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The 2008 Zena Award Goes to...
The Juno Foundation is pleased to award goddess Nadine Smith with our 2008 Zena Award. The Zena award is a humanitarian award in honor of Juno’s first grant recipient Zena Johnson, who lost her battle with cancer in 2006.
Nadine Smith has been executive director of Equality Florida since its inception in 1997 and was executive director of its predecessor, the Human Rights Task Force of Florida, prior to that. She joined the organization in 1993 after serving as one of four national co-chairs on the 1993 March on Washington and taking part in the historic, first-ever meeting between LGBT leaders and a sitting U.S. president (Clinton) in the White House.
Equality Florida is a statewide education and advocacy organization dedicated to eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender, and class. The organization reaches over 60,000 Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Supportive (GLBTS) households in Florida, making it one of the largest civil rights groups working at the state level.
During her tenure as head of Equality Florida, she has also served four terms as co-chair of the Equality Federation and served as a member of the Democratic National Committee. She has led advocacy efforts in Florida at the state level at a time of unprecedented attacks on the LGBT community, serving as Equality Florida’s lead lobbyist in Tallahassee and heading efforts to stop discriminatory legislation and ballot measures and to overturn Florida’s ban on adoption by gay and lesbian parents.
Nadine has been recognized for her national and state leadership by organizations around the nation, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Black Lesbian and Gay leadership Forum, and others. A former award-winning journalist, Nadine has written syndicated columns for various LGBT and general audience publications.
Thank you Nadine for your fearless energy and for being a force to reckon with. We applaud your efforts to advocate for all of us.
Visit Equality Florida to learn more.
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