Contributor

Eliza Byard

Executive director, GLSEN

Dr. Eliza Byard is the Executive Director of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), an organization known worldwide as an innovative leader in the education, youth development and civil rights sectors fighting to end bias-based bullying, violence and discrimination in K-12 schools and promote a culture of respect for all. For more than a decade she has shepherded the growth of GLSEN’s public education and advocacy efforts; student organizing and youth leadership development programs; professional development training for educators; research and program evaluation capacity; in-school programming such as No Name-Calling Week, which the National School Boards Association termed “one of the most used and celebrated bullying-prevention programs in the country”; and GLSEN's award-winning Think B4 You Speak Ad Council campaign. Byard has crafted advocacy strategies that have won bipartisan support for GLSEN’s issues and widespread acceptance of the urgency and importance of LGBT issues in K-12 education. She serves on the Board of Trustees for America’s Promise Alliance, the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board for Sodexo, the Steering Committee of the National Collaboration for Youth, and the LGBT Suicide Prevention Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. You can follow Dr. Byard on Twitter at @EByard.