Contributors
Cindi Creager
Director of National News
Cindi Creager has served as GLAAD’s National News Director for the past three years working to ensure fair, accurate and inclusive national news coverage for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Prior to GLAAD she spent 13-years as a local and national news reporter/producer in Alaska and New York City working for ABC News, PBS Frontline and several independent documentary producers. She earned her Master’s degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. During her tenure at ABC, Creager shot and field-produced for the sixteen-hour ABC News series “Hopkins 24/7,” about life inside Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, which won the 2000 Columbia DuPont Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.
Neil Giuliano
President
Neil G. Giuliano serves as president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Since Mr. Giuliano took the reins at GLAAD in 2005, the national organization’s Media Programs work has more than doubled its scope to include advocacy efforts in the worlds of Sports; Religion, Faith & Values; Young Adult; and the 2007 acquisition of Queer Lounge, a central venue at independent film festivals for LGBT and LGBT-friendly film professionals. During this time, GLAAD’s budget has also increased by more than 55% to over $10 million. The widely known and respected GLAAD Media Awards have recognized the best of regional, entertainment and national media portrayals of the LGBT community since 1990. In 2008, the 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards will be aired on Bravo, providing the most visible opportunity for fair, accurate and inclusive images of the LGBT community to reach more than 84 million homes. Prior to GLAAD, Mr. Giuliano served for ten years as the mayor of Tempe, Arizona (1994-2004) and also had a 25-year career as a senior administrator at Arizona State University (ASU). Mr. Giuliano received a BA degree from the Hugh Downs School of Communication in 1979 and a M.Ed. degree in Higher Education Administration in 1983, both from Arizona State University, where he served as student body president.
Paul Karr
Director of Media Field Strategy
Paul Karr joined GLAAD in early 2007 as the Director of the Media Field Strategy Program where he oversees a staff of regional strategists working with national, statewide and local LGBT organizations to help plan and coordinate media and communications work. Prior to joining GLAAD Paul worked for more than ten years in the economic justice movement as a union organizer, researcher, campaign strategist and communications expert for organizations like the AFL-CIO and H.E.R.E. Most recently Paul served as the Communications Director for the Center on Policy Initiatives in San Diego where he led the media and communications work for the San Diego Living Wage campaign and the San Diego Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.
Rashad Robinson
Senior Director of Media Programs
Rashad Robinson serves as Senior Director of Media Programs for GLAAD and he has been with the organization since 2005. In his current role, he oversees the advocacy work of the Media Programs team as they work with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocates and media professionals alike to promote fair, accurate and inclusive media coverage of the LGBT community. Before joining GLAAD, Rashad served as National Communications Director for the Right to Vote Campaign, a national collaboration of eight major civil rights organizations working on voter disenfranchisement. He also served as National Field Director with the Center for Voting and Democracy. In 2003, Rashad served as lead organizer for the Claim Democracy Conference, which featured national civil rights leaders, presidential candidates and congressional leaders. He has been a featured spokesperson on an array of issues in print, radio and television, and in 2004 he appeared as the youngest contestant on Showtime’s Political Reality series American Candidate. A graduate of Marymount University in Arlington, VA, Rashad was a Politics major with a minor in History and Communications. He is also a graduate of the acclaimed SPIN Project Media Academy in Petaluma, Calif. and currently sits on the board of directors for FairVote.
Damon Romine
Director of Entertainment Media
Damon Romine has served as GLAAD’s Director of Entertainment Media since early 2005, working to ensure fair, accurate and inclusive entertainment portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. His role as media advocate is another chapter in a two-decade entertainment career. Damon’s work has included stints as a television reporter and producer, television development executive, magazine editor, awards show producer for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and children’s author. Damon is the architect of GLAAD’s public education media campaign, Be an Ally & a Friend, and created the GLAAD Network Responsibility Index as well CineQueer.org, the largest database of LGBT film.
Sarah Holbert
Entertainment Media Manager
Sarah Holbert spends her days monitoring and evaluating LGBT images in television and film. She tracks the development of characters and storylines to serve as a resource to the entertainment industry and provides research for the annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index and GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report. Sarah maintains CineQueer.org, GLAAD’s growing database of LGBT-inclusive film. She holds a degree in women’s studies from the University of Redlands and has been at GLAAD since 2004, following a four-year stint as an agent in the entertainment industry.
Eleanor Morrison
Entertainment Media Fellow
Eleanor Morrison is GLAAD’s 2008 Entertainment Media Fellow. She monitors current and upcoming LGBT characters and storylines, and maintains the weekly TV Gayed listing, as well as providing research for the GLAAD Network Responsibility Index and Where We Are on TV. Eleanor holds a media studies BA from the University of Georgia, a communication and social psychology MSc from the London School of Economics, and is working toward her PhD in communication from the University of Southern California.
