Executive Director
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He has been an HIV/AIDS educator, tester, advocate, and has a strong queer programming background working with Outright Vermont, SafeSpace and serving on the founding board of Pride Center of Vermont. Having a rich history with the center allows Mike to have a strong connection to the mission and values of the organization. As a queer man committed to social change, he is closely connected to the importance of HIV/AIDS prevention and education within our LGBTQ communities.  Because of the Pride Center’s collaborative culture and commitment to social justice, it has been a longtime personal objective to work toward shared success with such a dedicated team. Mike is a Tobacco Cessation Counselor.

Director of Health & Wellness Program
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Kim moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1998 and has lived many lives since then. Prior to working at Pride Center, Kim was a Victim Services Coordinator and Victim Liaison for restorative justice processes at the Burlington Community Justice Center. Kim has also worked as a domestic and sexual violence advocate with the DIVAS Program at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility and Legal Advocate and Volunteer and Training Coordinator at Steps to End Domestic Violence.

Kim works to bolster human rights for all through innovation, accountability, transformative justice, antiracist practices, and systems advocacy. She holds an M.A. in Theatre for Social Change from Skidmore College and focused her graduate work on participatory theatre for bullying prevention. An advocate for civic engagement and being the change she wants to see in the world, she volunteers with Winooski Mutual Aid, serves on the Board of Directors for the ACLU of Vermont as Affiliate Equity Officer, and serves on the National ACLU Board of Directors as Vermont’s affiliate representative. She is also a fun, silly queer and performed with the high-femme drag group The Goodwives at many a Drag Ball. When feeling disciplined, she likes writing 10-minute plays for playwriting competitions, going on walks in the woods, and attempting 30-day yoga challenges.

Kim lives in Winooski where she owns a home with her brilliant wife, Sarah. Together they dance in the kitchen whenever possible, read their Chani Nicholas horoscopes to each other, enjoy backyard campfires, camp in Vermont State Parks, discover new summer canoe adventures, and love on their two rascally cats, Gypsy Bean and Tortuga Noodle. 

Health & Wellness Coordinator
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Jacob Cribbs grew up on the central coast of California but arrived in Cuttingsville, Vermont to work at Spring Lake Ranch Therapeutic Community as a resident advisor and peer support advocate in 2015. He hasn’t left the beautiful Green Mountain State since.

Having earned a degree in English Lit with an emphasis in Cultural Anthropology and Creative Writing from UCSC, Jacob then spent six years living in Brooklyn, NY attending The Barrow Group Acting School, working in sales and marketing in the business travel industry, and leading creative writing workshops for low-income youth and LGBTQ elders through NYC Writers Coalition. Once transplanted in Vermont, Jacob embarked on a social service career path which included bringing art, writing, mindfulness practices, employment skills and retention, wellness support, and social service advocacy to a number of underserved populations including dual-diagnosis clients, previously incarcerated male-identifying Vermonters, and neurodivergent neighbors. He has been an avid meditator for nearly ten years with his first instruction in zazen from Fire Lotus Temple in Brooklyn, NY. He is a current MFAW candidate at Goddard College and in his spare time he enjoys gardening with and for the local community to help curb food insecurity, training for long distance running events, and traveling whenever possible to understand and pay homage to world cultures. He enjoys hiking, running, reading good books and the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. He is excited and grateful to learn from and be of service to Vermont’s wider LGBTQ community.

Health & Wellness Coordinator
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Richard comes to Pride Center of Vermont by way of Asbury Park, New Jersey! Starting out in the public health field as a client and volunteer of Project Real (Visiting Nurse’s Association), The Shore’s LGBTQ Social Center, he fell in love with educating his peers, getting in touch with his community and helping to make much needed improvements to LGBTQ healthcare system within New Jersey. Becoming staff as a Community Health Outreach Educator within a year of volunteering at the center, he took up his new position and ran with it. Having built his knowledge and skills set from working with multiple programs and organizations from around the country such as The MPowerment Project, NMAC/ViiV’s Youth Initiative Program and various college LGBTQ/Ally groups, he always comes with fresh ideas and questions that can help bring a new perspective to whatever work he’s involved with. Outside of his profession, he has a wonderful artistic streak. From cooking, to theater to drag entertainment, he lets his creative side speaks volumes for what’s going on within his own world and on the outside. Richard has a big smile and an even bigger heart, he is so excited to be apart of the family here at The Pride Center of Vermont!

Health & Wellness Coordinator
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Raheemah is a Black, Afro-Indigenous, queer, and non-binary person. They live on unceded Abenaki Land, colonially referred to as Burlington, VT, with their partner, Zymora, and their wonderful cat companion, Onyx.

