D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) was named one of 10 Transition Advisers by Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
D.C. Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George’s transition team on Nov. 10 released the names of more than 300 people appointed to 17 newly created transition team committees, including at least nine known LGBTQ committee members.
In addition to the known LGBTQ committee members, the transition team this week named gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), as one of 10 Transition Advisers.
The announcement of the transition team advisers and committee members, whose names and committee titles are posted on the Lewis George transition team website, came after the announcement on Nov. 4 of the transition team co-chairs.
Among the five co-chairs announced last week was Gautam Raghavan, a gay former White House official under the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Gay Ward 8 Democratic Party activist Phillip Pannell, who was among Lewis George’s LGBTQ community supporters, is among the nine known LGBTQ transition team committee appointees. Pannell was named to the Community Organizing Resident Engagement Committee.
Also appointed to that committee were Japer Bowles, director of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; Travis Ballie, a gay Ward 7 community activist; and Vida Rangel, a local transgender rights advocate who last week won election to a D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission seat in the Columbia Heights neighborhood.
Among the other LGBTQ transition team committee members named this week were Heidi Ellis, who serves as director of the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition. Ellis was appointed to the Health Care and Human Services Committee.
Others include LGBTQ rights advocate Elizabeth Mitchell, who was appointed to the DC Autonomy & Statehood Committee; and Jimmie Williams, who was appointed to the Education and Out of School Time Committee. Pannell said LGBTQ community advocate Keshini Ladduwahetty, former chair of the DC For Democracy group, was also named to a transition team position, but it couldn’t immediately be determined which specific position.
Local gay business owner Salah Czapary, who served as Mayor Bowser’s D.C. nightlife office director, was named as one of the transition team’s two “Small and Local Business Leads,” who will oversee the transition team’s Small and Local Business Members Committee.
Among those appointed to that committee were Randy Downs, a longtime local gay rights advocate who is co-owner of Protest Pizza, an LGBTQ restaurant and bar in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.
The Lewis George transition team website shows that the 17 committees, which cover a wide range of issues including housing, public safety, arts-culture, and education, each include about 20 members, bringing the total number of committee members to about 320.
The Washington Blade will update the list of LGBTQ transition team members when new information becomes available.
The full list of all transition team members along with the leadership team can be accessed at janeesefordctransition.com.
Following is a list of the 17 transition team committees:
• Arts, Culture & Nightlife
• Community Safety
• DC Autonomy & Statehood
• Education & Out of School Time
• Essential Services and Effective Government
• Faith & Public Life
• Food Access
• Good Jobs & Economic Development
• Health Care & Human Services
• Housing
• Immigrant Rights
• Legal Affairs & Civil Rights
• Community Organizing Resident Engagement
• Yes! DC is Open: Small & Local Business
• Technology & Innovation
• Transportation, Energy, and Environment
• Youth and Young Adult Committee
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