Vincent “Vinnie” Pompei is the Director of the Youth Well-Being Project at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. One of Vinnie’s primary roles at HRC is to chair Time to THRIVE, an annual national conference for educators and other youth-serving professionals to promote safety, inclusion and well-being for LGBTQ youth.
Vinnie is also the President for the California Association of School Counselors and spent over ten years as a middle school teacher and high school counselor. He also helped start his district’s first middle school Gay and Straight Alliance that led to him training the entire district staff on LGBTQ youth.
Before joining HRC, Vinnie was an LGBTQ cadre trainer for the National Education Association and authored the LGBTQ section of the American School Counselor Association’s National Model. He also directed CESCaL’s annual educator conference on LGBTQ youth, was a chapter president for PFLAG and an Ambassador for the Trevor Project.
Vinnie’s passion for creating safe and inclusive schools has been nationally recognized. He was one of four public educators invited to the first White House Anti-Bullying Summit with President Obama and was recently called to testify at a congressional hearing on school safety. In addition, he was named one of the Advocate Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40, received awards from both Equality California and KPBS, and was selected by the National Education Association as a Classroom Superhero.
Vinnie will graduate in August with a Doctorate in Education Leadership from San Diego State University.
Fernando Lopez is the Executive Director of San Diego Pride. Lopez’s years of LGBT advocacy, nonprofit management, public education, diversity consulting, media relations, guest lectures, and organizing have made them a consistent presence ensuring the struggles of the LGBT community are ever visible.
