Urvashi Vaid takes over at Arcus

KALAMAZOO – Urvashi Vaid is thrilled and a little surprised to find that her long career in LGBT activism has led her to Kalamazoo. Small in stature but huge in heart, Vaid said she's intent on bringing her vast experience and passion to help grow the community in Michigan as the new executive director of The Arcus Foundation.
"Nineteen years ago I started my work in LGBT rights at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force," said Vaid, 47. "There were just four of us in a storefront. Who knew that nineteen years later I'd be here in Kalamazoo at a foundation committed to advancing LGBT rights?"
Jon Stryker, Arcus Foundation founder and president, chose Vaid to lead his rapidly growing foundation because, "I wanted to find someone who is wise and smart to lead us as we grow." He introduced her to about 300 guests at a private grand opening of the new Arcus headquarters building in downtown Kalamazoo. "I wanted to bring people to Kalamazoo to enrich our lives. My prediction is that she will do remarkable and meaningful things here."
Stryker, who is one of the heirs to the Stryker Corporation fortune, is the grandson of Dr. Homer Stryker who founded the company in 1941 in Kalamazoo. The company is now one of the world's largest suppliers of medical products and services.
The Arcus Foundation has given grants totaling $55 million in its first six years, and next year they expect to grant out between $15 and $20 million. Arcus will soon open another office in New York, but both Stryker and Vaid said that the New York office and the foundation's dramatic growth should not be seen as lessening their commitment to Kalamazoo and Michigan.
"We intend to stay here and grow with this community, as Arcus has for the past six years," said Vaid. "We remain deeply committed to Kalamazoo and Michigan. We also want to grow nationally and to have significant impact in our issue areas."
The Arcus Foundation has three main areas of interest: supporting the communities in southwest Michigan, advancing LGBT rights in Michigan and nationally, and the Arcus Great Apes Fund which supports survival of Great Apes in the wild and research into human exploitation of animals.
In selecting Vaid, Stryker has signaled that he wants his foundation to be led by someone with a strong resume in LGBT rights. Vaid is a proven leader, orator, author and progressive activist who sees the movement for LGBT rights as part of a larger struggle for social justice and human rights.
Born in New Delhi, India, Vaid moved with her family to Potsdam, New York in 1966. She earned a bachelor's degree in English and political science at Vassar College in New York, and went on to earn a law degree from Northeastern University in Boston. She worked with the ACLU National Prison Project, where she initiated the organization's work on HIV/AIDS policies in prisons. She joined NGLTF in 1986 as the Media Director and then became executive director in 1989 where she made a name for herself as one of the most visionary and inspiring leaders of the LGBT rights movement. In 1995 she was one of the founders of NGLTF's think tank, known as the Policy Institute.
In 1996 Vaid published "Virtual Equality, The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation," a critically acclaimed book on the state of LGBT politics after 20 years of activism.
For the past five years Vaid has been the deputy director of the Ford Foundation's Governance and Civil Society Unit, headquartered in New York. She left that post in the summer to take the position at Arcus.
Arcus' new headquarters is a completely renovated train depot that was originally built in 1847. Stryker, who is an architect, oversaw the $2 million project with a team of highly respected architectural renovation experts from Boston. The result is a beautiful mix of old and new with functionality a priority.
Half of the building serves as the headquarters for Arcus. The other half houses the administrative offices of four local non-profit groups supported by Arcus, including Advocacy Services for Kids, the Fair Housing Center of SW Michigan, the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council and Parent to Parent of SW Michigan.