LOS ANGELES — Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, announced two new members of its senior leadership team on Friday.
Craig Pulsipher will serve as Equality California’s new Legislative Director, based out of Sacramento. He replaces Tami Martin, who left the organization in December 2022 to work for newly-elected Assemblyman (and former Equality California executive director) Rick Chavez Zbur as his Legislative Director. Prior to joining Equality California, Pulsipher served as the Associate Director of Government Affairs at APLA Health in Los Angeles where he oversaw statewide HIV and health care policy, legislation, budget, and political strategy. During his time at APLA Health, Pulsipher led a multi-year campaign to reform California’s outdated HIV criminal laws, helped pass groundbreaking legislation to expand access to HIV treatment and PrEP, and spearheaded the formation of a new statewide coalition to end the HIV, STD, viral hepatitis, and overdose epidemics. He received graduate degrees in Public Policy and Social Welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles. Pulsipher will report to Executive Director Tony Hoang.
Theresa Carlisle will serve as Equality California’s Director of Human Resources, based out of Los Angeles. She is responsible for all human resource functional areas including benefits administration, talent acquisition, and retention, compensation and performance appraisal, leadership development, and workforce culture. Prior to joining Equality California, Carlisle was the U.S. People and Culture Manager for Denmark-based Linkfire, Inc., a music industry technology company. She has over twenty years of people and culture experience in the healthcare, behavioral health, and imaging industries. She graduated from Antioch University with a B.A. in Business Management. Carlisle will report to Hoang.
“We are thrilled to welcome Theresa and Craig to our leadership team as we continue our mission to achieve full, lived LGBTQ+ equality in California and beyond,” said Executive Director Tony Hoang. “We’ve had the pleasure of working with Craig in multiple capacities and we look forward to the wealth of knowledge and experience he will bring as we shape up our legislative package for the year. Theresa brings over two decades of experience in helping foster productive, inclusive, and efficient workplace cultures and will be an invaluable asset to our staff.”
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
