Board of Directors

SaVanna Wanzer

She/Her/Hers

Founder and CEO

SaVanna KB Wanzer's community activism spans over 20 years. In 2007, with the support of ReGina Newkirk and Dave Mallory, she founded TransPride. In 2018, SaVanna's second vision came to life with an event called May Is: "All About Trans”, or May Is:, a month long celebration of Being, Living and Loving Transgender people. SaVanna quickly established a strong leadership team, handpicking 8 diverse Super-Star community
members that make up the Board of Directors of May Is: During her years of service to the community, SaVanna's personal milestones include:

First trans woman to serve on Whitman-Walker Health Board;
First trans woman to serve on Capital Pride Board DC Flux Chair.
Trans 101 facilitator
Co-facilitator Trans Dimensional support group 2016-17
Co-sponsor various youth-focused mentor and employment programs
Several community service honors and awards

While SaVanna acknowledges that hard work for the transgender community is not always easy, she is
nowhere near finishing her work and does not plan on stopping anytime soon.

Ian Brown

He/Him/His

TransPride, Chair

Ian is an Information Technology Professional and Army Veteran who’s military career spanned 23-plus years, three wartime deployments, two overseas peace time tours and multiple leadership roles. He has earned a Master of Arts in Information Technology Management and is a trained full-stack web developer.

His lived experience in the intersections of various cultures informs his passion for advocacy and program development, namely within the transgender community. He works to highlight the concerns of the most marginalized among us and to amplify the voices of those that have been silenced.

He currently serves as a board member of Keshet - For LGBTQ Equality in Jewish Life; board member, Tagg Magazine Scholarship Fund; Officer at Large of the Western Hemisphere, World Congress of GLBT Jews; board member, May Is: All About Trans; and community partner, Wanda Alston Foundation.

Ian is a former Capital Pride Alliance board member and the Programming Committee co-chair to the Bet Mishpachah Board of Directors. He was the 2019 Harvey Milk Chesed Award Recipient and has served as the Co-Producer of the WC GLBT Jews & Keshet Transgender Day of Remembrance Memorial and Panel Discussion (2020), Executive Producer of Capital Trans Pride (2018-2019), a panelist for the FLUX Transgender Veterans Panel Discussion (2018) and the keynote speaker for the Bet Mishpachah Transgender Day of Remembrance service (2017).

Ian is also a self-proclaimed foodie, fitness enthusiast, lover of live music and a proud fur-parent.

Diedre Gray

She/Her/Hers

Board President

Whether performing music, mentoring people, or working to end HIV, it was clear from
an early age that Diedre was destined for a non-traditional life walk. As a gospel artist,
music teacher as well as a health-care professional, Diedre knows that for some, feeling
connected and having their hear touched can be the difference between life and death.
So she works hard to bring her life perspective and sensitivity to every situation.
Although she is proud to have graduated from Bowie State University with her BS in
music, then impacting and changing young lives while teaching music at DuVal HS, now
serving as District of Columbia Health Department Transgender Health Coordinator,
Diedre is most proud to live her authentic truth without apology, explanation or
validation. Diedre believes she truly is where God has her to be. Minister Diedre knows that
through God 1st and then community, all things are possible.

Maverick Hill

He/Him/His

Secretary

Maverick Hill works for the Department of the Treasury as a financial program specialist. He is an Army veteran; His 8-year service includes 2 deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maverick holds a masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

He is a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Mental Health Advisory Council (MAHC) with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He serves as on the board of Pride in Federal Service, an inter-agency employee resource group for LGBTQ+ federal employees. He's volunteered as a a peer-support specialist at Whitman Walker Health since 2018 and co-leads a support group twice a month, for transgender, gender-nonconforming and non-binary individuals.

Maverick is an advocate and uses his experience to help individuals at the national and state levels, understand issues impacting the transgender community. He lives in Washington D.C and

volunteers as much free time as possible to LGBTQ organizations.

Christopher Holleman

He/Him/His

Treasurer CFO

Christopher Holleman served as Chief Financial Officer of Whitman-Walker Health, a DC landmark LGBTQ FQHC from 2009 to 2017 and continues to serve the organization in a leadership role. Prior to joining WWH, Christopher served as Controller of Population Services International in DC and ACRIA, an AIDS Research nonprofit located in New York City. Prior to entering the nonprofit community, Christopher worked as a manager for Time Warner and NCCUA as bank auditor. With 33 years of experience, he served on the Board of the Hearth Foundation from 2011 to 2017 as both President and Treasurer. After 23 years in the DC metro area, he returned to his home state. Christopher currently lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife Heather, daughter Samantha, and family cats Lily and Mia.

Amy Nelson

She/Her/Hers

Legal Advisor

Amy Nelson is the Director of Legal Services at Whitman-Walker Health (WWH) in Washington, DC, a holistic community health center and the oldest medical-legal partnership (since 1986!) offering transgender, primary, and HIV healthcare; mental health and addiction services; dental care; medical case management; and legal services. WWH specializes in serving DC’s LGBTQI and HIV communities and opens its doors to all clients regardless of status or income. In 2017, WWH served more than 16,000 persons, including more than 3,000 legal clients -- one-fifth of whom identify as transgender.

Amy is a frequent speaker on trans health and legal issues and managed the creation of DC’s first name and gender change legal clinic in 2012. In 2014, Amy was recognized as a “Shero of the Movement” by the DC Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and honored with Capital TransPride’s Engendered Spirit award.

David Joseph Moody

He/Him/His

Gay Men's Advisor

David Joseph Moody was born in San Antonio, Texas to a military family. His father, Colonel Moody’s exemplary service inspired David’s own enlistment with the US Navy. Following his five years of service aboard the USS SE Morison (FFG-13), he found his way back to DC, eventually managing Smith and Wollensky before it’s closure. He then pursued his degree in Computer Science at the University of Washington DC. For the past five years, he has been involved in Washington DC’s LGBTQ community, starting from a referral for services at HIPS from Casa Ruby. At HIPS, he became a staff member, working in HIV prevention and linkage as a Community Health Worker attached to Whitman-Walker Health. In that capacity, he developed strong ties to the transgender community, and currently works as the Manager of Community Engagement at Metro Health, (formerly the Carl Vogel Center) where he has developed a team focusing on prevention for high-risk individuals, including transgender individuals and men who have sex with men. He leads the outreach team at the clinic, working with a passionate fervor to address barriers to care and provide prevention services to the community at large, with a focus on transgender and MSM populations of color. A strong advocate for the community, he is also a consumer liaison for the DC collaborative, providing training to consumers on quality HIV care. He's also avidly chasing the Red Angel around the galaxy with Michael Burnham and the rest of the crew.