BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair

Financial Development Co-chair

Kevin W. Allison is a professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Psychology with an appointment in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Dr Allison currently serves as Chair of the Department of Psychology. He is interim co-chair of the VCU Q Collective, which “serves as a creative and intellectual hub in support of LGBTQIA+ artistic and scholarly activities among faculty, staff, students and the Greater Richmond community” and also serves as co-chair of the VCU ADVANCE-IT Grant Steering Committee, which seeks to transform VCU by increasing the recruitment, retention and advancement of STEM women faculty across intersecting identities. Dr. Allison previously held positions as Vice President for Strategy and Development, Senior Executive Director for Strategy and Administration in the Office of the President, including providing administrative leadership on the East Marshall Street Well Project. He also served as interim vice president for Inclusive Excellence at VCU as well as associate dean for community activities in the College of Humanities and Sciences and as Director of Applied and Outreach Scholarship in VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at VCU. His research and teaching interests focus on deepening the understanding of race, ethnicity and LGBTQIA+ identities through the lenses of individual development, social/community and political context, and structural processes. Dr. Allison is recipient of VCU’s 2005 Reese-Melton Presidential Award for Multicultural Enrichment, Black Pride RVA/UGRC’s 2023 Rodney Lofton Social Justice Award and was a 2016-17 American Council of Education Fellow. He is co-author with Dr. Faye Belgrave of African American Psychology: From Africa to America, now in its fourth edition. Dr. Allison received his Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology from DePaul University, his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, and completed his clinical internship at Children’s Hospital in Washington, DC. Prior to joining VCU, Dr. Allison was a faculty member in the department of psychology at Penn State University. Earlier in his career, Dr. Allison served as the Clinical Director of City Lights, a school for troubled and troubling youth in Washington, D.C.

Vice Chair

Governance Committee

Originally from Akron Ohio, Keri’s family moved to Richmond when she was very young. Life in her early days seemed fairly normal except with constant feelings of confusion on her gender. Keri graduated from Hermitage High School and attended Virginia Tech where she majored in architecture.

After leaving college, amongst a major economic downturn, she decided to forgo her career in architecture and instead pursued a career as a motorcycle mechanic. Motorcycles had been a passion for a very long time.

In the spring of 2010, she came out to herself and the world as a transgender female and started her transition to the woman she is today. Keri quickly became involved in the transgender community and has had the opportunity to run transgender specific programing at a local non-profit. She has been a youth facilitator at ROSMY and a lead facilitator in James River Transgender Society, a local support group.

She has also participated on many LGBT discussion panels, college classes, and has given educational presentations to area businesses. In 2015 Keri was named one of Equality Virginia's OutStanding Virginians. She has continued working with EV where she is currently a member of the Equality Virginia Transgender Speakers Bureau.

Keri is very honored to be named to the Board of Diversity Richmond, where she hopes to continue, and further the work that has already been started to be more inclusive to hers and many other minority communities.