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Valerie Crowell
President
Valerie (she/her) moved to Contra Costa county in 2000 to flip a house and never left. She previously spent 15 years in San Francisco and has been involved in the community since the early 80s when a bizarre disease began killing the gay men of San Francisco. She started giving blood to help the patients of Ward 5b with a loose knit group of lesbians under the banner "Our Boys Need Blood". She lost rooms full of friends from that era. She has been through all of the battles that the community has fought and previously had won. Unfortunately, in 2022 we are having to fight them all over again and she is back ready to advocate for our community. She has done seven AIDS/Lifecycle Rides and will be doing her 8th in 2022. She is a full time Realtor serving the San Francisco East Bay. When not slaying dragons or slinging houses, she helps the California Doberman Pinscher rescues save surrendered dogs by doing shelter evaluations and transports. She still gives blood every eight weeks so she can be regularly reminded of what started it all. She is a competitive powerlifter and holds many state and national records. She is also a distance cyclist and a pretty lousy golfer. She additionally sits on the board of the Keller Williams Rainbow Network and the Contra Costa Association of Realtors. She lives in Concord with her Doberman Pinschers, Bill, Frida and Kaizen.
JC Chung
Treasurer
JC (they/them) is a Product Manager at Google and moved to the Bay Area in 2018. They received their degrees from the University of Chicago, B.A. Economics, B.S. Computer Science, and their M.B.A. from the Booth School of Business. With experience as a consultant at Kearney, JC specializes in applying analytics to improve business operations, and has a wide breadth of corporate experience from finance and data science to strategy and operations. JC is passionate about building LGBTQ community, particularly focused on youth leadership development, and can often be found in career conversations at Lesbians Who Tech, Reaching Out MBA and Grace Hopper. In their spare time, they enjoy hosting family and friends for backyard BBQs and home cooking lessons.
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Jordan Vaelei
Secretary
Jordan (he/him/HIS) is a full time realtor and artist who identifies as a trans man. He was born and raised in the Bay Area with Polynesian roots from the islands of Tokelau, Tuvalu, and Samoa. He enjoys working alongside his mother and team at Keller Williams helping clients achieve their real estate goals. He also enjoys writing his own lyrics. It all started at a young age with poetry and from then turned into a passion, collaborating with other creatives to write songs.
In 2017 Jordan traveled to New Zealand where he continued his studies and worked for 3 years. And in 2018 he received his Bachelor’s degree in Recording Arts at SAE Auckland. Jordan has volunteered his time with churches and local communities to help serve those in need. Motivated by a desire to create positive change, he is eager to deepen his involvement within the LGBTQIA+ community. By actively participating in advocacy, volunteering, or offering support, his aim is to contribute to the ongoing progress towards equality and inclusion.
Joshua Rosario King
Director
Joshua (He, They) is a Creative Leader with a background in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I), Health Education, Program Development, and Public Speaking. Joshua has extensive experience working with Churches, non-profits, social justice spaces, and most recently Tech Companies. Joshua has built strong partnerships with marginalized communities to bridge the gap to create more opportunities for effective change. Their passion for volunteering and giving back to the community comes from a seed planted back in NY while volunteering at a crisis center with their mom and their dad volunteering as a Firefighter. From there it grew into getting involved with local youth groups, and organizations to support those from low-income families. The free spirit that Joshua is, they didn't stop there. They got most of their HIV/Aids certification training and experience from hands-on experience by working in the community and partnering with agencies like G.M.H.C ( Gay Men Health Crisis Center), Aids service center, Gay Men of African descent, and by sitting on the board of L.E.S.C ( Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center) advocating for at-risk youth, sex workers, and the trans community. Joshua's passion for advocacy and helping others helped him navigate his career in Corporate America through D.E.I Practices and Public speaking by promoting cross-cultural understanding, challenging biases, and fostering an inclusive environment and creating safe spaces for all. If you interested in connecting or learning more, Please reach out see my LinkedIn Profile
Charles Neal Malmsten
Director
Charles Neal Malmsten is a native of Washington State who originally came to California for undergraduate and graduate study. Upon completion of both courses of study, he joined the Teach for America program where he taught Biology to high school students in Baltimore, MD, and began cultivating his practice of giving back to the larger community on a professional level.
With his two-year commitment to TFA complete, Charles returned to the West Coast where he enrolled at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, OR. Charles’ coursework emphasized medical malpractice, civil rights law, and the Street Law program, which provided young adults with exposure to our country's legal system. At Lewis and Clark, Charles volunteered with local unions and served as the Treasurer for OUTLaw, the President for the Black Law Students Association, and eventually the Treasurer for the Student Bar Association. Upon earning his Juris Doctor Charles returned to California and successfully passed the bar exam on his first attempt.
As an attorney, Charles has experience in Dependency Law and labor law reflecting his passion for helping those in need. This passion led Charles to serve as an Attorney for local labor unions, and to his current practice as a labor and employment attorney for those who do not have the benefit of a union contract.
Charles became connected to Rainbow’s board through assisting a previous Executive Director, and upon finding the possibility of being able to give more he jumped at the opportunity. In his free time, Charles enjoys playing Final Fantasy XIV where he plays as a hrothgar scholar main (he’s a black panther that heals people) and keeps connected to his immediate community of Oak Park in Sacramento.
Zachary R. Nicholas
Director
Zachary R. Nicholas (Zac) is a Family Medicine physician with Contra Costa County Health Services. He completed his medical residency in Stockton at San Joaquin General Hospital. He lives in Martinez and provides full-spectrum primary care to all populations with a focus on sexual and gender health and substance use disorder. He has also conducted extensive research on harm reduction policies and community availability of naloxone to prevent opioid overdose deaths. Zac is committed to improving the lives of all marginalized communities through committed allyship and elevating oppressed voices for meaningful change.