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Our Board of Directors
Mónica Morales, MPA, President
Mónica Morales has been involved in the Latino LGBT community for over a decade, working primarily with youth and Latina lesbians in the Watsonville community. She first became involved with Triangle Speakers as a youth participant, and years later served as the organization’s first Latino/a Outreach Coordinator. Ms. Morales received her Bachelors degree in Sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and her MPA from Columbia University in New York
Grace Gallego, Vice President
Grace Gallego was born in San Francisco, raised in the Philippines and,
at age 20, returned to the Bay Area to attend The California College of
the Arts Environmental Design program. Her professional career was in
Technical Education designing training programs, a field where she is
regarded as somewhat of a pioneer.
Grace's interest in the Santa Cruz LGBT community began when she moved to Ben Lomond in November of 2003. Accustomed to Bay Area activities and opportunities for community interaction, the Santa Crzu LGBT activities seemed to fall somewhat short for lesbians 40 and over. So, with
her knack for organization, in the fall of 2007, Grace founded LezCruz, a social netowkring group for the 40+ lesbian community. LezCruz has already very quickly blossomed to over 120 active members!
Grace is employed at UCSC and enjoys being retired from the high tech world. She shares her home in the mountains with her two Cockapoos, Angus and Abbe, and her cat Bill. She has a daughter, a former SC resident, who is a teacher and now lives in Berkeley.ice President
Derek Wolf, Treasurer 
Derek Wolf is a long time Santa Cruz County resident. He attended Cabrillo
College and San Jose State University. For the past 20 years, Derek has held
the position of Controller of a privately held Corporation in the city of
Santa Cruz. Outside interests include landscaping, pets, tennis and
volleyball. He joined the board of The Diversity Center after the passage
of Prop 8 because he felt so strongly about gay marriage rights.
Joe Eugene, Secretary
Joe has lived in Santa Cruz county since enrolling at San Lorenzo Valley High School in 1963. He has lived in Big Basin, Aptos, Santa Cruz and Live Oak. He has a BA in Inter-American Studies, with half of his undergraduate courses taught in Spanish. Travels in Latin America have included Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Argentina and an afternoon in Brazil. Joe is Retired from a 30 year career with the County of Santa Cruz, mostly as a mainframe programmer and systems analyst.
As a gay man, Joe is proud to have been with one partner for 17 years and another for 10 years. Joe has been a Triangle Speaker for about 5 years and a Triangle Speakers board member for 2 years.
Sandra Sandoval, Director
Sandra emigrated to the USA at the age of 20 from the U.K. After graduating from San Francisco State University, she opened an accounting practice in a low-income area and worked with non-profits there for 20 years. She lives in Capitola and has three children and a baby granddaughter.
Chris DiMaio, Director
Recently retired from a long career in psychiatry working in both the public and private sectors, Chris joined our board in May 2007. He has a strong interest in meeting the needs of LGBTIQ veterans as well as creating safe space for the LGBTIQ community to pursue our goal of equality.
Damian Maldonado, MPA, Director
Damian was born in a small community in California's centralvalley and was raised both in the United States and Mexico where he and his parents worked as migrant farm workers for many years. While working in the fields, he managed to finish High School and furthered his education with an A.A. Degreee in Administration of Justice, a Bachelor of Science in Politics from the University of California Santa Cruz and earned a Master's Degree in Public Administration from California State University of Fresno.
Damian has a strong interest in meeting the needs of the Latino LGBTIQ communtiy and knows firsthand about many of the cultural barriers that exist with being a gay Latino. Damian enjoys public speaking and sharing his previous experiences as an openly gay police officer and speaking to the challenges that exist of coming out in such conservative and para-military work environments.
Damian currently owns a successful statewide consulting firm in the areas of training, education and public health. His firms most recent accomplishments include: having successfully co-authored legislation to improve out-of-school-time program funding, having evaluated the unique challenges of rural programs statewide in a formal report presented to the California Department of Education, having been asked to present his work at the California State Legislative Rural Education Summit and being selected to serve on the Prop. 49 Master Plan Design Team.
Damian currently lives in Aptos, CA with his partner of 11 years, Javier and their two poodles, Maya and Sparky.
Tara Sawyer, Director
Tara is an optimistic individual who thinks loving everyone and everything is possible. When she's not volunteering, you can find her trying to fit in more beach time, talking about butterflies or desperately trying to make sense of, and love this big wide world. As a transgendered person with genderqueer sparkles, formerly homeless and sex worker, she struggles to serve these communities. Her favorite snack is raw almonds.
Morgan Taylor, Director
I have been a lawyer for 30 years, including service as deputy and assistant district attorney in Monterey and Santa Cruz County, specializing in consumer and environmental prosecutions. I am presently in private practice, specializing in tax representation and appeals.
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