Board of Directors

Stephanie Battaglino

Stephanie is an Assistant Vice President - Communications Director at New York Life Insurance Company, located in Sleepy Hollow, New York.  She successfully transitioned on the job in October of 2005, and is the first transgendered person to do so in the 165–year history of the company.  In so doing, she worked collaboratively with NYL’s human resources executives to establish a process for successful workplace transitions for transgender employees.  She spearheaded the formation of NYLPride, the first-ever LGBT employee network group in the history of the company in May of 2007. 

Outside of New York Life, Stephanie is a tireless activist and advocate for transgender rights – both in and out of the workplace.  Stephanie is on the Board of Directors of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City, she is a former Communications Director and Board member for the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE), and is the past Chair of the organization’s endowment fund, the Winslow Street Fund.  She is a past commissioner for the Oasis Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, New Jersey, whose mission it is to foster a greater awareness and understanding of the LGBT community throughout its 120 congregations.

She is also active in Out & Equal Workplace Advocates’ Metro New York regional affiliate, having recently accepted a position to serve on the Advisory Board to the affiliate’s Leadership Council.  She also is an active member of Out & Equal’s Transgender Advisory Committee.

She is a nationally recognized speaker and workshop presenter, who conducts motivational and experiential workshops both inside the transgender community and to the public at-large.  She speaks regularly on behalf of the transgender community at colleges, churches, businesses and community groups throughout the New York metropolitan area and nationally, and facilitates the transgender support group, TrueSelves, which she conducts in cooperation with the Pride Center of New Jersey. 

Stephanie’s professional career spans over 28 years in marketing, marketing communications and related fields.  Stephanie received her BA in Communication from the University of Delaware and holds an MBA in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University.  She resides in Cliffside Park, NJ with her partner Mari and her son Andrew.   

David Brown

David Brown is a litigation associate at the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton. He earned a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in international relations and Latin American studies from Pomona College. David has been a grantmaker to human rights groups in Central America and provided legal and translation assitance to a number of LGBT rights organizations both there and in the United States. He has authored a number of publications, including a study of anti-LGBT hate crimes in Honduras and a forthcoming article in the Michigan Journal of International Law on the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Huaman Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. David was one of TLDEF's first interns.

Terry Cummings

Terry is a partner in the law firm Hitchcock & Cummings LLP.  She has spent 25 years representing clients with respect to insurance and reinsurance issues.  From organizing new carriers to challenging claims determinations, Terry has brought to bear an extensive knowledge of how these industries operate in resolving complex legal and business issues.  Terry represents large and small insurance brokerage organizations, as well as insurance carriers and self-insureds, in product design, regulatory compliance and disciplinary proceedings.  With extensive experience in both life and health issues, and property/casualty issues, Terry is unique among lawyers who practice in the insurance arena.

Terry’s career began in the 1970s at one of the United Kingdom’s largest insurance conglomerates.  After three years working in an underwriting and sales environment, Terry was accepted as a student by the London School of Economics and Political Science to read law.  After graduating with a bachelor of laws degree (LLB) in 1979, Terry moved to the U.S. and worked as a litigation paralegal for one of the country’s leading law firms.  After taking and passing the New York State bar exam in 1981, Terry was admitted to practice law in New York in March 1982.  Following admission, Terry worked as an “in-house” litigation attorney at one of the nation’s largest life insurance companies and since 1985 has been engaged in the private practice of law at several major firms. 

You can view the New York Times' profile of Terry here.

Patricia L. Gardner

Patricia Gardner has been a private consultant in architecture, planning and interiors for twenty years and has designed projects for city and state governments as well as Fortune 500 Corporations and private clients.  Patricia started her career in theater production and design, and has been a Trustee of a nonprofit cultural education foundation for twenty-five years.

She currently serves on the Transgender Community Advisory Board of the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York, and works with the Transgender Health Initiative of New York and the Transgender Project.  Patricia studied arts and theatre at Farleigh Dickenson University and architecture at Pratt Institute.

Robyn Gigl

Robyn is the managing partner of the law firm of Stein, McGuire, Pantages & Gigl, LLP, a 20 attorney law firm in New Jersey.  Robyn has been a partner in the firm for more than 20 years and in 2007 became managing partner. She has had the unique experience of running a law firm while successfully transitioning. Robyn practices primarily in the areas of employment law, business litigation, probate litigation and criminal defense.

Her employment litigation practice extends to the representation of employees and employers on a myriad of issues that include employment discrimination, wrongful termination, and employment agreements. Her business litigation practice focuses on disputes arising out of commercial transactions and contracts, shareholder, partner and owner disputes and non-compete agreements. In criminal matters, Robyn has represented a diverse clientele, including medical professionals, law enforcement officials and corporate executives.

Robyn is admitted to practice before the state and federal courts of New Jersey as well as the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She is a member of the Essex County and New Jersey State Bar Associations, and a member of the Labor & Employment Section, the Business & Commercial Litigation Committee and the LGBT Section of the New Jersey Bar Association.

Robyn is a graduate of Stonehill College and Villanova University School of Law, where she was a Member and Associate Editor of the Villanova Law Review.

Mona Rae Mason

Mona previously worked 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.

Michelle Roberts

Michelle Roberts is Associate Director in the Global Licensing & Contracts group at Standard & Poor’s.  She was formerly an Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP where she initiated and oversaw Sullivan & Cromwell’s involvement with the Name Change Project.  In September 2008, Michelle spoke on transgender legal issues at the Lavender Law conference in San Francisco, CA.

In addition to her work with the transgender community, Michelle is a reading mentor to elementary school students through “Power Lunch,” a national program that pairs corporate volunteers with students for weekly reading and mentoring sessions.

Michelle earned her LL.B. from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and her B.A. from the University of Western Ontario.

Michael D. Silverman

(hi-res photo)

Michael has been a member of TLDEF’s Board of Directors, as well as its Executive Director, since it was founded.  He has worked as an attorney in the LGBT civil rights movement since 1994.  In addition to his work at TLDEF, Michael is Adjunct Professor of Law at Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, where he teaches courses on gender, sexuality and the law.

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.

Click to contact Michael.

Mike Stafford

Mike has been producing and directing television shows for over 18 years for a variety of networks including, ABC, Bravo, Comedy Central, Columbia Tri-Star, Direct TV, Discovery, DIY, ESPN, MLB Network, NBC, TLC, The Style Channel, Telepictures, TrueTV, Twentieth Century Television and WE.

Every phase of production requires some legal involvement and Mike decided to pursue a law degree.  While producing full time, he attended St. John’s University Law School at night.  It was during his time at St. John’s that Mike discovered TLDEF and started volunteering.

After passing the bar exam, Mike was admitted to practice in New York State.  He is currently a member of the New York State Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the Producers Guild of America.