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Ron Indra
Director, Safe Schools Project
Ron Indra, who has lived in Santa Cruz for the past 32 years, has been teaching at Harbor High School for over 28 years and has been active in the teacher's union for the past 25 years. He was the founding GSA Advisor for Harbor's "Rainbow Society" GSA 14 years ago. He is also a member of the Santa Cruz City Schools (SCCS) GLBT Task Force and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education Task Force, helping to implement AB537 in the SCCS school district and Santa Cruz County. Currently, Mr. Indra is the AB 537 officer at Harbor High. Mr. Indra has degrees in Political Theory, Philosophy and a JD and sits on a number of boards of directors as their legal advisor. He also has run summer camps for teenagers and has been a financial consultant. Mr. Indra has been nominated as an "Educator of the Year" in California, as a QYLA "Ally to Queer Youth," and was honored with a County Proclamation at the Santa Cruz County Gay Pride for his work with queer youth in schools. Recently, Mr. Indra received an Outstanding Teacher (grades 9-12) award at the 2010 Eddy Awards sponsored by the Santa Cruz Education Foundation.
Jacob Breslow
Research Assistant, Safe Schools Project
Jacob Breslow is a UCSC almuni, Point Foundation Scholar, and previous QYLA "Ally to Queer Youth" nominee. Most recently, he served as the 2009 Queer Youth Leadership Awards (QYLA) Project Coordinator and has been involved with the Task Force for approximately four years. In the Fall 2007, he concluded a six-month internship in London where he helped plan the prestigious Pre-Launch for LGBT History Month (UK). Mr. Breslow came out in middle school and was very involved with GLBT issues when he was in high school -- serving as the president of his high school's Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) student club in the East Bay for two years. In February 2008, he attended the national "Creating Change" GLBT conference in Detroit. Mr. Breslow has an extensive background on queer youth issues and will bring a great deal of experience to this project.
Lex
Coordinator, Queer Youth Leadership Awards
Lex, a 2009 Ally to Queer Youth awardee, is a spoken word artist in Santa Cruz and a UCSC Alumni (Oaks 2005). Lex facilitates cultural competency workshops on anti-racism work and combating homophobia and transphobia both locally and nationally. Lex performs locally and nationally. This year marks Lex's fifth year with QYLA, first performing in 2008. Lex served as the 2010 QYLA coordinator.
Stuart Rosenstein
Chair, Queer Youth Task Force
Stuart Rosenstein, chair of the Task Force since 2000, has worked on queer youth issues for the last 10 years. He has also served on several boards that address the needs of the general LGBTIQ community including PFLAG-Santa Cruz County and the Diversity Center of Santa Cruz County. He is an alumni of UCSC, Kresge ’99, where he studied American Studies. Before moving to Santa Cruz in 1997, while living in Los Angeles, he was a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Western Region. The homophobia he faced growing up in Texas feeds his hopes in creating a safer space for queer youth and the community at large.
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