STAFF

Beth Teper, Executive Director

Beth was ten when her mother came out as a lesbian and twelve when her best friend and many other 'friends' abandoned and harassed her after finding out about her mom. It wasn't until Beth was 24 that she found a community of other young people with families like hers.

Joining COLAGE over a decade ago, Beth has been an active participant and leader in the LGBT family movement ever since. Prior to being COLAGE's Executive Director, Beth served on the COLAGE Steering Committee and as chair of the COLAGE Board of Directors for almost seven years.

A San Francisco native and Oakland resident--Beth attended public schools in San Francisco and graduated from Brandeis University with a B.A. in Sociology, Latin American Studies and Women's Studies.

Beth's career in community organizing began at age 9 - stuffing/sealing/stamping envelopes and selling buttons for the SF chapter of National Organization for Women. Since then, for over twenty years, Beth has worked for women's health and reproductive rights, an end to US military action and occupation, LGBT liberation and environmental sustainability. Beth brings a strong background in and passion for popular education, social, economic and environmental justice, and youth empowerment to her work with COLAGE.

Immediately preceding her tenure on COLAGE staff, Beth thrived as a leader of outdoor adventures and activism: leading wilderness expeditions, teaching environmental ethics, and sharing the wonders of food and nature with urban youth and families. The highest peak she's climbed is Mt. Whitney and the biggest waves she's rafted are on the Colorado in the Grand Canyon.

Beth loves to read, dance, travel, spend time with her sweetie Anna (and their dogs Lily & Sadie) and is currently obsessed with playing double-15 Dominoes.

Carlos Uribe, National Program Director

As National Program Director, Carlos works to cultivate and support COLAGE chapters and leaders to increase their ability to create long lasting change for our families. In his new role, Carlos will also work to ensure the voices of COLAGErs are represented in the media and in debates on policies that affect our families.

Carlos is a California native and comes to COLAGE with nearly a decade of experience organizing youth and low income communities of color. He has won national recognition for his work to enable young people to learn about science and environmental justice. Before joining COLAGE staff, Carlos worked at ACORN, leading the struggle for tenant's rights, neighborhood and citywide services, equitable urban development, safe schools, quality education, violence prevention and affordable housing. Through his community organizing efforts, many of the initiatives he worked on led to systemic changes in local, county, state and national arenas.

Carlos currently lives in Oakland, California where, with his partner and teenage sister, they tend to their almost quarter acre self-sustainable garden-- complete with chickens. Carlos is active in the Oakland community and teaches gardening and self-sufficiency workshops in his backyard.

Chiah Connolly-Ingram, Fall Intern

A Bay Area native, Chiah grew up in San Francisco with two moms and two uncles. She went to Lick-Wilmerding High School and now attends City College of San Francisco as a film major. Often you can find Chiah at the movies, reading a book, in a park, at a concert or just generally hanging around the Bay Area with various people at various events. Chiah works at the Mission Cliffs Rock Climbing Gym and has been a counselor at Camp It Up - a camp for LGBTQ families. She hopes to use her filmmaking skills in the spring on a documentary with COLAGE.

Jamon Franklin, Operations and Finance Manager

Jamon grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with one brother, one straight mom and two gay dads. From there she moved as far away as possible to Santa Cruz where she graduated in 2001 from UCSC with a degree in Women's Studies. During her time in San Francisco, she has volunteered with various social justice organizations in the Bay Area and enjoys riding bikes, hiking, reading and pretending that she likes the rain. After participating in the Felicia Park Rogers Summer Internship with COLAGE she signed on as our Operations Manager. In this capacity she will oversee COLAGE's bookkeeping and finances, office management, Human Resources, technology - basically serving as a "Jamon of all trades."

Mark Snyder, Communications Coordinator

In his new role as Communications Coordinator, Mark assembles COLAGE's online newsletters along with our semi-annual publication Just For Us. Additionally, Mark works to improve our website and social networks to ensure COLAGErs, as well as their families, are kept up to date on all things COLAGE.

Mark, who recently became a COLAGEr, has been advocating for queer liberation and social justice since he left his home in rural Pennsylvania to attend college in 2000. Mark has always enjoyed utilizing the latest communications tools to advance broad social justice efforts. He was one of the first kids in his elementary school class to gain access to the internet, and as soon as he did, he started organizing online.

Mark has worked at the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth as a risk reduction counselor and office manager, served on the Board of directors for Greater Boston PFLAG, and worked at Prescription Access Litigation where he helped plaintiffs share their stories in lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, Mark worked at Our Family Coalition where he coordinated communications strategies and organized programming for adoptive and transgender parents. He is also the founder of QueerToday.com, an online hub for queer activists.

Mark lives in downtown San Francisco with his partner of five years, and hopes to be a parent one day.