Jennifer Chrisler

Jennifer Chrisler is the Chief Advancement Office at Hampshire College.

From 2005 to 2013, she was Executive Director of Family Equality Council, and one of the foremost national advocates dedicated to full equality for modern American families. As head of the Family Equality Council, she worked to support, represent and connect the one million families in the U.S. with parents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and their two million children.

Under Jennifer’s leadership, Family Equality Council grew into the leading policy advocate on federal and state issues that impact today’s modern families, including foster care and adoption, safe schools, family medical leave, parenting protections, domestic partnership and marriage. Chrisler’s extensive nonprofit management skills are derived from her years of experience as a fundraising consultant, finance director and director of corporate communications in political organizations and LGBT groups.

Chrisler earned her Bachelor of Arts in early childhood education from Smith College. She and her spouse, former Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl Jacques, are parents to twins, Tim and Tom and son, Matthew.

In 2006, Chrisler mobilized hundreds of 100 LGBT headed families to participate in the White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington, DC. The groundbreaking event received unprecedented national attention from the media and the public and represented the single largest example of LGBT family visibility in American history. In 2012, Chrisler was invited to lead dozens of LGBT parents and children to the NYSE to ring the closing bell on the same day that President Obama issued an historic statement in support of marriage equality.

Chrisler is a talented media spokesperson and appears frequently on television and in print media as an advocate for family equality and expert on parenting and family policy issues.

Chrisler received the 2011 Urban Angel Award from the New York Theological Seminary, and has been honored by the Human Rights Campaign and the Massachusetts Freedom to Marry Coalition. She was also recognized as a “Prime Mover” by the Hunt Alternatives Foundation for her work as a national social justice leader.

Follow her on Twitter @JennChrisler.