Listen to this articleThe international network of LGBTQ community centers, CenterLink, named Mike Thompson their new Chief Impact Officer.
Utahns might remember Thompson for coming to the state to work on the Don’t Amend campaign against Utah’s Amendment 3 that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. (That amendment was later overturned as unconstitutional.) He then was named executive director of Equality Utah, which he held from 2005 through 2009.
He left Utah to work in Denver with the Gill Foundation and Gill Action Fund to build Colorado’s LGBT political advocacy effort, which resulted in the One Colorado organization. He was acting president of GLAAD. He served as the CEO of the LGBTQ Center of the Desert in Palm Springs from 2014–2021.
“Mike brings a wealth of experience in the areas of nonprofit executive leadership, consulting, coaching, training, and advancing organizational mission and identity,” CenterLink leaders wrote in a statement. “As Chief Impact Officer, Mike will lead the education initiatives for CenterLink’s member network and will oversee, shape, and expand the training and education programming to meet the needs of a rapidly changing nonprofit landscape.”
CenterLink was founded in 1994 as a member-based coalition to support the development of strong, sustainable LGBTQ community centers. According to their release, a fundamental goal of CenterLink’s work is to strengthen, support, and connect LGBTQ community centers and to help build the capacity of these centers to address the social, cultural, health, and political advocacy needs of LGBTQ community members across the country. CenterLink plays a vital role in addressing the challenges centers face by helping them to improve their organizational and service delivery capacity, access public resources, and engage their regional communities in grassroots social justice movements.
Thompson is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, has a coaching certification from Hendricks Institute, has completed nonprofit consultant training with BoardSource, and serves on faculty with Billions Institute, where he is also a leadership coach.
More information about CenterLink can be found here.
