GLAAD Announces Sarah Kate Ellis as President

After a rigorous search, GLAAD's national board of directors has chosen Sarah Kate Ellis as the group's chief executive officer and president. She is the second woman to helm the media advocacy organization.

Ellis, who most recently served as senior vice president of global marketing at Martini Media, is an award-winning media executive with a distinguished career at Time Inc. and Conde Nast. At Time, she advocated for LGBT issues and visibility as cochair of OUT, and helped grow the women's interest magazine Real Simple into one of the organization's most successful brands.

The mother of twins coauthored a book in 2011, Times Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made, with her wife, Kristen Ellis-Henderson. The couple of eight years married in 2011 in their hometown on Long Island, and have been profiled by numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, Time, and The Huffington Post.

"While our community has made great strides in recent years, our movement has an important and critical journey ahead," Ellis said in a statement. "Together with our dedicated staff, I will push for a culture where everyone in the LGBT community is fully welcomed and respected by our neighbors. I look forward to leading GLAAD and creating a world where LGBT people and our families have the freedom to joyously -- and openly -- live a life they love."

Set to begin her leadership role in January, Ellis will succeed Herndon Graddick, who resigned in May of this year. Dave Montez has served as GLAAD's acting president in the interim. GLAAD leaders, who spent several months selecting a new president, are confident that Ellis will excel in the position.

"Sarah Kate is a new kind of leader, one that will take the LGBT movement into the next decade and beyond," said Jenny Boylan, national cochair of the board of directors and chair of the search committee. "Her history as a brilliant, articulate, and proudly out media executive makes her an ideal fit to lead GLAAD. When she and her wife appeared on the cover of Time, she became a living symbol of the fight for marriage equality and her selection as GLAAD's new leader is a clear sign of where the LGBT movement is going next: toward equality for all LGBT Americans in the workplace, in the family, and in local communities."