SAN DIEGO — San Diego Pride welcomed its new executive director today.
The LGBTQ+ non-profit named Leane Marchese as their new leader, after the former leader stepped down last November.
The San Diego Pride festival is one of the largest in the country, but it does outreach and advocacy year round.
“I was driving down here going, I kind of feel like the morning of the parade where you just everything is happy Pride,” said Marchese.
As she walked into her office the first time the new executive director says she felt right at home.
“When I got the call, it came as a call, I was like, ‘wow, are you serious? Like, I wasn’t expecting it. I mean, I was not not expecting it, but you don’t want to ever presume anything. So, I was just over the moon excited,” said Marchese.
Her arrival comes after the former leader resigned last November. The board says it worked with Blair Search Partners to conduct a national search, but it was the Encinitas native who stood out.
As she walked around headquarters to meet her team she was welcomed with hugs and handshakes.
“Welcome home,” said Gardenia Partridge, Pride Entertainment.
This may be her first day in the Pride office as the executive director but not her first stint with Pride.
Marchese was on the Pride board from 2006 to 2008 she also volunteered and helped be a voice to older LGBTQ+.
“San Diego Pride has a lot more to give and a lot more to step up to,” said Marchese.
That drive comes from her extensive background in non-profit leadership.
She served as the founding executive director of Life Science Cares San Diego focusing on poverty and inequity and leadership roles for the YMCA of San Diego County and Elder Help and worked on the form a collaborative Aging as Ourselves.
Marchese says her vision for the future of Pride is to sustain the 50-year-old tradition of celebration and advocacy.
“That will definitely be a focus. So we’re going to start a strategic planning process, in which we will invite the community to be involved, have a voice, give us feedback of how they see Pride evolving over the next 50 years,” said Marchese.
As Marchese reflects on her first day, she says a lot has changed since her first Pride as a teen but not its message of being seen, heard, understood and at home.
“Pride belongs to everyone,” said Marchese.
The executive director says she also wants to focus on reaching out to family and friends of LGBTQ+ and focus on offering resources on how to be more understanding and supportive so they can be strong allies.
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