Gabriel Foster
Gabriel Foster is a queer, black, trans, “momma’s boy” who recently relocated to New York. Prior to making his way to the Eastern Time Zone, he lived and worked in Seattle, WA with the Northwest Network of bisexual, trans, lesbian & gay survivors of abuse helping to create their youth programming. From age fifteen to twenty-six he went from a program constituent to program staff in the American Friends Service Committee’s GLBTQ Youth Program. Before making his way to New York, he most recently worked for SPARK Reproductive Justice Now to develop a program with and for LGBTQ Youth of color and allies in Atlanta, GA and with the Leeway Foundation, supporting women and trans people creating art and social change in Philadelphia, PA. After many years of preparation and community building and crushing on SRLP as an organization, it is absolutely not possible for him to be any more excited about being at SRLP and in the Big Apple!
Pooja Gehi
Pooja Gehi is a staff attorney at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project where she represents low-income, transgender and intersex people of color in the areas of discrimination, immigration, access to government benefits, proper identification and healthcare. Prior to working at SRLP she wrote criminal appeals in 4th circuit and was a member of the Justice and Solidarity Collective in Washington DC. Pooja has organized against police brutality, the prison industrial complex, immigration detention, globalization, and unfair labor practices with the Coalition of Immokalee Farm Workers. Pooja recently co-authored an article, Unraveling Injustice: Race and Class Impact of Medicaid Exclusions of Transition-Related Health Care for Transgender People with her fabulous co-worker, Gabriel Arkles. She is also a member of the Safe outside the System Collective’s step team and practices a lot of bikram yoga.
Reina Gossett
Reina Gossett joined the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in July of 2010 as the membership coordinator. Along with Gabriel Foster she will staff the newly created Movement Building Team, working to develop SRLP’s membership and community organizing work. She believes creativity & imagination are crucial for growing strong communities and practicing self determination. She also loves making collages, watching re-runs of Battlestar Galatactica and reading anything illustrated by Diane & Leo Dillon.
Daniel McGee
Daniel McGee has been involved with SRLP since 2003. He first served on the Steering Committee and then joined the Collective Development Team before becoming a staff member in 2006. Daniel has hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine and plays trumpet with the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, a collectively-run radical marching band which supports social and economic justice efforts in New York City.
Ola Osaze
Ola Osaze is a Brooklyn-based Nigerian queer transfag activist, feminist and gender liberationist of Edo and Yoruba descent. He organized with the Audre Lorde Project’s TranJustice and Immigrant Rights Work Groups for years. He has also worked as the project coordinator of the Welfare Organizing Project of Queers for Economic Justice; school/community organizer for Make the Road New York and Bushwick Community High School; and with Uhuru-Wazobia and Liberation for All Africans, two organizations focused on the human rights and social justice movements of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Africans, both in the diaspora and on the continent. As a published writer, his pieces have appeared in blogs like Black Public Media, the Trans Atlantic Times, and anthologies, such as Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought.
Elana Redfield
Elana Redfield is a Staff Attorney with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and the Director of SRLP’s Survival and Self Determination Project. Elana received her Bachelor’s degree from New York University in 2003, and her J.D. from the City University School of Law in 2009 with a clinical focus on immigration law. A longtime advocate for grassroots organizing strategies and community leadership in legal work, Elana co-authored “The Role of Lawyers In Trans Liberation: Building a Transformative Movement For Social Change” with Pooja Gehi and Gabriel Arkles. In her role as staff attorney, Elana assists hundreds of community members each year in name change proceedings, government identification issues, health care challenges and immigration proceedings. Elana is also one of SRLP’s primary trainers, having trained over 500 service providers in transgender awareness, criminal justice, disability justice, and immigration issues. In her free time, Elana is an avid surfer and performs in a country & western band.
Alisha Williams
Alisha Williams is a Staff Attorney with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and the Director of SRLP’s Prisoner Justice Project. Alisha is a former SRLP legal intern and long time Collective Member. After graduating from Cardozo Law School, Alisha moved to Philadelphia where she remained committed to performing prisoner justice work and community organizing. She hopes to continue to be an essential member of the Philly Books Through Bars Collective even after her return to NYC. As a passionate legal advocate for low-income and transgender communities, Alisha is very excited to join SRLP’s staff!