THE PROJECT ADVISORY BOARD

  Gwen Wright retired from the NYS Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence in 2019. She was appointed Executive Director by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo in August 2013 and served in many capacities during her more than 20 years with the agency. During her tenure she supervised and developed training and policy programs in the areas of child welfare, social services and public benefits, substance abuse and mental health, health care and criminal justice. Ms. Wright has received numerous awards for her work in the field of domestic violence, including the 2018 National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Legacy Award. She was also one of the three recipients of the inaugural Kathryn Allen Legacy Award in 2021.

Ms. Wright has held numerous positions in the domestic violence field. She is the former Executive Director of the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a statewide grassroots advocacy group, and spent several years providing direct service to domestic violence survivors and their children in domestic violence shelters in Ulster and Westchester counties. Ms. Wright is a nationally recognized speaker and expert on domestic violence issues. She recently served as the Interim Executive Director of the NYS Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Ms. Wright has served on many local, state and national non-profit organizations, most notably A Call to Men, a national organization dedicated to ending violence against women and girls; In Our Own Voices, an Albany NY based LGTBQ people of color service and advocacy agency; and The Pride Center of the Capital Region. She is currently Chair of the board of directors of Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood and Chair of WMHT Public Media. She serves as a board member of Unity House of Troy a capital region human services organization serving victims of domestic violence, homelessness, chronic mental illness and children with special needs. Ms. Wright recently joined the board of directors of The TMI project in Kingston, NY. She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and Empire State College.

Ms. Wright lives in the Town of Schodack in Rensselaer County with her spouse where she ran for county executive in 2021. She is the mother of three adult children and has four grandchildren.

  Erin Hansen, MAT (she/her) currently serves as the Career Education & Outreach Specialist at the Fleishman Career Center at Binghamton University. She taught Spanish at the high school level for 9 years before leaving the K-12 system and returning to the university in 2023. A year into her career center position, Erin also assumed a leadership role within the Bing Queers Faculty & Staff affinity group, which aims to support LGBTQIA+ employees through frequent engagements such as campus lunches, weekend café meetups, art museum visits, nature walks, and emotional wellness programming. Additionally, she is a social media administrator and event organizer for Broome County’s 21+ queer social group, BingGuerrillaQueerBar. Through all of these positions, Erin has built strong skills in event-planning, outreach and marketing, community-building, cross-department collaboration, curriculum development, and the creation and presentation of educational materials. She is very excited to contribute these skills to the LGBTQ SOLACE team in order to further develop accessible mental health systems for queer women. She plans to leverage her ties across both the campus and local queer communities to better connect the Southern Tier to the resources that come from this project. Outside of her LGBTQIA+ support work, Erin finds fulfillment in drawing, reading, crocheting, watching horror movies, and spending time with her partner and two Scottie dogs.