Meet our Advisory Committee--includes biographies and photos.

Kevin Q. Maxey, M.D.

Kevin Quentin Maxey accomplished his transition in 1998, the same year he co-founded SAGA. He facilitates the SAGA and Dezert Boyz monthly meetings, and is proud to be a part of a community in which there are thriving transgender support groups integrated into the programs of a fantastic GLBT community center (Wingspan). Kevin is a scuba diver and amateur underwater videographer, a gardener for his collection of desert plants, and a motorcyclist who likes to explore the Southwest on two wheels. He earns his keep and pays for his hobbies by practicing emergency medicine. Please pardon the helmet-head hair in his picture, he asks.

Michael Woodward

Michael Woodward is a writer, musician, speaker, consultant, heteroqueer transman, and social justice advocate—in no particular order. Now working as an independent consultant, trainer, writer, and speaker, he led the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance (SAGA) for more than five years and also worked in other roles at Wingspan, southern Arizona’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community center. Michael currently serves on the City of Tucson Commission on GLBT Issues, the LGBTQ Behavioral Health Coalition of Southern Arizona, and he is a charter member of The University of Arizona President's LGBT Advisory Council. Beyond Tucson, he is on the board of Female to Male International (FTMI) and is profiled on Lynn Conway's "Successful Transmen", a prestigious Web site recognizing leaders in the international transgender community.

A life-long musician and entertainer, Michael is the lead singer of the popular Tucson rock and blues band, Too Much Information. Prior to becoming a professional queer (and prior to becoming Michael), he was an Executive Editor at Macmillan Publishing USA. Michael has published books, magazine articles, blogs, and other writings on a variety of non-fiction topics. He currently has two new trans-related books in progress.

Erin Russ

Erin Russ describes herself as a reluctant activist. A former Army Infantry Company Commander (whose promising career came to an untimely end as a result of her gender non-conformity) and Eagle Scout with a sense of fair play and a touch of the knight errant, she has rarely met a windmill at which she does not feel the urge tilt.

Erin has traded her combat boots for heels and her camouflage fatigues for cashmere and combined her leadership, communication and planning skills with a fierce determination to stand for the underdog in her role as a public face for the hundreds, and possibly thousands, who are unable to stand up and tell their stories.

For most of this decade Erin has been one of a handful of motivating members in the southern Arizona transgender community under the inspiring leadership of people like Kevin Maxey and Alison Davison. Erin is responsible for planning, coordinating and executing two transgender specific conferences in Tucson (the second of which had international participation), has contributed significantly to the fund raising efforts of SAGA and Wingspan, and has a long history of speaking to college classes, civic organizations and business/employer groups on behalf of gender diversity with the goal of creating a society where those who seek acceptance, anonymity and personal privacy are able to do so without fear. Erin is currently working with Trans Youth Family Allies to enhance their fund raising efforts and plans to enter graduate school in the fall.

Ann Jones

In addition to being an active member of SAGA and Dezert Girlz, Ann sits on the board of Wingspan, our sponsoring organization.

Diane Steen

Diane earned her B.S. in business from Indiana University and served as an accountant and controller for businesses. She's now retired and is active in SAGA, serves with Habitat for Humanity, and volunteers at the VA Hospital. Diane recently collated the information in our resource database and compiled the state-by-state information on changing your birth certificate. A very active Dezert Girl, Diane has a son who's an assistant vice-president at a New York bank.

Amanda R. Simpson, MBA

Program Manager of Technology Development for Advanced Programs, Raytheon Missile Systems and Senior Principal Systems Engineer, transitioned gender in 2000. A senior employee of over nineteen years, she remained in the same position since prior to the transition, working with management and human resources to smooth concerns. Her transition also fell during her MBA program at the University of Arizona, which she graduated in 2001 at the top of the class with a 4.0 GPA.

Since her coming out, Amanda has been extremely active in the community, serving on the boards of the Wingspan Community Center, the Tucson Airport Kiwanis Club, TGNet Arizona, the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance, the Tucson Corporate LGBT Coalition and the Arizona Human Rights Fund. She also serves on the Raytheon Diversity Council as a representative of the Raytheon Women's Network. A member of the City of Tucson Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, she has been a focal point of television interviews, newsprint articles and community addresses. Amanda has addressed the Arizona State Legislature, classes at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College, been a panel member at several diversity conferences. She was the keynote speaker at the 2001 Putting on the Glitz conference in Phoenix and has addressed the Out and Equal Summit in Orlando and the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta on Transgender Employment Issues.

She is a graduate of the Tucson YWCA Women's Leadership Program and appeared in the Tucson V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues. Amanda was a 2001 recipient of the Raytheon Woman on the Move Award.