Ellen Gurzinsky
Template:TOCnestleft Ellen Gurzinsky joined Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues as the Program Director in February 2008. In this capacity, she oversees the design and implementation of the organization’s programs, projects and convenings. She is currently overseeing the Common Vision program, a national multi year initiative that will convene grantmakers who share a vision of healthy communities and widespread equity.
Gurzinsky serves on the board[1]of the Applied Research Center in Oakland California and the Board of Directors of Queers for Economic Justice in New York City.
Background
“I grew up as a jewish girl in lower Manhattan where my Dad had a neighborhood candy store. I saw the neighborhood gentrify and become the East Village and I became acutely aware of class and race differences at a very young age. In the summer of 1968 I turned that knowledge to activism against the Vietnam War and so it began…”
Ellen Gurzinsky founded Windowbox Coaching and Consulting in January 2009 after nearly thirty years of leadership of both community based and national progressive organizations. Her work has been focused on workers' rights and labor education, women's advocacy, violence against women, LGBTQ rights and movement building.
Ellen’s organizational experience reflects her commitment to supporting social justice movements. Ellen served as the Executive Director and President of the Funding Exchange, a national association of public foundations that support progressive social change. She was also Program Director of Funders for LGBTQ Issues where is developed and facilitated projects, conferences and other programs on racial equity and other issues of concern to LGBTQ grantmakers.
Previously, Ellen was the director of the Park Slope Safe Homes Project; a community-based program for battered women and their children, and co-founded the Coalition of Battered Women's Advocates in New York City. Ellen also has deep roots in worker education and the labor movement and was a founding member of the NYC Trade Union Committee against Domestic Violence. She was also full time faculty at the District 65 College for Applied Social Sciences - a program of Hofstra University that awarded rank and file workers the benefits of a college education. She also served as the Associate Director of the Murphy Institute for Worker Education at City University of New York.
Ellen earned her Masters in Social Work in Community Organizing and was certified as an Executive Coach by New York University. She has taught several courses at the graduate level at Hunter College School of Social Work.
Education
Ellen Gurzinsky earned her Bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and holds a Master of Social Work degree from Hunter College School of Social Work in Community Organizing.
Activism/career
From 1995-2006 Gurzinsky served as the Executive Director and President of the Funding Exchange—a national association of public foundations which supports progressive social change.
During her eleven year tenure at the helm of the Funding Exchange, she oversaw organizational assets of over $30 million. During her tenure, the national office’s grant making dollars more than doubled - from $2 million to over $5 million and the donor advised program increased significantly. Ellen managed the Richard Nathan Charitable Trusts - an activist/donor collaboration which granted over $1 million to LGBT organizations over 5 years.
Gurzinsky was the Associate Director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education & Labor Studies, worked at the Hofstra University /UAW District 65 Worker Education program and in it’s very early days, Ellen was the Executive Director of the National Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), where she helped establish CLUW as the national clearinghouse for union women She also served as Director of the Health Careers Opportunity Program at Hunter College School of Social Work —where she still teaches part time.
Gurzinsky was the director of the Park Slope Safe Homes Project; a community based program for battered women and their children and co-founded the Coalition of Battered Women’s Advocates in New York City. She was also a founding member of the NYC Trade Union Committee against Domestic Violence.
Progressives for Obama
In 2009 Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues was listed as a signer of the Progressives for Obama website.[2]
RoadMap
Ellen Gurzinsky is a consultant with RoadMap, a Freedom Road Socialist Organization affiliated consultancy group .[3]
"BILL FLETCHER JR, ED OTT & OTHERS"
Left Labor Project held a forum at 1199 SEIU, 310 W 43rd St, 14 January 2016, 18:00 till Thursday 14 January 2016.
- The run-up to the Presidential primaries has unleashed a right-wing frenzy that's unprecedented in its naked scapegoating and repressive policy ideas. How do we analyze and respond to these developments, through our labor and community groups, and in the electoral arena? What new alliances, campaigns, and demands do we need?
Those signalling their support, or intention to attend on the events Wherevent page included Dara Silverman, Audrey Sasson, Jill Greenberg, Michael Dormo, Dennis Hart, David Mirtz, John Tarleton, Katrina Marie, Robert Ambaras, Ethan Frey, Maureen Silverman, Scarlett Ahmed, Caroline Unger, Emiljana Ulaj, Dahlia Goldenberg, Jessica Acee, Ferdinand Joseph, Kate Aronoff, Greg Dunkel, IrieAndrea LeDawes, Kristi Barnes, Nora Taggart, Mark Duran, Patrick Loman, Marion Lipshutz, Mindy Rubinstein-Rosier, Dego Adely, Marcus Meute, Gee Nimius, Mary Boger, Ellen Gurzinsky, Glorya Cabrera, Prince Manlaw King, Eric K. Ward, Joseph Phelan, Vince Kelley, Christine Williams, Plinio Cruz-Alvarez, Leon Pinsky, Dennis O'Neil, Eduardo Hugo Gil, John McCarthy, John Treat, David Salay, Kate Spaulding, Mohammad A. Khan, Charles Lenchner, Joshua Clennon, Chris Barron, Robel Tekleab, Jose Mangasha, Paolo Cremidis, John Dennie, Zach Liszka, Edgar E. Avalos, M. Dove Kent, Kristina Antonia Mazzocchi, John Ennis, Jon Zaccarini, L. Eljeer Hawkins, Bob Ratynski, Lorraine Barcant, Anne Mitchell, [4]