TransActive Gender Project at L&C

The TransActive Gender Center, a Portland nonprofit that addresses the needs of transgender and gender-diverse children, youth, and their families, is transferring its operations to the Center for Community Engagement at the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling. Its new name will be the TransActive Gender Project.

TransActive’s founder and executive director, Jenn Burleton, will join Lewis & Clark’s staff as program director of the Trans-Active Gender Project. She is a nationally recognized expert on transgender and gender-expansive children, youth, and families.

“In bringing Jenn in-house, we’re providing our counseling and education students with an unparalleled resource for the myriad transgender-related questions that can arise in the classroom, the workplace, or at home,” says Scott Fletcher, dean of the graduate school.

Like the graduate school’s recent acquisition of the art therapy master’s program from Marylhurst University, the integration of TransActive into the graduate school’s Center for Community Engagement is part of the graduate school’s strategic expansion of its social justice mission.

“When I began this work, there was essentially zero visibility, awareness, or focus being given to gender identity development and affirmation of gender-expansive students,” says Burleton. “Now, with Lewis & Clark as our home base, we’ll be able to expand our reach; educate and inform more people; and provide more support for transgender youth and adults and their families.”