Kevin Jennings is a longtime leader in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality. He became a high school history teacher after becoming the first member of his family to earn a college degree in 1985 when he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, and helped students create the nation’s first Gay-Straight Alliance club in 1988 while a high school history teacher in Concord, Massachusetts. He went on to found GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) in 1990, the first national organization dedicated to fighting anti-LGBTQ+ bias in K-12 schools. In 2009, Kevin became the Assistant Secretary of Education for Safe & Drug-Free Schools, where he led the Obama Administration’s national campaign against bullying in schools, earning him the nickname of being the “anti-bullying czar.” Kevin went from the Obama Administration to run the Arcus Foundation, then the world’s largest private funder of LGBTQ+ rights, and the Tenement Museum, the nation’s premiere museum dedicated to the immigrant experience. In 2019 Kevin became the CEO of Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest legal advocacy group fighting for full legal equality for LGBTQ+ people and everyone living with HIV.

Kevin has a long record of volunteer service to his communities outside of his formal employment roles. Kevin was the founding Board Chair for Tectonic Theater Project, which created The Laramie Project. He has served as an Executive Producer of five documentary films, one of which (Welcome to Chechnya) was short-listed for the 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Kevin has authored seven books and is a winner of the Lambda Literary Award. He currently serves on the Boards of La Mama Experimental Theater Company, -Arlekin! Players, Life Jacket Theater Company, the Ubunye Challenge, and Making Gay History.

In addition to his undergraduate degree, Kevin holds an MA from Columbia University Teachers College and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He teaches in the Colin Powell School at the City College of New York.