Trevor Project Announces First Black Nonbinary CEO

Jaymes Black will be the first permanent CEO of the Trevor Project since 2022 when the previous CEO was removed for connections to the opioid epidemic.

The Trevor Project announced on July 10 that Black (they/she/he) would be taking over as the nonprofit’s CEO, and that they would be both the first Black and the first nonbinary CEO of the organization in its almost 30 years of existence. “I am elated and deeply honored to step into the role of CEO at The Trevor Project for so many reasons—especially since this is an organization I desperately needed myself as a queer young person growing up in South Texas,” Black says in a statement. 

Black’s qualifications include 20 years of management of large, high-performing groups, a combination of corporate and nonprofit experience, and valuable lived experiences as a Black nonbinary lesbian. Their last position was as President and CEO of Family Equality, a nonprofit that fights for the rights of LGBTQ+ families. 

They will be superseding interim CEO, founder, and Board Member Peggy Rajski, who stepped into the role in 2022 after the previous CEO, Amit Paley, was removed after revelations of his previous work with Purdue Pharma and the opioid epidemic, as well as notoriously overworking Trevor Project volunteers and crisis counselors. Paley had done consulting work for Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, in 2016 and had helped the major drug manufacturer avoid the negative consequences of its work in perpetuating the opioid crisis. Many Trevor Project employees viewed this as “hypocritical,” they told Teen Vogue, due to the disproportionate effect of the opioid crisis on LGBTQ+ people. In addition, Paley was known for chronically overworking Trevor Project staff and pushing the growth of the Trevor Project as a company at the cost of quality service to struggling LGBTQ+ youth. 

Black has been endorsed by several leading LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in their announcement as CEO, including Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, who writes, “Our movement is facing an urgent moment where we must both meet the needs of our people today and fight for a future where there are laws, policy, and the type of representation for us to get free. This is also a defining moment as movement leaders seek to meet the demands and build organizations that can create the kind of impact our communities deserve. Jaymes uniquely gets this.”

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