About

Brad Pritchett is a native Houstonian and long-time LGBTQ+ rights organizer.

Brad served as a 3-term President of the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats, helping to identify pro-equality candidates and get them elected to office – including LGBTQ+ candidates. He then worked as a Policy and Advocacy Strategist with the ACLU of Texas, working on criminal justice reform in Dallas and LGBTQ+ rights at the Texas Legislature.

Currently he serves as the Field Director for Equality Texas, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization focusing on empowering LGBTQ+ people and their allies to advocate in support of LGBTQ+ Texans and in opposition to efforts to pass legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

Brad has been named Outsmart Magazine’s Most Prominent Male LGBTQ Activist in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Brad has been married to his husband Noel, since 2010 and they live in the Houston Heights with their 2 beagles and 1 cat.

Brandon Mack is a college admissions professional, educator, activist, and entrepreneur.  His most recent position was as Interim Director of Operations at the International Association for College Admission Counseling, an organization dedicated to providing professional development opportunities for individuals who work with international students.  Prior to that position, Mack was an Associate Director of Admission & Coordinator of Transfer Admission at Rice University. 

He has been in the field of college admissions for 13 years. Mack worked specifically on international recruitment in Africa, domestic recruitment strategies, and building counselor relationships.  He has also worked on minority recruitment initiatives, community based organization partnerships, and community outreach efforts to educate students on highly selective college admissions. He also oversaw and managed the transfer admission process and was the liaison to the Rice School of Architecture. Mack has started his own consulting business, B. Mack Strategies, which provides consulting on college admissions, diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), politics, and meeting/dialogue facilitation services.

In addition to his day job, Brandon Mack is a community activist and sociologist dedicated to issues related to the intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation. He has conducted research on effemiphobia, the negativity related to effeminate gay men. His work has been featured in a GLAAD Media Award winning article and he has presented his work at national conferences such as the National  LGBTQ Task Force: Creating Change and NBJC's Out on the Hill. He was a lead organizer with Black Lives Matter Houston. Screening Committee Chair of the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus. He was the Research Coordinator for the Mayor’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board.

Mack graduated from Rice University in 2006 with a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology & Political Science.  In 2013, Mack earned a Masters of Education in Higher Education Administration & Supervision from the University of Houston.  He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education Leadership & Policy Studies at the University of Houston. 

Diamond Stylz has been one of the long-standing voices of the millennial black trans community.

She started her activism at 17 when she won a First Amendment rights lawsuit against the Indianapolis Public School system in 1999, a victory that allows her to go to the prom in a gender-affirming gown instead of a tuxedo. At 19, she was the first openly trans woman to attend the legendary HBCU Jackson State University where she honed her passion for activism and education.

For more than a decade, she has use social media platforms like Youtube to document and archives trans leadership and cultural event around the globe. She has produced and appeared on CNN, ABC, BET, and Hulu but recently she consulted with Insider to create the most comprehensive database around trans homicides and their outcome thus far. Currently, Diamond is the Executive Director of Black Trans Women Inc, a national non-profit that is led by Black trans women focused on social advocacy, positive visibility, and building strong leadership among Black trans advocates, activists, and our allies.

Diamond is the host and producer of the award-winning podcast Marsha's Plate, a weekly exploration of politics and pop culture from a trans-pro-black feminist lens that has garnered over 1 million streams. 

Giovanni serves as Development Director for the Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation. Before healthcare, he spent more than a decade in higher education building relationships and raising support for the University of Houston (UH). Giovanni began his career with a six-year stint in professional sports in the front offices of the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs.

A proud, native Houstonian, Giovanni is passionate about civic engagement. He is a Leadership Houston fellow and serves on the organization's Board of Directors. He also serves on the UH Hobby School of Public Affairs Alumni Association board. He has served on the Board of Directors for the City of Houston’s BARC Foundation and volunteered with the League of Women Voters of Houston and Equality Texas for voter empowerment and LGBTQIA+ advocacy. He has maintained memberships with the Greater Houston LGBT Chamber of Commerce, the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, the Human Rights Campaign, and the League of Women Voters of Houston.

Giovanni earned a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management from Texas A&M University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Houston.

Jeremy is senior director of development for the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, and he has over 12 years of experience in major gift fundraising with a specialty in corporate and foundation giving.

Prior to joining the Meadows Institute, Jeremy served as the Assistant Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In this role, he built MD Anderson’s corporate giving program from inception, securing major philanthropic investments to fund medical research, cancer prevention and screening initiatives, and numerous other programs centered around health disparities and population health.

In his role at the Meadows Institute, Jeremy works to develop and implement plans to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward major gift prospects, including individuals, foundations, and corporations, for The Hackett Center for Mental Health and the Trauma and Grief (TAG) Center.

Jeremy has a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Houston, and he is a Certified Public Manager through the Hobby School of Public Affairs. In 2020, he was selected as a Davoudi Scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He previously served as Chair of Mayor Turner’s LGBTQ Advisory Board for 3 years, and currently serves UH’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board, and the Board of Directors for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Impulse Group - Houston. He was appointed to Harris County’s LGBTQIA+ Commission in late 2023.

Jeremy is married to an elementary school music teacher and lives with their dog, a very smart miniature Schnauzer named Toby McDog.

