Jama Shelton
Jama Shelton is a nationally recognized leader on the issue of LGBT youth homelessness. Recently named the Director of the True Colors Fund’s Forty to None Project, she will lead the first national organization singularly focused on the issue of gay and transgender youth homelessness. During her 9 year tenure at the Ali Forney Center in New York City, she played an integral role in building the country’s most expansive housing program for gay and transgender youth. She is a professor at both the Hunter College and NYU Schools of Social Work, and has conducted extensive training for service providers around the country. Jama’s own research focuses on the unique needs of transgender and gender non-conforming homelessness, which is the topic of her dissertation. She is a doctoral candidate in the Social Welfare program at the CUNY Graduate Center and is expecting to graduate in May.