Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and OutServe, the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel, announced the selection of transgender Army veteran Allyson Robinson to lead the newly combined organization, according to an SLDN press release.
A native of Scranton, Pa., Robinson is a 1994 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she majored in physics. After an internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, she was commissioned as an officer in the Army and commanded PATRIOT missile units in Europe and the Middle East. She also served as a senior trainer/evaluator for NATO and as an advisor to the armed forces of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
She earned a master of divinity degree in theology with an emphasis in social justice from Baylor University in 2007. Most recently, she was the first deputy director for employee programs of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's Workplace Project.
HRC President Chad Griffin said, "Allyson Robinson is strategic, passionate, and committed. She's the right person to lead this organization. She's a graduate of West Point and a decorated military officer, which makes her uniquely qualified for this position."
The combination of the two organizations was announced in July.
