Jaison A. Gardner has been a social justice activist and community organizer for more than fifteen years, working primarily around issues related to youth empowerment, LGBT rights, people of color issues and women’s liberation. He has served on the board of directors for several progressive organizations including the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) in Washington, DC and Women in Transition (WIT), a poor people’s organization in Louisville, KY. A current member of the Fairness Campaign’s Coordinating Committee, Jaison is also the proud founder of BlkOut, an organization dedicated to empowering black LGBT students on the University of Louisville campus, and Derby City Black Pride, a city-wide celebration of Louisville’s black LGBT and Same Gender Loving community. He serves as the Community Organizer for the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund. In his free time, Jaison enjoys politics, Pop Culture and creating memories with his friends and family. Jaison firmly believes that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Dr. Kaila Adia Story has been an assistant professor and the Audre Lorde Endowed Chair in Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Louisville since 2007. While at U of L, Dr. Story has created and taughtcourses such as Black Lesbian Lives, Introduction to LGBTQ Studies, Black Feminisms in Action, and Queer Perspectives in Literature and Film. Dr. Story is also one of the co-chairs of the Fairness Campaign’s Coordinating Committee.
