Liberty City is governed by a board of directors consisting of between 9 and 15 elected members of the organization.  We are committed to a diverse board that reflects the Philadelphia LGBT population at large.

Lee Carson, Co-Chair

Lee Carson works as a behavioral science researcher for Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) on projects related to HIV-prevention among men who have sex with men.  Also at PHMC, he completed a needs assessment focused on the needs of transgender communities in Philadelphia, in collaboration with transgender community advocates. He has worked part-time as a mental health therapist for Mazzoni Center over the past 5 years and has taught in the school of social work at Temple University as an adjunct professor. Lee is one of the founding members and current president of the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council, and is also a founding member of the People of Color Coalition, both of which have been active in the community around political issues and community development in the past. He is deeply committed to building bridges between all segments of LGBT communities.

Lee has volunteered for Liberty City in a number of ways, including serving on the endorsement committee. In 2008, he was one of the organizers, along with Liberty City, of the Barack Obama Democratic Nomination Watch party at Club Heat. Lee has been a board member of Liberty City since 2009 and currently serves on the board development committee.

Eric Cheung, Treasurer

Eric Cheung is the Senior Attorney at Clean Air Council, a nonprofit environmental group headquartered in Philadelphia. For the past 8 1/2 years at the Council, Eric has served as both legal counsel and project coordinator for a number of clean transportation programs. Prior to working at the Council, Eric was an Associate in the environmental group of Drinker, Biddle and Reath, a Philadelphia‐based law firm.

Eric has volunteered extensively for both Liberty PA and Liberty City, and has also volunteered for the Delaware County Democrats as its attorney coordinator for Election Day monitoring. Eric currently serves as the Treasurer of Liberty City. Eric received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 2000 and is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania.

Stephanie Haynes, Secretary

Stephanie Haynes is a full-time mom and part-time Community Coordinator with Philadelphia Family Pride. She has 15 years of experience working for non-profit organizations, including eight as a canvass director running campaigns for the Human Rights Campaign, the Sierra Club, and PennPIRG.  Stephanie is a long time meber of Liberty City and currently serves as the organization's secretary.  Stephanie and her wife of 15 years, Vicky Kresge, live in West Philadelphia with their five year-old twin sons.

Dwayne Bensing

Dwayne Bensing came to Philadelphia with his partner, Christopher, in 2007 from the University of Arkansas where he studied Political Science and Communication.  While he was at the University of Arkansas, he was the president of its LGBT student group, the Young Democrats, and the University programming board.  In 2004, Dwayne was elected as Arkansas’s only out delegate to the Democratic National Convention, as well as one of the youngest ever elected.  Dwayne deferred his admission to the University of Pennsylvania Law School to join the Teach for America corps in Philadelphia, where he taught middle-school science.  He is now in his third year at Penn Law, where he was president of the school’s Lambda Law group, and serves as a leader of the Civil Rights Law Project and Journal of Constitutional Law.

Sherrie Cohen

Sherrie Cohen ran a historic race in May 2011 as Philadelphia's first out LGBTQ Democratic candidate for Philadelphia City Council.  She ran citywide for City Council At Large, receiving over 44,000 votes, but losing by 1600 votes.  A lifelong activist, Sherrie fought for Philadelphia’s lesbian and gay rights anti-discrimination ordinance in the 1970’s.  She is an attorney, a committeeperson, an elected member of the PA Democratic Party’s State Committee and vice-chair of its LGBT Caucus, and a Community Grantmaking Committee member of the Bread and Roses Community Fund.  She is the former Chairperson of the Coalition For Essential Services, former Steering Committee member of the Coalition to Save the Libraries, and former Steering Committee member of One Philadelphia.

Sara Jacobson

Sara Jacobson teaches Trial Advocacy at Temple Law School as an Associate Professor and serves as Director of Trial Advocacy.  Before coming to Temple she was a Public Defender in Philadelphia for nearly 10 years.  Sara is a member of the LGBT Rights Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association (PBA) and currently serves as the vice chair of the executive committee of the Public Interest Section of PBA.  She serves on the steering committee of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Constitution Society, is active in the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), and volunteers time with the ACLU and the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

Sara has been a member of Liberty City for several years and has been on the Board for the past year.  She currently chairs the Endorsement Committee.

