Sharyn Grayson
Abounding Prosperity Inc. formally announced today (Thursday, Oct. 31) that “legendary advocate and community icon Sharyn Grayson” has joined the API staff as director of development and transgender programs/services.
“Affectionately known to hundreds in the LGBTQ+ community as ‘G-Mama’ or ‘Auntie Sharyn,’ Ms. Grayson brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will serve AP Inc. well as we continue to advance our community through innovative programming and services,” an API press release noted. “Now enjoying life as an elder in the community, Sharyn is excited about returning home to Dallas, and she fully embraces her exemplary standing as a role model and historian for the younger LGBTQ+ community overall.”
According to the press release, Grayson began her transition in Dallas in 1964, later moving to Los Angeles where she started her career in the nonprofit sector and “committed her life to improving standards of healthcare, education and overall equality for the black LGBT community but most of all, for her fellow black transgender women.”
Grayson has received numerous awards and commendations through the years celebrating her pioneering work in the transgender movement aimed at creating jobs, finding funding and finding other opportunities for organizations supporting equity and empowerment for the community.
“I am most proud of the employment and hiring opportunities that I have been able to create for trans women of color around the country,” Grayson said. And although she has admitted that she prefers to work quietly in the background, her contributions to the success of many groups and nonprofit organizations that exist today have “catapulted her into the role of a highly sought-after speaker, grant writer, consultant and educator on issues pertaining to her beloved black transgender sisterhood,” the API press release stated.
In 1986, while living Oakland, Calif., Grayson started her own consulting firm, the Nonprofit & Consumer Services Network, which she currently operates on a limited basis out of her home office in Little Rock, Ark. Her client base has grown steadily through the years and now stretches throughout the United States, putting her in the small but prestigious group of minority transgender women in the U.S. who have owned and operated businesses for more than 10 years!
Grayson described her new job as a director with Abounding Prosperity as “a tremendous opportunity and extremely humbling situation for me, personally. Dallas is my hometown … and having the opportunity to take part in the decision-making and implementation processes of programs and services to improve and empower the lives of transgender women of color here, is my perfect dream job.”
AP Inc. CEO Kirk Myers said the agency is “excited to have Ms. Grayson join our family at this exciting time of growth and development in our history. I am certain that Sharyn’s presence will assist in elevating our transgender-focused initiatives to the forefront of our community, providing much needed benefits to local transwomen of color.
“Ms. Sharyn has a deep pride in returning to her ‘home’ in Dallas and being a collaborative vessel in the planning and implementation process for the inclusion and historical focus on Dallas’ Black and Latinx Transgender community,” he added.
