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"Immigration Equality is the only national organization in the country fighting for equality for LGBT and HIV positive immigrants."

Home > About Us > Our Board

Immigration Equality’s Board of Directors comprises immigrants, attorneys, and other activists around the United States.

David Bardeen is corporate counsel with Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment fund based in New York, and a freelance writer. He received a J.D. from New York University, where he was managing editor of the NYU Law Review, and a B.A. in Government from Harvard College. From 2002-2005, he was an associate in the New York office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where he focused on Latin American corporate and securities transactions. He also spent a summer in Quito, Ecuador with the Center for Economic and Social Rights. David’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York Press and other publications.

Ron Buckmire has been a “militant homosexual activist” since 1991, when he created the Queer Resources Directory, the first comprehensive directory of LGBT and HIV/AIDS information on the Internet. He was born in Grenville, Grenada, and earned B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York state from 1986 to1994. In 1994, he joined the Mathematics department of Occidental College (Barack Obama’s first alma mater) and is now Associate Professor and Chair. In 2006, he co-founded the Barbara Jordan/ Bayard Rustin Coalition, a Black LGBT advocacy organization in Los Angeles. He serves as Board President for both the Center for Health Justice and Jordan/Rustin Coalition. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Equality California and the PlanetOut Corporation. Before becoming a naturalized United States citizen in 2003, he was the foreign half of a binational couple and organized the Los Angeles chapter of Immigration Equality. He blogs daily at The Mad Professah Lectures at MadProfessah.com and lives in north east Los Angeles with his husband, Dean Elzinga.

Aaron Frankel is an intellectual property associate at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP. His practice primarily focuses on complex patent, trade secret and trademark litigations, and also includes assisting clients with patent prosecution and transactional matters. Aaron sits on Kramer Levin’s Pro Bono Committee and is a co-coordinator of the firm’s pro bono asylum program. He was a member of the Kramer Levin team that served as co-counsel for Lambda Legal in Hernandez v. Robles, which sought marriage rights for same-sex couples in New York, and spent five months as a Kramer Levin extern working with South Brooklyn Legal Service’s Housing Unit providing pro bono services to indigent tenants. Aaron received the New York State Bar Association’s President’s Pro Bono Service Award in 2008. Aaron is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. While at Harvard, he served as the Managing Editor of the Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal.

Prerna Lal is a 1L at George Washington University Law School. She is a Co-Founder and Online Coordinator of DreamActivist, a vibrant activist immigrant youth community online that has mobilized thousands to action. Her work and opinion has been featured in publications like the New York Times, US News & World Report, USA TODAY, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The Advocate and other alternative and ethnic media outlets. Having scored multiple victories using new media, Prerna also freelances as an Immigrant Rights and Race in America blogger for Change.org.

Joseph Landau is an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School, where he focuses on civil procedure, administrative law, and immigration. From 2002-2004 and 2006-2008, he was an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, LLP, where he specialized in securities and corporate litigation and coordinated Cleary Gottlieb’s pro bono immigration and international human rights practice group. Joe received his J.D. from the Yale Law School and a B.A. from Duke University. He was assistant managing editor at The New Republic magazine from 1997 through 1999.

Ranesh Ramanathan is Associate General Counsel to Bain Capital, a Boston based multi-asset alternative manager, where he acts as lead counsel to the firm’s trading businesses and Asia private equity business. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Ranesh was General Counsel to Citi Private Equity and Associate General Counsel to Citi Alternative Investments. Ranesh began his legal career as an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, LLP. Ranesh earned his JD from New York University and his B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University. As part of a binational gay couple and a former asylee to the United States, Ranesh is personally vested in all of Immigration Equality’s work.

Gordon Stewart has a BA in European History from Yale. After 7 years as ad marketing and communications manager with Technomed in New York and Paris, he returned to the U.S. and obtained an MBA from Yale. He worked as a consultant in health economics for Sandoz (now part of Novartis). In 1995, he joined Pfizer as a consultant. In 2001, he assumed the position of regional marketing director, Latin America, with responsibility for all major products. In 2003, he moved to the European marketing division with responsibility for the pain and oncology businesses. Since 2006, he has been responsible for the European development and launch of Exubera. Gordon lives in London with his Brazilian partner. In 2003, the US consulate in Sao Paulo refused to renew his partner’s student visa. At that time, the couple had been living together in New York for more than 2 years. For the next 18 months, Gordon commuted to Brazil every other weekend. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, reading, exercise, travel, and lobbying for UAFA.

Susan J. Zachman is a corporate partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s New York office where she specializes in private equity transactions. Sue sits on Kirkland & Ellis’ firm-wide diversity committee and its LGBT and Gender Subcommittees and is coordinator of the firm’s pro bono LGBT Asylum Project and also its pro bono Uncontested Divorce Project. Sue received her J.D from Columbia Law School and M.B.A from Columbia Business School, and also received a M.S. Electrical Engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and a B.S. Electrical Engineering from the University of California - San Diego. Sue was formerly the Director of Regulatory Affairs for start-up medical device company Biosense Israel, before it was sold to Johnson & Johnson, becoming part of its Biosense Webster electrophysiology division in 1998.