SEASON 3, EPISODE 23. The Change Navigator : Sharon-Franklin Brown, Chief Impact Officer, Los Angeles LGBT Center & Board President, LA Pride

Description

Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month! As we enter week 2 of Pride Month, Jayzen is excited to welcome his guest, Sharon-Franklin Brown, Chief Impact Officer of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Sharon also serves as the Board President for LA Pride, one of the oldest and largest LGBTQ+ Pride festivals in the country.

Sharon has remarkable career story to share and works tirelessly to create space for her community and make the world a more equitable place for trans and gender non-conforming people. As Chief Impact Officer for the largest organization in the world serving the LGBTQ+ community, she is responsible for providing strategic leadership, management, guidance to programs and Human Resources for a staff of nearly 800 employees as well as impact efforts through grantmaking, and community engagement.

In celebration of Pride Month, the Lead With Your Brand!™ Podcast has partnered with Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, the premier organization working exclusively on LGBTQ+ workplace equality. Each week in June, we’ll be featuring an out leader each with an amazing career story to share. In addition, we’ve assembled an entire collection of shows with LGBTQ+ guests from the past three seasons, including two special roundtable episodes where we explore issues around the trans experience and intersectionality of race and LGBTQ+ in the workplace. The team at Out & Equal has created free downloadable discussion guides, so we encourage you to use the podcast as a virtual “book club” with your ERG or group of friends. Listen to the episodes, download the discussion guides and schedule your group discussion! Check out www.leadwithyourbrand.com/pride for more information.

Happy Pride!

Guest Bio

Sharon-Franklin Brown

Chief Impact Officer, Los Angeles LGBT Center

& Board President, LA Pride

Sharon-Franklin Brown is a navigator of change and a recipient of the Leadership Award for her extraordinary contributions by supporting and furthering civil rights in advancing workplace diversity in an exceptional manner on behalf of the Employment Round Table of Southern California and the City of Los Angeles. As Chief Impact Officer for the Los Angeles LGBT Center, she is responsible for providing strategic leadership, management, guidance to programs and Human Resources for a staff of nearly 800 employees as well as impact efforts through grantmaking, and community engagement. She is celebrating 15 years with the Center and currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors for Christopher Street West Association/LA Pride.

Sharon’s story begins in Louisiana where she grew up in the rural South in a small one stop light town in Sicily Island. Right out of high school she joined the United States Navy Reserves and served with honor while attending the University of Louisiana Monroe. During this time, Sharon began a journey of self-discovery freely expressing her true gender identity. Sharon graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration/Pre-Law.

This early training and education set the foundation for a career of leading change in many different industries like restaurant management, legal services, academia and non-profit. In 1997, she was a City Council candidate for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, making her the first openly transgender candidate to run for public office in the state. Sharon became a national speaker on transgender rights after being terminated from Fayetteville State University, a historically black university, for being a trans-woman. Sharon was on the leading edge during her speaking engagements at colleges and universities on the importance of including gender identity and gender expression in their anti-discrimination policies. In 2010, she co-wrote the “ground breaking” recommendations for “Model Protocols – Police Interactions with Transgender Individuals” which was later adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department as policy. In 2018, Sharon Co-Chaired the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County HR Roundtable. Today, she serves on the Board of LA Pride and participates in LGBTQ competency trainings with various organizations on best practices in navigating change in the workplace, with a specialized focus on helping healthcare organizations improve delivery of services to the LGBTQ community. In addition to these public engagements, Sharon often devotes time to facilitating transgender support and small conversation groups throughout the local community. Often questions about her 30-year journey are asked by these groups and Sharon has told them, “When I was transitioning, the resources of today, like access to healthcare and laws protecting gender identity in the workplace, were not available, it was not commonplace at the dinner table to have conversations about gender expression, and parents were not seeking out help for their gender non-conforming children. Why do I do what I do? The child in the classroom freely expressing their gender identity with a greater sense of support and confidence to be who they are.” Folks who have met Sharon know that her impact is tangible and that her incredible influence has helped to create a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable society.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand and the Career Breakthrough Mentoring program , please visit:  https://www.leadwithyourbrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: https://www.jayzenpatria.com

Please connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayzenpatria