Nashville native Beverly L. Watts was appointed the Executive Director of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission in July 2007. Prior to her current appointment she served as Special Advisor to the Chair at the U S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission responsible for state and local relations. She has more than 30 years of experience in civil rights enforcement and education in the public and private sector. From October 2004 to October 2006 she served as the first Executive Director of the National Fair Housing Training Academy.

Beverly served for more than 12 years as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights and served in numerous other leadership positions in Illinois, and Kentucky. She was one of the first Title IX Coordinators in the US at the Office for Civil Rights and has served as adjunct faculty in Sociology at Spalding University. She was Senior Consultant for Ralph G. Moore & Associates (RGMA) in Chicago assisting clients in developing strategic initiatives in operations, diversity and supplier diversity programs She has presented to numerous organizations on leadership, civil rights, diversity, and motivation at the local, national and international level.

Beverly Watts is a past President of the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies (IAOHRA) where she currently serves as the 1st Vice President.  She currently serves on the Equal Educational Opportunities Group (EEOG) and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) Boards.  She is a member of the TN Access to Justice Commission. She is a past Chair of Women Executives in State Government, has served on the CABLE Nashville and the YWCA of Middle Tennessee boards.

Beverly is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the 2019 CABLE Power of Inclusion Champion Award, the 2018 CABLE Spirit of Leadership Award, 2018 YWCA Academy of Women, 2016 YWCA Nashville Athena Nominee, the ECHO 2014 Dreamers Award, the 2014 Frances Dancy Hooks Award, the YWCA 2014 Carrie Hull Award, the City of Louisville Martin Luther King award and the 2005 induction into the KY Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

She is a graduate of Tennessee State University, Southern Illinois University.  She has completed the Duke University Leadership Program for State Executives and the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Leadership Program.

Shane McCoy (they/them/their; moderator)

Shane McCoy is a Lecturer in the department of English at Middle Tennessee State University and an affiliate faculty member in the Women's and Gender Studies Program. They teach courses that focus on first-year composition, queer literature and theory, contemporary transnational literature, and women of color and black feminisms. Their research focuses on feminist affect studies, Africana women’s literature, critical and feminist pedagogies, social justice, and pedagogies of empowerment.

Chris Sanders (he/him/his; panelist)

Chris Sanders is executive director of Tennessee Equality Project, a statewide LGBTQ rights and public policy organization. He holds the M.Div. from Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville.

Brendon Holloway (he/him/his; panelist)

Brendon T. Holloway, MSW is a researcher, activist, and doctoral student at the University of Denver. As a white, queer, nonbinary first-generation college student, Brendon’s research focuses on the experiences of transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals who live in rural areas across the United States. As an activist, he has testified in front of state lawmakers and written op-eds combating anti-trans legislation. Brendon is currently on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Equality Project where he co-founded Boro Pride and the TEP Rutherford County Committee. Additionally, Brendon is a graduate of MTSU where he obtained his Bachelor of Social Work degree in 2015.

Katie Barnes (they/them/their; panelist)

Katie Barnes is a feature writer, covering culture, LGBTQ issues, women’s basketball, collegiate softball, and women’s combat sports. Since joining ESPN in August 2015, Katie has written on myriad topics, such as transgender athletes, racial justice, and Hollywood stunt doubles. Their ongoing coverage of transgender athletes in high school has earned them two GLAAD award nominations, and they are hard at work on a book. They were also a producer on the 30 for 30 short Mack Wrestles. Katie holds a B.A. in History, Russian Studies, and American Studies from St. Olaf College, and a M.S. in Student Affairs and Higher Education from Miami University (OH). They were the 2017 NLGJA Journalist of the year.

"Starting in 2009, multiple interviews have been conducted chronicling the lives of gay, transgender and bisexual residents, reflecting on life in Middle Tennessee before 1970, and how homosexuality was viewed in the larger community as part of The Brooks Fund History Project. These oral histories are archived in Nashville Public Library’s Special Collections Division: Oral History Collections. They were made into the documentary film, A Secret Only God Knows, directed by Deidre Duker, that premiered on Nashville Public Television in 2015."

http://scouting.thewomensfund.com/community-leadership/community-initiative/the-brooks-fund/the-documentary/

Allie Sultan (she/her/hers; moderator)

Allie Sultan is an award-winning independent filmmaker whose work spans narrative, documentary and experimental modes. A graduate of the MFA-Cinema program at San Francisco State University, she has worked as a picture and sound editor with some of the San Francisco Bay area’s finest film companies and organizations – including American Zoetrope, ZAP Zoetrope-Aubry Productions, Berkeley Sound Artists, the Bay Area Video Coalition, and Tippett Studio. Allie is an Associate Professor of Video and Film Production at Middle Tennessee State University, where she teaches film/video editing, celluloid filmmaking and web series production to the next generation of independent filmmakers. She is currently in post-production on a feature documentary about LGBTQ Christians.

Deidre Duker (she/her/hers; panelist)

Deidre Duker is a producer of ideas and connector of people. She has produced television and documentaries ranging from stories in country music to LGBT+ life. A graduate of Vanderbilt University with a BA in European Studies, she spends her days with her family in Nashville and travels the world whenever she can.

Michael Maupins (he/him/his; panelist)

Michael Maupins is an alumnus of MTSU and a former professional ballet dancer. He has been active in the LGBTQIA+ community for many years. Michael has been out and proud since he was 13 years old. He also has been HIV positive undetectable for 9.5 years. Maupins is currently on the executive board for TruYou Tennessee which is Tennessee’s first ever foster home for LGBTQIA+ teens, the BOROpride entertainment committee, and on MTSU’s Lambda board. Maupins is looking forward to helping create change and educating today’s youth and young adults on what life can be like living with being gay and HIV positive undetectable in today’s world.

Lynn Cothren (he/him/his; panelist)

Lynn Cothren is Special Assistant to the Executive Director of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission, working in partnership with the ED on all the facets of the agency, including agency operations, the Board of Commissioners, our stakeholders, and the public.  Lynn assists with day to day logistics, education and outreach and general administration. Lynn works as an integral member of the executive staff team. Previously, as Director of Administration at Girl Scouts of the USA, Lynn’s leadership role included developing and implementing organizational strategies and policies that enabled girls to build courage, confidence, and character, and make the world a better place. Previously, Mr. Cothren served for 23-years as Special Assistant to the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King, founder of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. 

Margo Hall (she/her/hers; panelist)

I am a gay trans-woman, and an MTSU alumna. I majored in International Relations, with a double minor in Entrepreneurship and Russian Studies. I also served as an officer and member in MT Lambda during my time at the university. I graduated in 2019.

Sis St. Clair (she/her/hers; panelist)

Born in late 1949, Sis was raised in the Greater Kansas City, Missouri area. Conflicts began when she was a toddler and self-identified as female. Her family would have none of it. As a young child, Sis immersed herself in music, learning to play several instruments as a way to escape a tormented life. At age 16, she went to work, while still in high school, collecting weekly receipts from bordellos around town. In early 1967, at age 17, she began her career as a female impersonator on weekends at a mafia owned gay club. One day after graduating high school in 1968, she moved to Tennessee taking a job as a touring musician. Sis was drafted into the US Army and resumed her showgirl career upon discharge in 1971. Sis became active and vocal for equal rights for LGBT+ persons and women. In her early 30’s, she was authenticated as an intersex woman when she finally went through puberty and her menstrual cycle began. She later discovered that she had been surgically mutilated as a newborn infant. In 1995, Sis graduated from MTSU and began a new career track the following year. In 2009, Sis’s book, “Caution: Woman Inside” was published. She retired in 2012 and since has spoken to interested groups and college students about her experiences from the pre-Stonewall days to the present for LGBT+ people and her life as an intersex woman as her health has allowed. She is a three-time cancer survivor.

Phil Michal Thomas (he/him/his; panelist)

Phil Michal Thomas was the first person of color on the Tennessee Gay and Lesbian Alliance. This group opened up “The Center” located in Berry Hill for the GBLT community. This was the beginning of “One In Teen” support for GBLT teens., and the creation of the Community Switchboard specifically for GBLT. Thomas is a current board member of PFLAG Nashville. Under the leadership of Janet Pierce, Thomas represented Nashville Cares on the Teddy Bart Nashville program. Thomas also facilitated the first men of color support group at Nashville Cares. Thomas served on prior Nashville Pride boards including the year it was titled OPEN—the year 2000 when there almost wasn't a pride. Thomas also served on a panel for Leadership Nashville with Abby Rubenfeld, Penny Campbell, and others where they represented the GBLT community. Thomas would go last in this panel and would start by saying he actually didn't exist because everyone knows that there are no openly gay people in the Black community and expound that we do exist. Thomas has a history of service to the GBLT community including serving on the board “From All Walks” with Matt Nelson that would later become “AIDSWALK,” the Nashville Black Pride board, as a board member of Brothers United Nashville, as an ACT-UP New York member, as a GBLT Liaison with the Tennessean, as a BWMT Atlanta member, as a grant writer with AID Atlanta for Johnson & Johnson, and as a board president of NAMI Davidson. Thomas has sponsored fundraisers such as “Christmas in July” for gifts for clients of Nashville Cares at bars such as The Cabaret on Hayes. Thomas is also the author of “PANELS.” You can learn more at www.philmichalthomas.com.

Bek Dawson is a scholar and activist working towards bringing voices from the LGBT+ community into academic spaces so that their experiences and issues can be understood comprehensively. Bek received a BA in English and MA in sociology from MTSU. Their thesis research focused on the experiences of transgender and nonbinary people, specifically looking at the role of language socially and developmentally. While in school, they were an officer as well as the head of the education committee for MT Lambda, MTSU’s LGBT+ organization. While in MT Lambda, Bek helped organize events such as MTSU’s first Transgender Day of Remembrance, and create informational resources, such as the Identities Pamphlets series. They are a former organizer for Seeds of Acceptance Rutherford, an LGBT+ support group in Murfreesboro, TN. Bek currently teaches Women’s and Gender Studies at MTSU.

Shane McCoy is a Lecturer in the department of English at Middle Tennessee State University and an affiliate faculty member in the Women's and Gender Studies Program. They teach courses that focus on first-year composition, queer literature and theory, contemporary transnational literature, and women of color and black feminisms. Their research focuses on feminist affect studies, Africana women’s literature, critical and feminist pedagogies, social justice, and pedagogies of empowerment.