Board of Directors

Linda DeMarco – Co-President
Linda is the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Boston Pride. She joined Boston Pride in 1998 as a festival coordinator and brings expertise in business and finance to the Board. She was President of Boston Pride from 2000 to 2013. Professionally, Linda is a successful entrepreneur and has been the owner of Boston Pretzel Bakery Inc. for over 18 years. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Faneuil Hall Merchants Association and the Small Merchants Association of Boston’s Downtown Crossing. Linda was elected as Co-President of InterPride at the 2017 AGM & World Conference in Indianapolis, IN, USA.

Julian Sanjivan – Co-President
Julian is originally from Malaysia and left for New York City in August 2012 to be part of a fellowship funded by the US Department of State. Upon completion of the program, they applied for asylum due to their life-threatening experience with a group of police officers in Malaysia due to their sexual orientation. Prior to arriving in the United States, they were the Human Resources Director at PT Foundation, one of the largest non-profit organizations in Malaysia focusing on HIV awareness, education, care, and support for most-at-risk populations including men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, transgender individuals and injecting drug users. Besides managing an organization of over 70 employees and 700 volunteers, they advocated for issues affecting the marginalized communities that PT Foundation worked very closely with. In 2013, they became the Director of Strategy & Communications at the Refugee & Immigrant Fund (RIF), an organization that provides support services for asylum seekers in New York City. Julian's asylum was granted in April 2015 and later obtained their Green Card in May of 2017. They are also a former Executive Board Member with Heritage of Pride as the NYC Pride March Director heading the annual Pride March in NYC. They were responsible for all aspects of one of the biggest Pride events in the world including the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and the 2019 WorldPride held in New York City. Julian was also one of the producers for the 2019 NYC Dance Parade and the former Director of Visitor Services at the LGBT Community Center in NYC. Currently, they are on the advisory board of AsylumConnect, a tech nonprofit providing the first and only resource website and mobile app for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. An avid globetrotting news junkie, Julian is extremely passionate about the movements for civil rights of the LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities.

J. Andrew Baker – Co-President
He is an educator, administrator, artist, counselor, and activist from Simcoe County, Ontario. For the past 20 years, Andrew focused his career and volunteer work within Indigenous and LGBT communities. He worked as the Rainbow Health Ontario Community Outreach Worker for the North Simcoe Muskoka Region from 2008 to 2014. He is a founding member of the Simcoe County LGBTQ Network. He is the Vice President of Governance for Fierté Canada Pride, the President of Fierté Simcoe Pride, the LGBT representative on the Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council, and the faculty advisor for Georgian Pride at Georgian College.

Frank Van Dalen – Vice Presidents of Global Outreach & Partnership
He is a former chair of the Dutch LGBTI organization COC Netherlands and Gay Pride in Amsterdam. For many years he has visited, and advocated for, numerous Prides in hostile environments (e.g., Warsaw 2007, Moldova 2008, Belgrade 2010 and Uganda 2013) and in pressured environments (e.g., Hong Kong 2014, Cuba 2014, Sofia 2015 and Belgrade 2015). Frank is now chair of the global operating LGBTI Human Rights workgroup of Liberal International and chair of PrideUnited. PrideUnited specializes in programs based on high profile politics - combining advocacy, visibility, and mass events. Human Rights and strategizing LGBTI policies are his specialty. Frank is a global representative for Copenhagen Pride.

Marsha H. Levine – Vice Presidents of Global Outreach & Partnership
A Pride-organizing veteran since 1980, she has the distinction of being the Founder of InterPride and a co-founder of CAPI, Inc. (Consolidated Associations of Pride, Inc.). Currently, Marsha also serves as InterPride's Governance Committee Co-Chair. For 18 years, she was San Francisco Pride's Parade Manager, on top of a similar period as a volunteer for the organization in a variety of roles, including President and Vice President on their Board of Directors. In 2018, Marsha accepted the role of Community Relations Manager for SF Pride, responsible for coordinating community partners, volunteers, politicians, VIPs, and Grand Marshals. Prior to 1985, she was a member of Boston Pride for five years, the last three of which she served consecutively as their President. An activist since high school, Marsha has always been a strong advocate for human and civil rights.

Emmanuel Temores – Vice Presidents of Global Outreach & Partnership
Since 2015 Emmanuel is a member of the executive board of Guadalajara Pride, focused on creating strategies and alliances. He served as Regional Director of South America in InterPride for two years. In 2007 Emmanuel started to collaborate as a journalist on LGBTI culture for independent newspapers, blogs, and magazines. From 2009 to 2014 he worked as Editor in Chief in Urbana Revista, an LGBTI publication distributed in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. He has participated in lobbies and campaigns to promote awareness of HIV and gay marriage in Mexico. Professionally, Emmanuel is a freelance Digital Advertising Professional; he develops successful campaigns for small, medium, large businesses, and startups.