Micah Mahjoubian

Micah Mahjoubian has over 20 years of political experience having worked on dozens of campaigns in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.  In the summer of 1999, he was the first openly gay employee hired to work on the mayoral campaign of John F. Street where he served as the Deputy Finance Director.  The following January, Micah began working for the Street Administration in the Mayor’s Office of External Affairs.  In 2003, he left city government to work as the Operations Director of the Mayor’s re-election campaign.  The following year, he returned to the administration as Deputy Secretary of External Affairs where he managed the City’s affairs at the state level.  Additionally, he served as the Operations Director of the Mayor’s Gaming Advisory Task Force in 2005.  After leaving city government, Micah founded a political consulting firm called Soapbox Solutions from which he advises various candidates for local and statewide office.

Micah has been an active member of Liberty City since 1998 and has participated on the endorsement committee since 2000.  He is currently Chair of the Policy and Advocacy Committee.

Howard Moseley

Howard Moseley, Deputy Director of Manayunk Development Corporation, previously worked for the City of Philadelphia in various capacities including as Special Assistant to the Managing Director, Project Coordinator for the Philadelphia Gaming Advisory Task Force, and Project Manager for The Emergency Preparedness Review Committee and for the Education Advisory Task Force. Prior to serving the City, Howard developed technology solutions for the Franklin Mint. For the past 12 years, he has developed voter registration, voter contact, finance compliance and turnout tracking software for political campaigns.
For many years, he has also encouraged teams of gay youth to volunteer on LGBT friendly campaigns. A long‐time member of Liberty City, Howard would like to see the organization continue to grow as a political voice for the community and believes that by engaging Philadelphia's growing population of out gay youth, we can increase the strength of our voice.

Su Ming Yeh

Su Ming Yeh has been actively dedicated to social justice issues for the past 18 years.  Currently Su Ming is an attorney at the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, where she represents prisoners and other institutionalized individuals on their civil rights claims.  Prior to law school, Su Ming was the executive director of the Asian Professional Extension, Inc. (a mentoring organization for Asian American inner-city youth in New York City), a community organizer with the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, and a science teacher with the U.S. Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Tonga. 

Su Ming served on the board of the Astraea Lesbian Action Foundation, based in New York City, and volunteered with the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights (now Equality Advocates Pennsylvania).  She is currently a board member of the Asian Pacific Bar Association of Pennsylvania, Defender Association of Philadelphia, and the Mazzoni Center Legal Advisory Board.  She has been on the Liberty City board since 2009 and currently chairs the board development committee.

Despite being an all volunteer organization, Liberty City has worked hard to gain a reputation accross Pennsylvania as a well organized and effective political organization.

• In May of 1996, Liberty City hosted a national convention of gay and lesbian Democratic clubs. More than 100 people attended the two-day conference in Philadelphia, including Congressman Barney Frank and Presidential Advisor Richard Socaretes.
• In June of 1996, Liberty City led a coalition of organizations in successfully stopping an attempt to place an anti-gay referendum on the city's November ballot by then-City Council President John Street.
• In 1998, Liberty City helped lead a coalition of groups to successfully enact domestic partnership legislation in the City of Philadelphia.
• Liberty City recruited and trained dozens of open lesbians and gay men to run for Democratic Committeeperson in Philadelphia in the May 1998 primary. Thirty-three of thirty-six openly gay candidates on the ballot were elected.
• In December of 1999, nine Liberty City members were placed on Transition Team committees of Mayor John Street'. Members of the community served on Governor Rendell’s and the Mayor’s Transition Teams in 2002 and 2003.
• In January of 2000, Liberty City successfully nominated and elected eight candidates for Delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
• In the spring of 2002, Liberty City began its ‘precinct adoption’ program and handled all of the election-day get out the vote (GOTV) activities in Center City Philadelphia for Governor Rendell. Each election cycle Liberty City distributes 10-15 thousand of its endorsed candidate slate card to households in LGBT neighborhoods all over the city, as well as gay bars, bookstores and events.
• In the beginning of 2004, Liberty City created a statewide organization, Liberty PA, to work on the upcoming presidental election. Through this work, they helped create new Stonewall chapters in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.
• Liberty City sent several members to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and one Co-Chair at the time, Renee Gilinger, was a member of the Pennsylvania Electoral College.
• In the spring of 2005, former Liberty City board member Ann Butchart was elected to the Court of Common Pleas, making her the first out elected official in Philadelphia.
• In the spring of 2007, former Liberty City board member Dan Anders was appointed to the Court of Common Pleas by Governor Rendell in the middle of a successful campaign for that same office. This made Anders the second out elected official in Philadelphia.
• In 2008, Liberty City Co-Chair Rue Landau was hired by Mayor Nutter to head the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission.