Warren Scherer
Assistant Dean & Director
Warren Scherer previously worked at the UW-Milwaukee LGBT+ Resource Center and at Project Q, the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center’s youth program. Per also served for four years on the board of the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, including two as co-chair. Warren is a force of nature in higher education and we are honored to welcome per and pers vision for the work to the CC and the Division of Student Life.
Katherine Charek Briggs
Assistant Director
katherine.charekbriggs@wisc.edu
Katherine Charek Briggs is the Assistant Director of the GSCC and the librarian of the LGBTQ Resource Library. KCB is also currently on the board of the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals nationally, and in Madison helps organize LGBT Books to Prisoners and the Wisconsin Transgender Health Coalition. Katherine is invested in information access, literacy, and transparency, and finds a center in working towards transformative relationships and liberatory community spaces.
Tiffany Lee
Crossroads Coordinator
Tiffany Lee is a Black queer femme from York City. She has Master’s degrees in Gender and Women’s Studies and Afro-American Studies from UW Madison. Her scholarship and activism are centered on queer folk of color. She enjoys (good) spoken word, clever Internet memes, and challenging oppressive structures – small and large. She is extremely excited to bring her passion and experience to help create and sustain an empowering environment for queer people and our allies on this campus.
Jelani Rivera
Program Coordinator
Jelani Rivera is a Puerto Rican, Transgender Man from the Bronx, New York. He graduated from UW-Madison with a Bachelor’s of Science in Rehabilitation Psychology. Throughout his time at UW, he was dedicated to centering the experiences of and advocating for students of color and LGBTQ+ identified students, both individually and at the dynamic intersections therein. He hopes to use his experiences to continue to be a supportive change agent for Queer UW students and their allies.
Graduate student staff
Valiant Lakshmana-Krishna Jacob
Student Staff for Leadership
Valiant (or Val) Jacob is the truest definition of a global citizen. He grew up in tropical Malaysia before moving to the United Kingdom to complete his International Baccalaureate and his undergraduate degree in Law. During his undergraduate studies, he worked as the Trans Officer at Kent Union where he campaigned for trans specific support infrastructure and advocating for better mental health support at his university. Currently, he is working to transfer his British law degree to an American one through his graduate studies at UW Madison so that he can sit for the Wisconsin Bar Examination. He is passionate about advocating for trans rights, LGBTQ+ activism, intersectionality, critical research of international and immigration law, and tiny wiener dogs.
Alexandra Little
Graduate Student for Prevention
Alexandra (or Allie, either one is great!) Little is a part-time graduate student. They graduated with their bachelor’s degree from UW-Madison in 2015, and they are currently working toward their master’s in Social Work. They are passionate about: healthy relationships, victim advocacy, affirmative consent culture, their plant babies, winter hats with pompoms, and photos of impossibly small dogs. In addition to the GSCC, they work for UHS-Violence Prevention & Survivor Services. Feel free to ask them about any of the above, and more!
Cecil Leigh Wilson
Graduate Student Staff
no phone contact please
cecil leigh wilson is a trans, crip, & queer doctoral candidate in the dept. of german, nordic, and slavic. ze teaches a variety of courses in slavic languages/literatures and quelp; hir primary research is on disability and holy fools in russian literature. ze loves cephalopods, fiber crafts, the color range between burgundy and eggplant, and conrad veidt.
Student staff
Elijah Holmes
First Year Engagement Intern
Elijah is the first-year engagement intern for the GSCC. Not new to the area, Elijah has spent most his life in Madison. No foreigner to the campus, he has spent years on the campus through out his time in the PEOPLE program. Currently undecided, Elijah is looking to pursue a degree in psychology. He is passionate about advocating for those who have their voices stolen, working with students of color and unmarginalized groups, and building lasting and meaning connections with those he interacts with. As the first year engagement intern he will be able to bring new and creative ways for first year students to get more engaged with the campus center’s events, as well as provide a way for students to voice events and programs they would like to see from the Campus Center.
Hannah Pendergast
Program Assistant
Hannah, a proud PEOPLE Scholar majoring in Communication Arts TV & Film is entering her third year at UW-Madison. Growing up in Racine, WI she began to make her make her first year as the Mentor Program Coordinator for Chadbourne Residence Hall. As she continues to strive in bringing folxs of all identities together. She wants to use her previous programing and connection skills in order to reach and help train several individuals and communities on the important topics today within the LGBTQIA+ community.
Now as the Program Assistant at the GSCC, she has become more passionate about being able to bring together marginalized communities through various programs. Most of all, having the chance to create a fun and safe space for all students on campus and the Madison community. Aspiring to be a documentarists, Hannah wants to devote the rest of her time as an undergrad capturing important moments through film and photos at the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center, in order to keep the history of the campus center remembered, but also show the journey of its future.
Kendra Raczek
Graphic Design & Outreach Intern
Kendra is the Graphic Design & Outreach Intern this year at the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center. From a small town in central Wisconsin, they are a junior majoring in Computer Science with certificates in Studio Art – Graphic Design and Digital Studies. A nonbinary person, Kendra spent their freshman year in Open House – Gender Learning Community where they built deep connections within the LGBTQ+ community on campus. In addition, Kendra served as the graphic designer for the first annual WisQueer Undergraduate LGBTQ+ Conference last year. They look forward to designing accessible documents and graphics that appeal to queer students on campus, while promoting the representation of intersectional identities.
Nir Sweetnam
Event and Accessibility Coordinator
Nir Sweetnam is the Event and Accessibility Coordinator. They are majoring in Gender and Women’s Studies, along with LGBT Studies, and Studio Art. Nir grew up in Madison,WI and is passionate about creating positive change in the community while they are here. They participate in a number of community organizations including LGBT Books to Prisoners, Queer Pressure, and the Trans Research Lab, which build queer spaces and practice activism in and around LGBTQ+ identity and its many intersections. Much of Nir’s research centers around queer identity and mental health. They are passionate about destigmatizing mental illness and forging greater access to culturally competent mental health care for queer and trans folks.
Dequadray White
Crossroads Intern
Hailing all the way from Forest Park, Dequadray White is a Sophomore who is double majoring in Art with a focus in Graphic Design and Communication Arts with a focus in TV, Radio, and Film. He is a First Wave Scholar a part of the 10th Cohort due to his talents in visual arts and spoken word. He was a feature at Just Bust, a monthly open mic on campus, as well as many other campus events. He served as the GSA Chair for Sellery Hall in the year 2016 – 2017, facilitated poetry workshops within the community with The JVN Project, and helped create jewelry for BRWN GRLZ, a brand started by a UW alumni that makes jewelry and multiple forms of media to uplift women of color. He now serves as the Crossroads Intern at the GSCC hoping to continue to create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students of color on campus.