Our Team
Board of Directors
Ray Sidney-Smith
(he/him)
President / Board Chair
Ray Sidney-Smith has been active with Pittsburgh Equality Center circa 2019, and he organizes and facilitates Rainbow Reading Group (Lavender Book Club’s Pittsburgh chapter), Pittsburgh’s LGBTQIA+ book club.
Ray was brought up in a multiracial family with origins from China to Jamaica, and Honduras to United Kingdom and Europe, in a multicultural neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. He identifies primarily as hapa.
Professionally, Ray is a Digital Productivity Coach focused on executives and professionals. Ray is the author of SoLoMo Success: Social Media, Local and Mobile Web Marketing Small Business Strategy Explained (2014) and co-author of Podcasting for Small Business (available later in 2021).
T.J. Murphy
(he/him)
Vice-President / Vice-Chair
T.J. Murphy is a Pittsburgh native and the current executive director of Reel Q, Pittsburgh's LGBTQ+ Film Festival. He grew up on the city's Northside in a family committed to public service so his involvement in the community was instilled at an early age. T.J. is both personally and professionally dedicated to uplifting the image of the LGBTQ+ community in Pittsburgh.
Ross Pfile
(he/him)
Secretary
Ross Pfile is a Program Manager with Cisco Systems, Inc.’s US Public Sector Proposal Collaboration Center. He is a native Pittsburgher who returned home after more than 30 years away. Ross is a graduate of Allegheny College and did his graduate studies at Temple University. Ross has worked on Health, Education, and AIDS prevention projects in Sub-Saharan Africa with the World Bank, and contract and proposal management work for the US Department of Defense.
He met his husband in 2011 while living in Dubai, followed by relocation to Seoul, and finally a return to the US in 2015. They currently live in Regent Square with “The Pudge” and Rooney. Previously, Ross volunteered with the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, DC and was a founding member of the World Bank Group GLOBE.
Jeff Miller
(he/him)
Treasurer
Jeff Miller is a retired Mental Health Therapist and clergy living in Shadyside with his husband. He has been a resident of Western Pennsylvania except during college and graduate school years. Jeff has been a volunteer with the PEC since his retirement in 2012, becoming a Board member in 2019 and overseeing the move of the Fischerkeller Library to its current location. Although most of his career focused on the needs of youth and families, Jeff is now active in the Western Pennsylvania SAGE (Service and Advocacy for Gay Elders) at Persad Center program.
Interested in serving?
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Director of Development
We are seeking a committed board member to serve in this board role as Director of Development, leading our Development Committee for fundraising and grants! Reach out if you're interested!
Julie Cantrell
(she/her)
Julie has been involved with the PEC since the spring of 2019 and on the board since the summer of 2019. Julie is a high school math teacher at Pittsburgh Public Schools and is very involved with the LGBTQ+ community in the schools. She is the co-sponsor for her school’s GSA, co-leader of her school’s point team, a member of the district’s Queer Equity Committee and the PPS PRIDE committee and founding member of the PFT’s LGBTQ+ grass roots committee.
Julie is a representative for the GSA Network for Pennsylvania, working to connect GSAs across the state. She has lead conferences and workshops for GSA sponsors and other educators and is working to “queer the curriculum” in Pittsburgh Public Schools and surrounding districts. Julie worked with her local community to try to pass a nondiscrimination ordinance. While that was not successful, the township did add a welcoming non-discrimination statement on the website and to the employee handbook.
For the past several years Julie has been very involved with her sorority’s local alumnae chapter, serving as the programming chair and as a Panhellenic participant. In addition to her sorority, she is active with her local Democratic committee and is involved with local politics.
Joe Schlosser
(he/him)
Mike Toole, EdD
(he/him)
Kenneth Huntly
(he/him)
Board Application