GLAAD Names Sarah Kate Ellis as New President

After a rigorous search, GLAAD’s National Board of Directors has chosen Sarah Kate Ellis as the CEO and president of the media advocacy organization.

Ellis, who most recently served as senior vice president of global marketing at Martini Media, is an award-winning media executive with a distinguished career at Time, Inc. and Conde Nast. At Time, Inc, she advocated for LGBT issues and visibility as co-chair of OUT, and helped grow the women’s interest magazine Real Simple into one of the organization's most successful brands.

The mother of twins recently co-authored a book in 2011, Times Two, Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made, alongside her wife, Kristen Ellis-Henderson. The couple of eight years married in 2011 in their hometown on Long Island.

“While our community has made great strides in recent years, our movement has an important and critical journey ahead," Ellis said in a statement.  "Together with our dedicated staff, I will push for a culture where everyone in the LGBT community is fully welcomed and respected by our neighbors. I look forward to leading GLAAD and creating a world where LGBT people and our families have the freedom to joyously—and openly—live a life they love."

Set to begin her leadership role in January 2014, Ellis will succeed Herndon Graddick, who resigned in May of this year. Dave Montez has served as GLAAD’s acting president in the interim. GLAAD leadership, which spent several months in their selection of a new leader, is confident that Ellis will excel in the duties of her position.

"Sarah Kate is a new kind of leader, one that will take the LGBT movement into the next decade and beyond," stated Jenny Boylan, national co-chair of the Board of Directors and chair of the Search Committee. "Her history as a brilliant, articulate, and proudly out media executive makes her an ideal fit to lead GLAAD. When she and her wife appeared on the cover of Time, she became a living symbol of the fight for marriage equality and her selection as GLAAD's new leader is a clear sign of where the LGBT movement is going next: toward equality for all LGBT Americans in the workplace, in the family, and in local communities." After a rigorous search, GLAAD’s National Board of Directors has chosen Sarah Kate Ellis as the CEO and president of the media advocacy organization.