Staff

President, Kierra Johnson, joined the Task Force in 2018 as Deputy Executive Director but was already engaged with the organization, previously serving on the National LGBTQ Task Force’s board of directors and its National Action Council.

Johnson came to the Task Force after serving as URGE’s Executive Director with a wealth of experience in organizational leadership and management, program development, youth leadership and reproductive justice. As a bisexual Black woman, Johnson will become one of few out queer-identified women of color at the helm of a national LGBTQ organization.

She is recognized as a national expert on queer and reproductive rights issues and has testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives and has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, Fox News, Feministing.com and National Public Radio. Johnson also serves on the boards of directors of the General Service Foundation, Groundswell Fund, and Guttmacher Institute.

Throughout her career, she has also served on the boards of Center for Community Change and the Women’s Information Network (WIN). Johnson has been recognized for her leadership with awards, including the Young Women of Achievement Award for WIN in 2002, the Women of Vision Award for the Ms. Foundation for Women in 2013, and Washingtonian Magazine’s Most Influential Washingtonians Under 40 in 2009.

Relationship-builder, problem solver, dot connector, trainer, camper, water lover and bow-tie wearer. Since 1992, Sayre has been in the trenches of progressive candidate and issue campaigns. Sayre’s most challenging yet rewarding roles were as the ’04 KY “NO on the Amendment” (marriage) Campaign Manager and the ’08 CA “NO on Proposition 8” (marriage) Statewide Field Director — which collectively raised over $2M, mobilized over 50K volunteers and identified nearly 200K pro-LGBT voters. Sayre is passionate about organizing, the power of collective action, racial justice, ballot measures, being a Kentuckian, sashimi, and being legally married to their wife Kathleen since 2008. In addition to their campaign expertise, Sayre is an organizational leadership and learning specialist and one of 100 Certified Biomimicry Professionals globally. As a biomimic, they ask nature for inspiration in applying nature inspired design to organizational development. Sayre’s goal is to catalyze the bridging of regenerative design and traditional ecological knowledge and the rewilding of individual resiliency and renewal to increase the health and well-being of those working towards the liberation of all people and our planet.