Susan Gore
Hope for Peace & Justice has announced Dr. Susan Gore as the organization’s new executive director.
H4PJ said the appointment of Gore, a nationally recognized leader for social justice for LGBT people, signals its continuing commitment to creating a society that demonstrates inclusion for all.
“My career has followed a circuitous path, yet I feel like my new role with Hope for Peace & Justice is what I am called to do,” Gore said in a news release this week. “The support of people like Michael Piazza, Jo Hudson, and so many others adds to my belief that our organization can be a catalyst on many important LGBTQ issues.”
H4PJ is a social justice ministry of Cathedral of Hope that is dedicated to equipping progressive people of faith to be champions for LGBTQ equality. The nonprofit organization achieves its mission through programs that focus on fostering safer schools, HIV/AIDS public policy and transgender inclusion.
According to Steven R. Jolly, H4PJ board chair, Gore’s skills and experiences are an asset that will significantly contribute to the organization continuing its mission.
“Susan brings an impressive portfolio of skill and might to Hope for Peace & Justice,” Jolly said. “We are looking to her to building awareness of our organization as a valued ally and embodied presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.”
Gore’s career spans various roles, including work in television, corporate marketing, and as a strategic planning consultant to organizations ranging from the Society for Human Resource Management and Resource Center Dallas to the Unitarian Universalist Association.
“Several years ago I was leading a project on increasing congregational diversity when someone said, ‘You know, what you’re doing is community ministry,’” Gore said.
“That simple act of labeling gave me a whole new understanding of why I have committed more than two decades working for LGBTQ equality.”
Gore has lived in Texas twice, coming here first in 1977 to serve as the first full-time female faculty member in the department of psychology at Texas Christian University. In 1981, Gore became executive director of the National Women’s Studies Association.
Since returning to Dallas in 1989, Gore has been a founding member of Leadership Lambda and the North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce (formerly the Stonewall Business & Professional Association). She has also served on the board of directors for numerous nonprofit organizations in North Texas.
In 1991, Gore established The Mentor Group, providing strategic planning, communications and diversity leadership expertise to clients such as AT&T, Chubb, Deloitte, IBM, Kendell Jackson, PepsiCo and Texas Instruments.
Today, Gore is a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the bisexuality author for Cultural Detective: LGBT and editor of
Coming Out in Faith, a collection of 15 essays about life at the intersection of being LGBT and a person of faith.
Her passion of higher education continues through her enrollment in the master’s of theological studies program at Brite Divinity School at TCU.
“Passion drives success,” Gore said. “I wholeheartedly believe in the mission of H4PJ and look forward to continuing its success one achievement at a time.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 31, 2012.