Kylie McNaught is the Texas Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. She is a dedicated public servant with nearly a decade of experience working in Texas politics and advocacy. Kylie is joined the PPGC team in March of 2023, after serving as the Executive Director of the Harris County Democratic Party (HCDP) from 2021 to 2023. 

Prior to her time at HCDP Kylie worked as the Legislative Director for State Representative Jon Rosenthal for over three years. She also worked on the Legislative Study Group (LSG) under Chairman Garnet Coleman. Her other previous work includes campaign management, grassroots organizing, and volunteer management. 

Kylie holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Houston and is currently working toward her Doctor of Public Health at UT Health. She previously sat on the board of Clinic Access Support Network (CASN), an organization in Houston that provided practical support to abortion patients. She has an extensive campaign background, with work as field director for Rosenthal for Texas, deputy campaign manager for Eliz Markowitz for Texas and field manager for Beto O’Rourke for Senate. 

María C. González is currently the Martha Gano Houstoun Research Professor in Literary Criticism at the University of Houston with expertise in American literature, Mexican-American novelists, Chicanx writers, and Feminist and Queer Theory.  

Gonzalez is the author of Contemporary Mexican American Women Novelists: Toward a Feminist Identity and co-editor of Voices Breaking Boundaries’ three volume series collection of transnational art and essays, Borderlines.  Currently completing a book on the influence of Chicana lesbian writers and queer theory in Chicanx literary studies, Gonzalez has also written essays or presented on ethnic and gender curricular expansion, pedagogy and LGBT Studies, as well as on political activism.  

Past President of the National Women's Studies Association and Past Chair of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, she has served on the editorial boards of the NWSA Journal, The Journal of Lesbian Studies, NACCS Annual Proceedings, and Chicana/Latina Studies Journal.  A Faculty Affiliate with the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality, one of the founders of the GLBT Studies Minor and the LGBT Resource Center, and one of the original supporters of the Houston LGBT History Research Collection Archive at the University of Houston, she has served on the Faculty Senate as chair of the following committees: Educational Policies and Student Affairs, Budget and Facilities, and Faculty Affairs.  

A political activist and past president, vice-president, screening chair, and board member of the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, Gonzalez is the treasurer of Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars.  She is also a civic activist and has served as a Precinct Chair for the Harris County Democratic Party and a Presiding Precinct Election Judge in her neighborhood.

Ramiro Fonseca is Director of Outreach and Engagement for Tejano Center for Community Concerns. In this role, he is responsible for leveraging relationships to elevate the organization’s brand, maximize impact, and support the organization’s expansion plans. Ramiro facilitates communication between Tejano Center, families, current and prospective partners, volunteers, and the broader community. He was most recently Community Engagement Manager at GRADcafé by Project GRAD, a program of Tejano Center, which provides intergenerational college, career, and workforce training resources for residents of Harris County and beyond.

Formerly in banking, Ramiro has worked closely with the education community locally and community partners where he actively promotes higher education in underrepresented communities. He understands the importance and the strength in building partnerships to improve communities and their quality of life.

Ramiro has served on community and service organization boards including the Houston Hispanic Forum, Legacy Community Health, the Holocaust Museum Latino Initiatives Advisory Committee, the Houston Botanic Garden, and currently chairs the Houston Police Department’s Eastside Division Positive Interactive Program.

Ramiro holds his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Our Lady of the Lake University.

Victoria Cordova (she/her/hers) is a native Houstonian who started her public service career at Houston City Hall. She is a public affairs leader with experience in communications, local government and higher education.

Victoria is the director of communications and marketing at the Hobby School of Public at the University of Houston, where she oversees the promotion of the school's interdisciplinary curriculum, training, research and experiential learning opportunities. She previously served in the public affairs division at the Harris County Sheriff's Office, raising awareness of the agency’s services and partnerships to enhance public safety and build community trust. She also previously worked at Houston Public Media, the local NPR and PBS affiliate.

Victoria received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master's degree in political science from Sam Houston State University. She is a fellow on the Houston Public Media Foundation Board and a member of the League of Women Voters of Houston and Women Professionals in Government. She also teaches American government as a lecturer at her alma mater.

Kevin Nguyen (He/They) is a first-generation, Vietnamese-American Texan who was raised Catholic by two immigrant parents.

Kevin attained three Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology (Baylor University 2007), Health (University of Houston 2018), and Psychology (University of Houston 2021), and a Corporate Entrepreneurship Certificate from the Bauer College of Business (University of Houston June 2019). He also holds a Master of Science Degree in College Counseling and Student Development (Azusa Pacific University 2010). Kevin currently resides in Texas, but has previously lived in New Jersey, California, and a brief stint in Bangkok, Thailand as an English teacher.

He deeply values the idea of self-discovery and improvement through education and experience and within his work and lifestyle, and he wants to produce a certain sense of inclusivity, curiosity, and mutual respect for those he interacts with. Having a variety of lived experiences has been an eye opener for Kevin of the different complexity and importance of being an LGBTQ+ person, an AAPI person, and a voting member of this country. Kevin believes that learning the nuances within our communities and celebrating one another is imperative to growth, maturity, personal development, and support.