New Jersey’s LGBTQ community rings in the New Year as Dynamic New Leader Lillian Rivera becomes HMI:NJ’s new Executive Director
STATE’S LARGEST LGBTQ YOUTH ORGANIZATION FOCUSES ON EXPANDING SERVICES
Newark, NJ - The Hetrick-Martin Institute: New Jersey has named Jersey City native Lillian Rivera, a long-time leader in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning community, as its new Executive Director. Founded in 2011 with the support of then-Mayor Cory Booker and community leaders in response to the 2003 murder of 15-year-old Sakia Gunn, an African-American lesbian, in a hate crime in downtown Newark, HMI:NJ has become the largest LGBTQ youth-serving organization in the state.
Rivera succeeds Dr. Ashawnda Fleming, the organization’s first leader, who departed in 2018 to become the Chief Executive Officer of the American Psychological Association’s Foundation, in Washington D.C. Rivera was named Interim Executive Director upon Fleming’s departure.
“From the beginning of our search process, the HMI:NJ search committee and Board of Directors realized we needed an entrepreneurial individual who was fully committed and prepared to serve at-risk youth in our community. Lilly stood out among our many candidates with her deep knowledge and practical experience with LGBTQ youth and dynamic leadership style,” said Board Co-Chair Dan Zanella.
For more than two decades, Rivera has focused on capacity building, with an emphasis on organizational diversity and inclusion. In 2002, Rivera began her HMI career as a trainer with the organization’s flagship Manhattan site, which is co-located with the Harvey Milk High School in the East Village of New York City. At HMI, she held positions with increasing responsibility, including Director of After-School Services and Director of Advocacy and Capacity Building, directly managing staff and budgets. She became Interim Executive Director of HMI:NJ in August 2018.
HMI:NJ’s main program site in Newark provides after-school programming in arts and culture, health and wellness, academic enrichment and job readiness. HMI:NJ supports youth with counseling and case management, an onsite pantry for food and other necessities, outreach assistance for homeless LGBTQ youth, and referrals to other community services.
In addition the organization has created “mini sites” with on-site counseling and case management services for LGBTQ youth, staffed by HMI:NJ social workers at Newark Public High Schools and Covenant House in Newark.
Rivera noted, “We are in a great place. HMI:NJ’s staff and board, and the support of HMI’s CEO Thomas Krever, has led us to a place of organizational and financial strength. Yet despite the gains the LGBTQ community has made in recent years, there are many who haven’t realized those benefits. We’re here to engage young people who are among the most vulnerable, providing them with the nurturing and resources required to become strong contributors to our society.”
Jase Whipple, HMI:NJ Board Co-Chair, noted, “We are deliberately assessing how to serve LGBTQ youth beyond our Newark core, and strengthening our work in Essex, Hudson, Union and Middlesex counties. Lilly’s strategic vision and ability to marshal the resources required to meet the demand of our community’s youth will lead us into the next phase of HMI:NJ’s support for LGBTQ youth throughout our state.”
Rivera holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Public Health from Rutgers University. She has supported people with HIV and AIDS throughout her career, notably as a supervisor of Independent Living program for HIV+ people. She was named a Fellow at the Center for Disease Control and Associated School of Public Health’s Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership in 2005.
She has appeared on CNN en Español and NBC Latino and AOL’s Bold, and her bylines have been published in the Huffington Post, Advocate and Feminist Wire.
It was through the CDC Fellowship that she met her now-wife, Elsa Vasquez. Lilly and Elsa reside in Jersey City with their two daughters, Olivia, 10, and Luna, 5.