Raheemah moved to Bennington, VT from Oakland, CA when they were just ten years old with their single mama bear and four other siblings. Moving away from the city and into a rural part of the country, scared them as a child. However, when coming here, Raheemah felt embraced and welcomed by nature. Prior to moving to California and Vermont, for part of their childhood, they were raised Muslim, and lived internationally in the Middle East and
West Africa. After graduating high school, Raheemah left Vermont to attend college in upstate New York at SUNY Cortland to pursue Athletics (Track & Field) and a degree in Exercise Science, with a minor in Anthropology. They were in dire need of diversity and community. During Raheemah’s undergraduate experience, they had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in Cologne, Germany for a semester. Traveling in Europe and Northern Africa, as a young adult gave them a more holistic, well-rounded perspective of the world. They were an active member of the Black Student Union (BSU) and Spectrum, an LGBTQ+ club. In 2019, they returned back to the Green Mountains to finish their BS degree at the University of Vermont.

Their life experiences influenced their passion to aid marginalized communities, and pursue a career in the medical field, more specifically in global and public health. They want to work with organizations and people that are truly dedicated to radically changing the inequitable, racist, and discriminatory practices present within the medical field, and strive to support and uplift more vulnerable communities.

During their chill time, they participate in some of their favorite hobbies such as longboarding, roller skating, biking, exercising, reading, gardening, traveling, cooking/baking, and multi-media arts.

Coordinator of Direct Services and Community Support 
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Anne is an advocate with the SafeSpace Anti-Violence Program. Originally from the Midwest, she first moved to Vermont to attend UVM, where she received undergraduate degrees in German and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. Anne comes to the Pride Center and returns to Vermont after two years in Sweden, where she received a masters of social science in Gender Studies: Intersectionality and Change. While abroad, Anne worked with LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and refugees, an experience which sparked her passion for advocacy within the LGBTQ+ community. Anne is excited to be furthering her advocacy work at the Pride Center – and to be back in Vermont!

In addition to working with the SafeSpace program, Anne is a coordinator for Glow, a program for LGBTQ+ women and people who are women-aligned. Email her with questions about the program or about Glow’s mission to create inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ women and people who are women-aligned in Vermont. 

Education Program Manager
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Taylor graduated from the University of Vermont in 2016 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development & Family Studies, and a minor in Gender Identity and Sexuality Studies. Taylor is committed to community building and youth empowerment, as seen through her previous work at the Howard Center, Spectrum Youth & Family Services, Northwestern Counseling and Support Services, and a previous Board Member at Outright Vermont. She has a clear passion and drive to support the larger LGBTQ+ community of Vermont and frequently puts on programming across the state to increase queer and trans visibility.

Taylor is a fierce activist by day, and at night she becomes the wildly entertaining Nikki Champagne. Nikki can be found all around town supporting LGBTQ+ events including First Friday, Queen City Drag Cabaret, New Queers Eve, Comedy Queens, and more! Nikki previously co-hosted The T, alongside Emoji Nightmare, a local TV production that focuses on arts and activism across the state of Vermont, and can now be seen at your local libraries doing Drag Queen Story Hour.

In 2020, Taylor was elected as State Representative in the Vermont House, representing Winooski and Burlington. She is the first elected trans state representative in Vermont and the fifth in the entire nation. 

SafeSpace Clinical Advocate
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Bio Coming Soon

Momentum Coordinator 
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Eeka is a multiracial queer transplant originally from Southern California. She moved to the Green Mountain state in the summer of 2008 to escape city life and raise her children (now adults!) in a more undogmatic environment. They fell in love with everything about Vermont and haven’t looked back.

In 2016, Eeka received her A.A. in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Multimedia Communications and English, which was her segue into the social media world. She is an established blogger and self-published poet. She is also a volunteer cosplayer for the 501st and Rebel Legions which are global costuming groups representing Star Wars characters. For the last 6 years, Eeka has been involved with coordinating many events including Make-A-Wish Foundation send-offs, appearances for Star Wars Night at Lake Monsters games, and local library events for Star Wars Reads month, to name a few. They organized their Vermont Squad’s first-ever appearance in the Vermont Pride Parade in 2019, which was also the first year that the Legions were given permission by Disney and Lucas Films to be publicly involved with LGBTQ+ pride events. She hopes to bring the enthusiasm and love that she puts into
everything for the LGBTQ+ community in her role as Momentum Coordinator.

Shea holds experience as a born and chosen rural queer; as an advocate for survivors of domestic and sexual violence; as a youth worker; as an educator about consent, gender and sexuality, and violence prevention and response; and as an organizer for abolitionist responses to violence and harm. Shea has facilitated everything from town committees to community processes to workshops and popular education to funerals to performance spaces and beyond. Shea brings years of practice, study, knowledge, and lots of energy to the role of Safe Space Rural Access Coordinator.

Shea is queer and gender expansive, chronically ill, fat, rural, white, college and community educated, middle class, and a survivor. Growing up mostly in the Midwest, Shea has lived in so-called Southern Vermont for over a decade, and now resides in the woods with an awesome partner, some sweet animals, the beautiful land, an amazing community of friends and family, a pretty great costume closet, and lots of plants.

Trans Masc Support Group Facilitator
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Trans Program Facilitator 

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