Board of Directors
Mona Rae Mason
Mona works for National Development and Research Institutes as Field Coordinator for The Transgender Project, a federally-funded study of the male-to-female transgender population of the greater New York metro area. She has been out and active in the transgender community in New York City and Northeastern Pennsylvania for several years. Mona speaks at various transgender support groups and organizations and has most recently been invited to speak at the 20th Annual Conference of The International Foundation for Gender Education.
Pauline Park
Pauline is chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), the first statewide transgender advocacy organization in New York, which she co-founded in June 1998.
In 2002, Pauline led the campaign for passage of the amendments to the New York City Human Rights Law protecting transgender people. She served on the working group that helped to draft guidelines – adopted by the Commission on Human Rights in December 2004 – for implementation of the new law. Pauline negotiated inclusion of gender identity and expression in the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA), a safe schools bill currently pending in the New York state legislature, and the first fully transgender-inclusive legislation introduced in that body. She also serves on the steering committee of the coalition that secured enactment of the Dignity in All Schools Act by the New York City Council in September 2004.
Pauline received a master's degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has written widely on LGBT issues and has conducted transgender sensitivity training sessions for a wide range of social service providers and community-based organizations.
Todd D. Robichaud
Todd is General Counsel of Alacra, Inc. Todd’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and business disputes. Todd is experienced in all aspects of federal and state court proceedings, and has appeared before various state and federal administrative agencies and alternative dispute resolution venues. He is a member of the Bars of the State of New York, the District of Columbia, and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. He is a former member of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York's Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights. He is a frequent contributor to legal publications and has authored, among other pieces, Defense of Marriage - or Attack on Family?, which appeared in The National Law Journal.
Todd received his law degree from The University of Michigan Law School and his bachelor's degree from The University of Chicago.
Michael D. Silverman
Michael has been a member of TLDEF’s Board of Directors, as well as its Executive Director, since it was founded. In addition to his work at TLDEF, Michael is Adjunct Professor of Law at Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, teaching courses on gender, sexuality and the law. He has worked as an attorney in the LGBT civil rights movement since 1994. As a cooperating attorney with Lambda Legal, Michael worked on a number of groundbreaking cases, including Baehr v. Miike, one of the earliest challenges to restrictions on the freedom to marry, and Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. In that case, Michael represented a coalition of religious organizations opposed to the Scouts’ exclusionary policy, and his brief (cover, tables, brief) submitted to the United States Supreme Court on their behalf was cited in the opinion of the dissenting justices. While on a Georgetown University Law Center Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship, Michael taught in the law school’s domestic violence clinic and worked in the legal department at NARAL Pro-Choice America. Immediately prior to joining TLDEF, Michael worked for four years in New York Lawyers for the Public Interest’s Access to Health Care Program and Disability Law Center. In that capacity, he provided technical assistance to numerous community groups seeking to end discrimination in access to health care on the basis of race and ethnicity. He also successfully prosecuted large scale litigation in conjunction with the United States Department of Justice against hospitals for violations of, among other things, the Americans With Disabilities Act. He is thrilled to be back in the movement for transgender equality.
Michael is a graduate of Vassar College and The University of Michigan Law School.
Dinh Tu Tran
Dinh is pursuing her L.L.M. degree at Georgetown University Law Center. She has worked as an attorney on many crucial issues facing transgender people. In 2002, she received a Tom Steel Fellowship to help queer youth of color overcome poverty and homelessness. With that fellowship, she started a legal clinic at the Health Outreach to Teens Program at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City. Through that clinic, Dinh helped many transgender youth change their names and advance their civil rights. In 2003, she joined Advocates for Children where she focused on the barriers facing LGBT youth in education. Dinh directed the first study of discrimination and harassment against LGBT youth in New York City Schools, entitled "In Harm's Way: A Survey of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students who Speak about Harassment and Discrimination in New York City Schools".
Dinh is a graduate of Vassar College and Rutgers School of Law.
