Jewelle Gomez Joins Staff of Horizons Foundation
Writer and Activist Will Serve as Program Officer for LGBT Community Foundation

SAN FRANCISCO - Horizons Foundation is proud to announce that Jewelle Gomez, a nationally recognized writer and activist who has worked in public and private philanthropy for twenty years, joined Horizons on July 10 as the new Program Officer. In this role, she will oversee all of Horizons' grantmaking as well as the foundation's leadership development program.

"What a thrill to work with Horizons Foundation, where I can give back to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community that has given me so much," said Gomez. "I'm eager to be part of the fantastic initiatives for LGBT people that Horizons has sparked throughout its history."

"I'm completely delighted by Horizons' good fortune in attracting someone of Jewelle's reputation, expertise, and experience to our staff," said Roger Doughty, Executive Director of Horizons Foundation. "We had the luxury of choosing from an enormously talented pool of candidates, and I have no doubt that Jewelle will be an outstanding asset to the foundation, as she has been to the entire LGBT movement in this country."

In her work in philanthropy, Ms. Gomez was a founding member of the Astraea National Lesbian Foundation, Open Meadows Foundation, and the James C. Hormel Endowment Committee. She has served as the director of the Literature Program at the New York State Council on the Arts; the executive director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University; and most recently the Director of the Cultural Equity Grants Program of the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Ms. Gomez also brings considerable knowledge and experience in the arts to her position at Horizons. She is the author of seven books, including the double Lambda Literary Award-winning novel The Gilda Stories. Her fiction, essays, criticism, and poetry have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, such as the New York Times, Village Voice, Ms. Magazine, The Advocate, Reading Black Reading Feminist, Oxford World Treasury of Love Stories, and Dark Matter. In addition to teaching at numerous colleges across the country, she is also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship and two California Arts Council literature fellowships.

"As the Program Officer at Horizons Foundation, I'll finally have an opportunity to merge my LGBT activism directly with my work in philanthropy," said Gomez. "It feels like I've come full circle."

 
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