Youth Pride Inc announces new executive director

Christopher R. Lauth, Assistant Director of Diversity Programs at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), has been named Executive Director of Youth Pride Inc. (YPI) by the organization’s Board of Directors. Mr. Lauth will officially assume this new role on June 27, 2016.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors of Youth Pride Inc., I am excited to welcome Christopher Lauth as the new Executive Director,” said Board Chair Lisa Carcieri. “His passion and demonstrated leadership serving the LGBTQ community will help the organization advance its mission to meet the unique needs of LGBTQ youth and young adults of our State.”

Mr. Lauth will be YPI’s fifth Executive Director. His background includes founding and leading a gay/straight alliance from 2006-2009 in Northeast Florida and significant experience in higher education, student development theory, non-profit management and social justice education. Mr. Lauth will advance both YPI’s strategic plan and guide development initiatives to better support LGBTQ youth and YPI’s future contributions in youth advocacy/education for the Rhode Island community.

“I am humbled and honored to be serving our Rhode Island LGBTQ youth, helping to create not only a safe space but a space that will allow our youth to show up with all of their identities fully present,” said Mr. Lauth. “Only then will we create an environment that will empower and prepare our youth to recognize their immense personal power when they live true to who they are enabling them to become change agents in our community.”

Lauth has a Master of Science in College Student Personnel Administration from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York and a Bachelor of Arts in U.S. Southern Cultural History from Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida.

YPI was founded nearly 25 years ago in 1992 as a support group within the YMCA of Greater Rhode Island. Having its first meeting in the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center on Brown University’s campus, it quickly outgrew the space and incorporated in 1994. Today, YPI is poised to begin a robust and exciting time in its history to help foster an emerging generation of strong, thoughtful and caring leaders in a global society. Over the past year, YPI has served 850 youth in its drop-in center, providing access to food for over 300 and supported 45 gay/straight alliances in the Rhode Island school system.