Executive Director
Ross D. Levi is the Executive Director of the Empire State Pride Agenda and Foundation, New York’s statewide civil rights organization committed to achieving equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) New Yorkers and our families. Splitting his time between Albany and New York City, Ross oversees the Pride Agenda, Inc.’s legislative and political activities, as well as the education and community organizing work of the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation. The Pride Agenda is New York’s largest statewide LGBT civil rights organization with an almost $4 million budget and 25 full-time staff.
Ross was named Executive Director in May of 2010. Prior to that, he served as the Pride Agenda’s Legislative Counsel from 2000 to 2003 and Director of Public Policy and Governmental Affairs from 2004 to 2006, when he oversaw and conducted the organization’s lobbying activities; and as Director of Public Policy & Education from 2007 to 2010, when he was responsible for developing the organization’s policy priorities and public positions, and for the creation and maintenance of educational materials and programs.
Ross has been directly involved in every state governmental victory ever achieved by the Pride Agenda, including most recently New York’s marriage equality law, which doubled the number of Americans able to marry the person they love. Other statewide measures he helped secure include: the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act; the Hate Crimes Act of 2000; making the state’s 9/11 relief inclusive of same-sex couples; guaranteeing domestic partners hospital visitation, legal authority over a loved one’s bodily remains, access to Family Court and medical decision making authority; and securing over $50 million of funding for LGBT health and human services. Ross was also part of the passage of many other state and local ordinances, regulations and Executive Orders affecting New York’s LGBT community, including the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in state employment.
Before joining the Pride Agenda, Ross was Legislative Director for New York State Senator Nellie Santiago of Brooklyn. He began his work in state government in 1997 with a New York State Senate Fellowship. While completing his law degree, he was a legal intern with Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Office of Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, Judge David Trager of the Eastern District of New York and the Civil Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
In the early 1990s when he lived in New York City, Ross was a longtime member of Heritage of Pride, the organizers of New York’s LGBT Pride events. He was the Training Coordinator of the Pride March for many years, including the Stonewall 25th Anniversary March in 1994.
Ross has received honors and awards including the inaugural Equality Federation Leadership Award, Citizen Action New York State Progressive Leadership Award, Council Leadership and Harvey Milk Awards from the Capitol District Gay and Lesbian Community Council, NYC Log Cabin Republicans Ally of Equality, and the first AT&T Bold Honor. He has also been chosen to be a Rockwood Leadership Institute Fellow for LGBTQ Advocacy, a NYS Bar Association Labor and Employment Section Diversity Fellow and Grand Marshall of the Hudson NY Pride Parade.
Ross has served on a number Boards of Directors including the New York Civil Liberties Union Capital Region Chapter, the Equality Federation and the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council. He served on the Transition Committees of Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and currently on the New York State Judicial Screening Committee, Third Department.
Ross graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1997 with several awards, and was a Sparer Public Interest Fellow, a recipient of the Richardson Merit Scholarship and a Notes & Comments Editor with the Journal of Law and Policy. He received his undergraduate degree in Communications from Boston University where he graduated cum laude. He has seven years professional experience in publicity and public relations from his previous career in the film industry. His book, The Celluloid Courtroom: A History of Legal Cinema, has been published by Praeger Publishers, an imprint of the Greenwood Publishing Group. Ross was an adjunct professor in the University of Albany’s Women’s Studies Department. He is co-author of the original plays “Call Me When You Get Home,” produced at the WAMC Performing Arts Center in Albany, and “And Then They Were Married: A Very New York Gay Wedding,” produced at Franklin Plaza in Troy. He was also a professional DJ at top New York City nightclubs including Roxy, Limelight, Tunnel and Club USA. He lives in rural Stephentown, NY with his partner and their dogs and cats.