Mara Keisling is the founder of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). She served as its first executive director for 19 years until this summer when she left to write about how the trans movement has progressed so quickly. Mara is one of the longest-serving leaders of the national lgbt movement. She has led organizational and coalition efforts that have won significant advances in transgender equality, including the inclusion of gender identity in the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act ( Equality Act) and countless other federal- and state-level wins. Mara also co-authored Injustice at Every Turn, the groundbreaking 2009 report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, and the report of the 2015 US Transgender Survey. As one of the nation’s leading voices for transgender equality, she is regularly quoted in national and local print media and has appeared on major television networks, including as part of the first all-transgender panel on a national news show in 2012. Mara received her Bachelor’s from Pennsylvania State University and did graduate work in American Government at Harvard University.