of experience in philanthropy and LGBTQ movements, particularly in the U.S. South to her work as the Out in the South Project Director. Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Shaena brings over 15 years of organizing and advocacy experience as well as her extensive work in the community focusing on issues facing LGBTQ youth in the juvenile justice system. Shaena investigated conditions of confinement for incarcerated youth and supported defense attorneys with zealous advocacy and investigation for court-involved youth in New Orleans as a Youth Advocate and later the […]

Luna Moreta Avila (she/her/hers), is a community space-holder and advocate based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Raised in a working-class European immigrant family in Chicago and forever transformed by the queer chosen family she found as a teenager, she has fought for personal and collective transformation for more than 15 years via a variety of political projects which center prison abolition, trans liberation, community empowerment, collective healing, and racial justice. Luna has led a number of projects that center transgender communities in the Bay Area at organizations such as UCSF’s Center of Excellence for Transgender Health and the San Francisco […]

Amara (she/her), got her start in advocacy as an intern at Forward Montana while studying at Montana State University. Over the next six years, she would serve in a number of roles, ultimately leaving the organization as Program Director, having run GOTV campaigns, lobbying programs, and a statewide census canvassing operation. She then moved on to Forward’s parent organization, the Alliance for Youth Action, where she supported Program and Executive Directors in Vermont, Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, & Oregon in navigating the challenges she faced in her own time at Forward. Amara comes to Funders with a passion for empowering young […]