6/25 EVENT PANELIST
Cecilia Chung
Director of Evaluation and Strategic Initiatives, Transgender Law Center
She/Her/Hers
Cecilia Chung is the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Evaluations at Transgender Law Center, a Health Commissioner of San Francisco and an internationally recognized civil rights leader who advocates for HIV/AIDS awareness and care, LGBT equality, and social justice.
An immigrant from Hong Kong, Cecilia has lived in San Francisco for over 20 years where she has worked locally and internationally to advance equality and justice. During that time, she has broken ground in a number of ways including: being the first transgender woman and first Asian to be elected to lead the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration; the first transgender woman and first person living openly with HIV to Chair the San Francisco Human Rights Commission; and, an architect of the nation’s most ambitious publicly funded program addressing economic justice within the transgender community. Her community service spans nearly two decades. In 1994, she was a member of San Francisco’s Transgender Discrimination Task Force, which documented widespread discrimination against transgender people through a groundbreaking report. The work of the Taskforce led the City to adopt many pioneering anti-discrimination ordinances and policies. During her tenure as President of the SF Pride Board, she led the organization in achieving a new standard of inclusion and excellence.
In 2002, she joined the Board of the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center and currently consults with them on an innovative mobile HIV testing project for transgender youth. In 2004, as a founding producer of Trans March, she helped organize one of the world’s largest annual transgender events which has since been replicated in cities across the U.S. In 2005, she became the first Deputy Director of the Transgender Law Center and is widely credited with shaping the organization’s mission and programs. In 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Cecilia to the Human Rights Commission where she served for seven years before Mayor Ed Lee appointed her to the Health Commission.
As an Asian transgender woman living with HIV, she has dedicated herself to ending stigma, discrimination, and violence in all communities.
This campaign is made possible through a grant from Gilead Sciences, Inc.
