ST. LOUIS - Leon A. Braxton, Jr., Executive Director of The LGBT Center of St. Louis, has been elected to the national CenterLink Board, it was announced on Jan. 17. CenterLink exists to support the development of strong, sustainable LGBT community centers and to build a unified center movement.
"I am very honored to be part of the CenterLink Board that oversees some 200 community centers," said Braxton. "This is not only great for The LGBT Center of St. Louis, but for the entire St. Louis LGBT community."
The CenterLink Board of Directors advises, governs, oversees policy and direction, and assists with the leadership and general promotion of the organization so as to support its mission and needs. In keeping with its organizational value of governance by an inclusive and open process, a majority of seats on the Board are held by leaders of LGBT community centers and are elected by a vote of all member centers. A limited number of Board seats are filled by appointment, in order to assure representation of diverse viewpoints and appropriate expertise to prudently govern CenterLink. Board elections are held in late Fall for two-year terms beginning in January. The CenterLink Board generally meets monthly by conference call, and in person two or three times per year.
Braxton has been omnipresent in the St. Louis LGBT community for the past 25 years and has served as Executive Director of The LGBT Center of St. Louis since September 2011. Braxton recently came out as Intersex in a December 2012 Vital VOICE column.
CenterLink was founded in 1994 as a member-based coalition to support the development of strong, sustainable LGBT community centers. The organization plays an important role in supporting the growth of LGBT centers across the country and addressing the challenges they face, by helping them to improve their organizational and service delivery capacity and increase access to public resources. Based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, CenterLink works with other national organizations to advance the rights of LGBT individuals and to provide LGBT community centers with information and analysis of key issues.
Serving over 200 LGBT community centers across the country in 46 states and the District of Columbia, as well as centers in Canada, Israel, Mexico, China, Italy and Australia, CenterLink assists newly forming community centers and helps strengthen existing LGBT centers, through networking opportunities for center leaders, peer-based technical assistance and training, and a variety of capacity building services.
