Ethel A. Felix
Ethel A. Felix, a
co-founder and the
president of Caribbean
American Pride
who works professionally
for the nonprofit community
health plan Amida
Care, was born in Belize
City into a politically
active family.
At the age of three,
she accompanied her
mother Florine to her
first protest march
against the Guatemalan
presence in Belize.
In 1978, her family
relocated to New York,
settling in Brooklyn.
There, a junior high school
teacher reinforced Ethel’s interest
in politics by teaching her
about Shirley Chisholm, Stokely
Carmichael, Malcolm X, Marcus
Garvey, and other Black political
activists who had Caribbean
roots.
Ethel’s family later moved to
the Bronx’s Fordham section,
and in high school there she was
active in groups like the Model
City Council and her school’s
chapter of Arista, the National
Honor Society. At Binghamton
University, she majored in Literature
and Rhetoric and minored
in Latin American and Caribbean
Area Studies. She was
also active in the anti-apartheid
movement of the 1980s.
After college, Ethel volunteered
in advocacy organizations
both in the Bronx and in her Belize
homeland, traveling there to
work on her cousin’s campaign
for the Belizean Parliament.
Back home, she became a
member of the St. James
Episcopal Church board
and joined the Northwest
Bronx Community and
Clergy Coalition. With
that group, she lobbied
elected officials in
Washington on issues
including HIV/ AIDS,
housing, and immigration
reform.
In 2000, Ethel attended
a meeting of S.I.S.T.A.H.
(Sisters in Search of Truth,
Alliance, and Harmony), where
she met a group of Black women
who remain among her closest
friends. Through S.I.S.T.A.H.,
she met the late Candace Boyce,
a co-founder of AALUSC (African
Ancestral Lesbians United
for Societal Change). Ethel
soon became an active member
there.
It was when she went to work
for Amida Care that Ethel met
her spiritual life partner, Chantal
Bonhomme, whom she married
at St. James Episcopal
Church in Fordham.
While marching with her wife
in Brooklyn’s Labor Day West
Indian Day Parade in the early
2010s, Ethel saw one of her
friends attacked. It was then
that she and others recognized
the need to raise the visibility of
LGBTQ people of Caribbean descent.
Ethel, along with Chantal
and friends Bajan Sandy King,
Cluny Levanche, Eda Francois,
Omar Ifill, Naquan Ross, and Jason
Weeks co-founded Caribbean
American Pride.
Ethel and Chantal and their
children now live in Jackson
Heights, Queens.
Co-Founder,
President,
Caribbean
American Pride
Tracie M. Gardner
Tracie M. Gardner, vice
president of policy advocacy
at the Legal
Action Center, has
worked nearly 30 years in the
health and social services policy
arena – in both non-profit and
government settings – as a policy
advocate, trainer, and lobbyist.
The Legal Action Center (LAC)
employs legal and policy strategies
to fight discrimination, build
health equity, and restore opportunity
for people with criminal
records, substance use disorders,
and HIV. The group aims to dismantle
the persistent impact of
systemic racism that fuels mass
incarceration and disparate community
health outcomes.
As vice president of policy advocacy,
Tracie spearheads major
initiatives and fosters strategic
partnerships that support LAC’s
mission. She has led advocacy
campaigns that won substantial
increases in funding for substance
use, for HIV, and for alternatives
to incarceration and for
reentry services. Her work has
led to the passage of landmark
HIV confidentiality legislation
and criminal justice reforms.
Tracie serves as a lead spokesperson
for LAC and oversees the
group’s racial justice and equity
work.
From 2015 to 2017, Tracie
served in two posts in
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s
administration. As assistant
secretary of mental
hygiene in the State
Health Department, she
oversaw the Office of Alcoholism
and Substance
Abuse Services, the Office
of Mental Health, the Office
for People with Developmental
Disabilities, the
Developmental Disabilities
Planning Council, and the Justice
Center for the Protection of
People with Special Needs.
As a criminal justice specialist
within the Health Department,
Tracie focused on special projects
to promote Medicaid enrollment
and healthcare access for
justice-involved individuals. She
also coordinated the governor’s
2016 Heroin Opiate Legislative
Initiative.
Prior to her work in the Cuomo
administration, Tracie served
as LAC’s co-director of policy
for more than 14 years.
In that role, she coordinated
LAC’s New York State
public policy advocacy
on budget and legislative
matters related to criminal
justice, addiction, and
HIV/ AIDS.
Earlier in her career, Tracie
carried out healthcare
management training, HIV/
AIDS policy advocacy, and policy
analysis with the Hudson
Planning Group, the Harlem Directors
Group, and the Federation
of Protestant Welfare Agencies.
Tracie, who received her BA
from Mount Holyoke College, is
a board member at the Advocacy
Institute, which supports social
justice and movement-building
organizations in New York, and
at NEXT Distro, an online harm
reduction platform aimed at reducing
drug overdose deaths and
drug-related health problems in
rural and suburban areas.
Vice President
of Policy
Advocacy,
The Legal Action
Center
2020 Impact A 14 wards | GayCityNews.nyc