11/10/03—BC Law Alum Kara Suffredini (’01) has been elected co-chair of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (NLGLA), the national association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and intersexed (LGBTI) lawyers, judges, other legal professionals, activists, law students and our allies, and affiliated LGBTI state and local legal and political organizations. Suffredini will officially assume her duties in 2004.

Suffredini and John Nechman, Esq., of Houston, Texas, were nominated by the NLGLA Board of Directors in September, 2003 and elected by the general membership at NLGLA's annual October membership meeting. Both Suffredini and Nechman are long-time directors, Suffredini beginning her tenure as a director when she was elected by the student membership as the 1999-2000 Co-Chair of the Law Student Division, while she was a second-year student at BC Law. Most recently, she was the 2002-2003 Co-Vice Chair along side Sharra Greer, the Legal Director of Service members Legal Defense Network.

“Kara's commitment to and understanding of our mission became immediately apparent when she began serving on our Board while she was a student,” said Joni M. Thome, current Co-Chair. “Kara's work is steady and consistent. She knows that the work of an LGBT serving organization can only be accomplished through thoughtful and careful consideration of many variables. Kara sees the big picture and is at the same time, willing to take the necessary risks to keep us moving ahead. She is smart, politically savvy and able to keep a sense of humor while pursuing serious business.”

Suffredini’s specific duties as Co-Chair elect are to foster the creation of representative state and local LGBTI affiliate organizations, and to work with the Co-Chairs and the Minneapolis host committee on orchestrating the 2004 Lavender Law Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition to those duties, she will continue to serve as the head of the Law School Issues Committee, the liaison to FAIR and a member of the Public Education and Political Action Committee.

"I have been incredibly proud to work with the NLGLA team over the years," Suffredini said. "Many talented NLGLA co-chairs and board members have worked hard to position this organization as strong, focused and successful in advancing the liberation of all LGBTI people. NLGLA has a history of visionary leadership -- it was one of the first national organizations to make its inclusion of transgender issues express in its mission, and it is one of the only national organizations that has a mission expressly inclusive of intersex issues. I am thrilled to work with John and the other directors to continue that history, and hope to centralize issues of class, race and gender-expressive diversity as we continue to strive to represent and address the needs of our community's most vulnerable members."

While at BC Law, Suffredini received the Cornelius J. Moynihan Award for scholarship and leadership in extra and co-curricular activities, for her participation as Co-Chair of NLGLA's Law Student Division, as well as her participation as President of Lambda and as the Editor-in-Chief of the Third World Law Journal.

The NLGLA mission is to promote justice in and through the legal profession for members of the LGBTI community. It was established in 1988 and has been an affiliate of the American Bar Association since 1992. In 2000, NLGLA's Law Student Division became affiliated with the ABA's Law Student Division, due in large part to the work of Suffredini, who was serving as Co-Chair of the NLGLA Law Student Division.

NLGLA is the sponsor of the annual Lavender Law Conference, the nation's largest LGBTI legal issues conference, hosted in a different city every year and bringing together the top civil rights advocates to discuss and strategize legal developments affecting the LGBTI community. The Conference also hosts the only LGBTI Career Fair in the nation. The Law Student Division hosts the annual Michael W. Greenberg Student Writing Competition, which awards a $1000.00 prize, publication in Tulane Law School's Journal of Law and Sexuality and complimentary attendance at Lavender Law. The Board of Directors is comprised of numerous committees, which monitor judicial appointments, engage in public education and political action, assist with the creation of state and local affiliate bar assocations and assist with amicus briefs in cases critical to the welfare of our community.