Staff
Diane Chan, Intern
Diane graduated from Northwestern University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and international studies. At Northwestern, she concentrated her studies on the relationship between health and politics, and in particular, on the political, social, and cultural dimensions of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to interning at TLDEF, she worked as an intern at the HIV Law Project in New York City. She has also served as an intern in various congressional offices, including the office of Congressman Chris Van Hollen and the office of Congressman Brad Sherman.
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M. Dru Levasseur, Staff Attorney
Dru joins TLDEF after serving two years as a law clerk to the Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court. Dru initiated and chairs the Transgender Committee of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Law Association of Greater New York (LeGaL) and is a member of the Legal Issues Committee of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). While in law school, he worked at the ACLU of Connecticut, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Transgender Civil Rights Project, Western Massachusetts Legal Services, and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. He received his law school’s Public Interest Scholarship and the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Sexual Orientation and the Law. Dru initiated and co-organized New England’s first-ever Transgender Pride March and Rally, which was attended by a thousand people in Northampton, Massachusetts in June 2008. He has spoken at Yale Law School, UConn Medical School, Northampton Pride, and Lavender Law.
Dru received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from the University of Massachusetts and his J.D. from Western New England College School of Law.
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Rita Petite, Bookkeeper
Rita is TLDEF’s bookkeeper. She also works as a bookkeeper for other non-profit organizations and teaches QuickBooks. Prior to joining TLDEF, she was in charge of accounts payable and payroll for the town of Darien, CT and then used her masters degree in music education to teach. She taught band and orchestra for over ten years before playing the trombone for national Broadway tours and on cruise ships. Rita settled in New York City in 2000 and has been performing as both an instrumentalist and actor. She is a past president of Crossdressers International and is an avid supporter of TLDEF.
Barbara Shulman, Name Change Project Coordinator
Bobbi is TLDEF's Name Change Project Coordinator. She has a Master's Degree in Education and is a New York State certified school psychologist. Before joining TLDEF, she worked as a psychologist in the New York City school system and at United Cerebral Palsy. Later, she worked as an administrator at the New York State Office of Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD). She retired from OMRDD after 35 years. Bobbi joined TLDEF after retirement because she wanted to help provide needed services to the transgender community.
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Michael D. Silverman, Executive Director
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.
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