Ovita Williams
Former Board Chair
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Ovita Williams is the Executive Director of the Action Lab for Social Justice at Columbia University and has been working with […]
Matt Johnson
Former Board Chair
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Matt doesn’t consider himself an “activist,” so much as he considers all the things he does as work that needs to […]
Teal Inzunza
Former Staff
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Teal Inzunza knew AVP was the right place for her after receiving the call to create AVP’s Economic Empowerment Program (EEP). […]
Karen Satin
AVP Volunteer
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Karen started volunteering at AVP at the ripe age of 68. After retiring from a lifetime in the suit-and-tie sector of […]
Kim Fountain
Former AVP Staff
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. As the current Chief Operating Officer of the renowned Center on Halsted in Chicago, Kim Fountain knows that her community and […]
Victoria Cruz
Former AVP Staff
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Victoria Cruz started out the way many at AVP do — as a client. She decided to get involved because her […]
Diane Dolan-Soto
Former AVP Staff
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. When there were no formalized LGTBQ+ domestic or intimate partner violence (IPV) services in New York City or the State, as […]
Shay Huffman
AVP Activist
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Shay Huffman is many things, but foremost, she is a profound storyteller. Her abilities led her to the incredible advocacy work […]
Melania Brown
Community Partner
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Emerging activist and writer, Melania Brown, has been pivotal in the fight to end solitary confinement. Brown’s life was changed forever […]
Bea Hanson
Former AVP Staff
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Bea Hanson has been an advocate for victims of violence for over three decades. She served as AVP’s HIV-Related Violence Program […]
Sharon Stapel
Former AVP Executive Director
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. Sharon Stapel served AVP for seven years as its Executive Director, steering the organization through the recession of 2008 and growing […]
Arthur Goodman
AVP Founder
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. A former member of the first neighborhood-based gay and lesbian group in New York City, the Chelsea Gay Association, Arthur Goodman […]
Stevin Bonifacio
Former AVP Client
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. In 2019, Stevin Bonifacio, a New York City Anti-Violence Project’s client, reached a settlement with the City of New York Department […]
LaLa Zannell
Former AVP Staff
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. LaLa Zannell is a Black trans woman with over a decade of experience as a community organizer and advocate for trans […]
Tom Duane
Former Board Member
Tom Duane was the first openly gay and openly HIV+ member of the New York Senate and has been integral to legislative reform in the state to better protect LGBTQ+ and HIV-affected people. A former AVP board member and hate violence survivor, Tom’s legacy includes sponsorship of same-sex marriage legislation and the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) in New York State, as well as the passage of the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act.
Chanel Lopez
Former AVP Staff
When Chanel Lopez was approached by AVP’s Client Services department, she immediately became interested in the opportunity to work as a counselor with LGBTQ survivors of hate, intimate partner, and […]
Andy Austin and Michael Sonberg
AVP Founders
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity. In 1978, Andy Austin moved to New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood and found community in the Chelsea Gay Association (CGA), a […]
Cecilia Gentili
Community Partner
For a decade, Cecilia Gentili has been an ongoing collaborator and community partner with AVP. Working at the intersections of sex work, transgender women’s rights, and incarceration issues, Cecilia Gentili has helped shape critical forums with AVP.
Thomas von Foerster
AVP Founder
In 1978, Thomas Von Foerster moved to New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood as a 37-year-old gay man in search of others like him. He soon found community in the Chelsea Gay Assocation (CGA), a social group for gay men. His involvement in the association quickly grew, and he became treasurer as well as the editor of the monthly newsletter with over 1000 members.