Anthony Wright has served as Executive Director for Health Access, the statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition since 2002. Health Access has led state and national efforts to win consumer protections, fight budget cuts and invest in our safety-net, encourage prevention, and advance coverage expansions and comprehensive health reform. Wright led California’s coalition effort to help pass the Affordable Care Act and state laws to implement and improve it, and campaigns to successfully pass first-in-the-nation laws to ensure timely access to care, and to stop hospital overcharging of the uninsured.

Ebony Ava Harper is a first-generation American born to her Jamaican family. Having come out as a Black trans woman at an early age, Ebony began working as an activist in the trans community, emphasizing the importance of the intersectionality between her racial and transgender identity. Over the years, she has transitioned from a trans activist to a human rights activist, making a difference for locally and nationally marginalized communities.

Experience working at Project Angel Food and the Los Angeles Youth Network propelled Harper into a staff position at Children of the Night in Van Nuys, California. It was at this nonprofit, focused on rescuing children from the devastation and trauma of human trafficking and prostitution, where Harper learned community-based outreach and how to apply her lived experience as a Peer Counselor. Harper dedicated her time to helping homeless youth experiencing many of the same disadvantages and tribulations she navigated during her childhood.

Continuing her advocacy work, Harper made her way to Sacramento, where she began working at the Gender Health Center as the PrEP Coordinator. Driven by her passion for dismantling systems of oppression and improving the quality of life for all living beings, Harper has continued her activism working at the local and national levels, addressing gender justice, climate justice, disability justice, and race equity.

In 2019, Harper left the California Endowment to step into her current role as the Founder and Executive Director of California TRANScends. This statewide initiative works to promote the health and wellness of transgender people throughout the state of California. She’s one of the recipients of the 2019 Stonewall Four Freedoms Award, the first-ever trans person to host the 2019 State Capitol Tree Lighting ceremony with Governor Gavin Newsom, and served as the 2019 Grand Marshal of Sacramento’s Pride Parade, and recognized by the California legislature, District 7, 2021’s Woman of The Year.

Harper has been a speaker and facilitator at the Global Alliance for Banking on Values Summit in Vancouver, written articles for Forbes and other news sources, been highlighted on NBC and other media outlets, and serves as Co-Chair to The California Transgender Advisory Council, Board member for the Transgender Law Center, Borealis, and Mirror Memoirs.

Aaron Fox is the Director of Government Relations at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Mr. Fox has led administrative and legislative strategy on health policy for over 10 years at the Center. He has been appointed to the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV, co-chaired the California HIV Alliance and was selected as an inaugural member of the California Deparment of Public Health Office of Health Equity. He received his undergraduate degree in Policial Science from UCLA and his Masters degree from The George Washington University in Washington D.C in Political Management.

Poshi Walker is the LGBTQ Program Director for NorCal Mental Health America and the Co-Director of the LGBTQ Stakeholder Education, Advocacy, and Outreach Project, in collaboration with the California LGBT Health & Human Services Network. Poshi’s education and career as a social worker has focused on reducing mental health disparities for LGBTQ communities, both locally and statewide. Poshi was the Project Director for the LGBTQ Reducing Disparities Project, Phase 1, as well as the lead author of the report, First Do No Harm: Reducing Disparities for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer and Questioning Populations in California. Poshi has multiple years of experience working with, and providing mental health, LGBTQ and technical assistance training for community-based organizations, counties, school districts, universities and government programs. Poshi is a strong advocate for LGBTQ communities and has worked extensively in the policy arena to reduce disparities. Poshi holds a Masters in Social Work from CSU Sacramento and resides in Woodland with a wonderful spouse and multiple rescue animals.

Brian Poth identifies as a nonbinary/queer individual and uses he/they pronouns. He is a co-founder of The Source LGBT+ Center, its first Board Chair, and became its first Executive Director in 2017. He was born in Tulare but grew up in Los Angeles working as a child actor. Brian graduated from Loyola Marymount with a degree in Film Production and returned to professional acting to appear in over 80 episodes of television, most notably CSI: Miami, Six Feet Under, and True Blood. In 2014 Brian returned to the Central Valley to be closer to his sister Michelle, who was battling cancer. It was during that time he met some local folx and began dreaming of building a community center. The Source LGBT+ Center just celebrated 5 years of serving the queer and trans community and has over 25 programs and services. “Not only has The Source grown, but we have also grown with it. The Source has changed our community… it has changed all of us.”