Glennda Testone, Executive Director

Throughout her career, Glennda Testone has been a leader in the field of social justice for women and LGBT people.  Testone joins the New York LGBT Community Center from The Women's Media Center (WMC) where she has served as the Vice President for the past three years. While at the WMC, Testone created and directed the tremendously successful Progressive Women's Voices training program. The Women's Media Center was founded in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem to make women visible and powerful in the media.  Testone created and led the Progressive Women's Voices program which is responsible for providing media and leadership training for some of the Progressive movement's preeminent leaders.  She also oversaw the integration of SheSource-a media database of 500+ women experts-into the WMC. 

Prior to the WMC, Testone served as the Senior Director of Media Programs for the national Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and was responsible for directing all of the organization's work in local and regional communities, with national and entertainment media, outreach to communities of color and youth.  During her six years at GLAAD, Testone played a pivotal role in key milestones in LGBT media activism, most notably leading the team that persuaded The New York Times to make its watershed decision to include same-sex union announcements.  She was also instrumental in securing a commitment from Nielsen Media Research to work to include gay and lesbian viewers in its television rating system.

Testone has acted as a spokesperson for GLAAD and for the LGBT movement, appearing on CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC, and in outlets such as The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Time Out and W magazine.  In 2001, Testone was a member of GLAAD's program team acknowledged by PR Week with its PR Week Award for Non-Profit Team of the Year for its work in heightening awareness of homophobia through its Laura Schlessinger campaign.  In 2005, Testone won Syracuse University’s LGBT Foundation Award for Outstanding Alumni and in 2006 she served as an Associate Producer on the Logo & VH1-televised GLAAD Media Awards. Testone was also recently named to the NYC Commission on LGBTQ Runaway and Homeless Youth and as a Tenenbaum Leadership Institute Fellow at Milano, the New School for Management & Urban Policy.

Originally from Syracuse, New York, Testone has a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism and Philosophy from Syracuse University and a Master's degree in Women's Studies from The Ohio State University.  She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center

208 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011
212.620.7310
www.gaycenter.org

Press Releases

Read Press Release: Glennda Testone Named Executive Director of the NYC LGBT Center, September 15, 2009

Other Press

Testone to Head NYC LGBT Center, The Advocate

NYC LGBT Center Announces New Executive Director, EdgeNewYork.com

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