2012 LGBT Heroes

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Dr. Jei Africa

Dr. Jei Africa is the health equity initiatives manager with the Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Division of the San Mateo County health system. As such she provides leadership and guidance to promote effective and culturally responsive services into the core functioning of county health services. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and a certified addiction treatment counselor and maintains a consulting and private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco.

Jeff Cotter

Jeff Cotter is a native of the United Kingdom and has worked in the HIV/AIDS and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) civil rights fields since 1987. In 2000, he founded Rainbow World Fund (RWF) to promote LGBT philanthropy in the area of global humanitarian relief and to provide a platform and a united voice for LGBT compassion and concern. RWF helps people who suffer from hunger, poverty, disease, oppression and war by raising awareness and funds to support relief efforts around the world.

Roger Doughty

Roger Doughty has served as executive director of the San Francisco-based Horizons Foundation, the nation's oldest LGBT community foundation since 2002. Prior to joining the foundation, Roger was executive director of Horizons Community Services in Chicago and worked as director of programs for the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. In an earlier phase of his career, he worked as an attorney specializing in refugee, immigration and asylum cases involving gender-related persecution and sexual orientation. He has also served on the boards of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission and Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom.

Tom Nolan

Tom Nolan was selected executive director of Project Open Hand in 1994, a position he held for 17 years. Tom led the campaign to purchase the agency's home on Polk Street and to renovate the facility with a commercial kitchen and grocery center. He also led the effort to expand the client base to include the homebound and critically-ill and seniors in congregate sites in San Francisco and Alameda County while continuing to serve those living with HIV/AIDS. The building now houses Shanti and the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center as well as Project Open Hand. Tom was also the first openly gay person to serve as president for a board of supervisors in one of California's 58 counties.

Also on KQED.org this week ...