Natalie Thompson – Vice Presidents of Global Outreach & Partnership

Carlos Idibouo – Vice President of Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion
Originally from Côte d’Ivoire , Carlos has been living in Canada for the last 14 years and iditifies as Queer feminist gender non-conforming.

Experienced projects consultant, Carlos successfully manage issues related to human rights, gender-based violences, sexual and gender diversity within the LGBTQI communities, women and children’s rights, as well as some advocacy policies for a Global access of HIV treatment and prevention strategies.

Carlos focuses his current work on understanding the trajectory of Patriarchy and how Toxic masculinities manifest themselves within the African LGBTQI communities, and what could be the best strategic approaches to addressing them.

Carlos is a board member of several national and international organizations such as Dignity Network Canada, a Canadian network that aims to engage and support the Canadian Government in his leadership on issues related to LGBTQI Human rights and its Feminist International Assistance Policy, Board member of the MenEngage North America, an international movement that aims to educate boys and men on issues related to masculinities, women’s rights, gender equality and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights.

In 2016, Carlos co-founded the House of Culture for Human Diversity, a feminist-led organization based in Côte d’Ivoire : which mandate focuses on utilizing Cultures and Arts as a powerful tool to address issues related to Diversity and Inclusion within the LGBTQI communities and broadly.

Sherri Rase – Vice President of Development
Sherri Rase is an award-winning activist, photographer, expert public speaker and a founding member of Jersey Pride, Inc. She has served as Special Events Director since 1996 and has run the Rally Stage since 1997.  Over the years, Sherri has been a board member and leader in a number of organizations including Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County and Planned Parenthood Central NJ and she enjoys bringing people and resources together.  Sherri is also a member of New York City Pride where she has been a PrideFest volunteer for the past several years, running the Stage, then Information.  She has been training and facilitating groups in the LGBTQIA+ Community and at-large for more than 20 years.  Sherri is also a writer whose work has spanned op-ed, classical music, theatre and film. She has been serving InterPride in a number of roles, starting as a Regional Director, then co-Chair and Vice President of Member Services.  Sherri works at the Pride Center of Staten Island as Youth and Senior Services Manager.

Dave Wait – Treasurer
Dave began his involvement with the pride movement in 2004 when he first volunteered for a ‘shift’ at Motor City Pride.  That led to serving as Chairperson of the festival since 2009. He began his involvement with InterPride in 2008 and became co-chair of the Conference Integrity and Structure Committee in 2014 and regional director in 2015. In additional to Motor City Pride, Dave served eight years on the board for Equality Michigan: Michigan’s statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, one year as treasurer, one as vice president and three as president. On a national level, for the past eleven years, he has been a member of the National LGBT Task Force Creating Change Conference’s Management Team. When not volunteering, Dave is employed by Eastern Michigan University where he serves as the Executive Director of three career and technical student organizations: DECA, SkillsUSA and FCCLA, which annually provides leadership and career development conferences for over 14,000 Michigan high school students. 

Committee and Working Group Co-Chairs

Alumni Sub-Committee

Lamine Camara
Perin Hurewitz
Marsha H. Levine

Communications Committee

Mark Monk
Jeff Prystajko
Natalie Thompson

Conference Structure and
Integrity Committee (CSIC)

Hadi Damien
Lo Roberts
Dave Wait

Finance Committee

Trisha Clymore
Dave Wait

Fund Development Committee

Dot Belstler
Sherri Rase

Governance Committee

Eve Keller
Jorge Solorio
Patrick van der Pas

Human Rights & Diversity Committee

Bianca Humady Ray
Carlos Ibiduou
Robyn Kennedy
Frank Van Dalen 

Member Services Committee

Mo George
Jay Jay E. Potter-Peachey
Francis Tang Yiu Kwong

Methods & Standards
Committee

Darcie Baumann
Bobby MacPherson
Emmanuel Temores

Scholarship Committee

Ron deHarte
Michele Irimia
Marsha H. Levine
Matthew Van As

Solidarity Sub-Committee

Lilly Dragoeva
Sarah Elizabeth Ivens
Paul Savage
Chrissy Taylor

Strategic Planning Workgroup

Julian Sanjivan
Frank Van Dalen
Robyn Kennedy

WorldPride Committee

Kevin Beaulieu
Linda DeMarco
Richard Tait