It’s been an exciting few months at the Campaign for Southern Equality as we’ve been growing our team. These new team members bring so much leadership and heart to our work to achieve legal and lived equality across the South, doing so with deep commitments to equity and empathy.
Click here to meet all of our team members – and please join us in sending an especially warm welcome to our newest team members:
Leila Barazandeh – Field Organizer
Leila is a proud Iranian-American who was raised in Carrboro, NC. She now happily lives in West Asheville by the French Broad River. She brings to the team a strong background in campaign management, field directing, and community outreach throughout Western North Carolina. Many of her professional accomplishments and future aspirations are based on her grassroots organizing work on issues primarily on economic justice, voter education & protection, immigration rights, and community policing.
Al Murray – Director of Engagement and Organizational Development
Al was born and raised in Western Kentucky and has made Asheville home since 2012. At CSE, Al has coordinated events to build and strengthen relationships within the LGBTQ community and amplify the voices of LGBTQ Southerners. When not in the office, Al operates a metalworking studio, creating steel sculptures and decorative architectural metalwork.
Liz Williams – Artist in Residence
Through means of photography, digital mixed media, and graphic design, Liz seeks to collaborate with her community and create uplifting artwork and conversation reflective of the LGBTQ identity and the nuances of it. In doing so, she hopes to create work that is a catalyst for empowerment and positive change. During her spare time she enjoys singing, dancing, and laughing with her wife Amanda, along with napping with her two cats.
Cenzontle – Bilingual Communications Consultants
CSE is excited to have expanded our work with Cenzontle Language Justice Cooperative to include coordinating interpretation and translation across all of our work. Cenzontle believes in language justice to uplift all human dignity. Cenzontle is a cooperative of interpreters, translators and consultants that strive to build bridges between communities working for liberation.
We’re grateful that you’re on the Campaign for Southern Equality team, too – and we’d love it if you could help spread the word about our work. Please share our pledge to support LGBTQ equality in the South with your friends and family members on social media, and help build this movement!
