In 1990, after growing up a dutiful son in a conservative Christian home, Breanna exploded out of the closet and into a community she had no idea even existed up to that time. Waiting for her was community and support at Ingersoll Gender Center. The support groups and information helped Breanna to fully embrace and actualize her identity as a woman and for that she is eternally grateful. She immediately engaged to return the favor by joining the peer facilitators that have always been the heart of Ingersoll’s support.
Wanting to further integrate with the burgeoning Seattle Queer Community, she joined the scrappy queers of Q Patrol, learning physical confidence and giving pride to the Capitol Hill community they watched over on the weekends. This led to involvement with the Seattle LGBT Pride Parade. First as Security Captain, Security Chair and finally Co-Chair of the Freedom Day Committee in 1996, she increased her participation and service to the community in this important and historical Seattle institution.
In 1996, as a Microsoft employee she joined the Microsoft LGBT employee group GLEAM and helped the GLEAM and Microsoft understand and incorporate the needs and concerns of Transgender people to make it a great and welcoming place for Trans and Gender Non-binary people to work.
In the early 2000’s Breanna returned to the board of Ingersoll Gender Center and immediately launched one of the largest regional needs assessment surveys that had been done to date. This research, including thousands of participants, predated the large national surveys that would follow and helped Ingersoll to understand the evolving nature of our complex community and to serve it more effectively.
Breanna joined the board of the LGBT community center as Ingersoll became a program of that center for a few years. As the LGBT Community Center wound down, she served as co-chair for a period to bring it to a good stopping point and hand off programs to community partners.
Breanna participated in the reconstitution of Ingersoll as an independent non-profit organization and served again on the board of Ingersoll and led the facilitation team for many years, piloting a number of changes and refinements that have become part of the new traditions of Ingersoll’s decades of support groups. In her term with Ingersoll she led the buildout of its first offices and community center and led the Seattle Trans Economic Empowerment Project (STEEP) to address lasting issues of economic discrimination and underemployment.
Breanna also served for two years on the board of Out In Front, an amazing LGBT leadership training organization that has been cultivating generations of inspiring community leaders.
Breanna lives with her partners Maggie Metcalfe and Ryan Blackhawke in rural North Washington. Breanna and her partner Maggie are board directors at South Fork Valley Community Association doing rural community building as out and visible queer people. They have 6 amazing and unique adult children.
