(ATLANTA – November 21, 2019) —Lambda Legal announced today that Michael D. Shutt, formerly Senior Director for Campus Life at Emory University and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Georgia, will join the nation’s leading LGBTQ legal rights organization as director of Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office, based in Atlanta.

“Lambda Legal is thrilled to bring Michael Shutt on board to propel forward our important work in the South,” said Lambda Legal Interim CEO, Richard Burns. “The LGBTQ community in the South faces particular challenges, particularly transgender people and people of color. Michael brings to that struggle a wealth of knowledge and an extensive track record of leadership and accomplishment. With that experience, Michael will help Lambda Legal strengthen its response to those attacks, and enable us both to defend the gains we have made and expand civil rights for LGBTQ people throughout the South.”

“I am deeply honored and excited to join Lambda Legal, an organization that has proven so valuable in securing and defending the civil rights for LGBTQ people nationwide, and to be part of building on that work at a time where those rights, some only recently secured, and our very existence are under sustained and repeated attack.” Shutt said. “I look forward to joining the amazing and talented staff in the Southern Regional Office to continue fighting for LGBTQ rights in the courts and in statehouses across the South to preserve our progress and ensure equality and justice throughout the region. And I look forward as well to hearing from and working with LGBTQ community leaders and community-based organizations, in Atlanta and across the South, on how we can collaborate to make the South a more safe and thriving place for LGBTQ people and people living with HIV.”

Michael D. Shutt’s experience

Michael has 20 years of experience providing strategic leadership in higher education at Emory University and the University of Georgia. At Emory, he served in several roles including the Assistant Dean and Director of the Office of LGBT Life, Interim Sr. Director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, and Sr. Director of Campus Life. Prior to his work at Emory, he advocated for and served as the Founding Director of the University of Georgia’s LGBT Resource Center, the first LGBT resource center at a public university in Georgia. He began his career at UGA as Health Educator. Beyond the work on his own campuses, Michael served as a consultant to institutions such as New York University, Princeton University, Spelman College, and Georgia Institute of Technology in the development and assessment of LGBT support services.

Michael also engages in service in the community. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Equality Foundation of Georgia and member of the LGBTQ Institute Advisory Board at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. Previously, he Co-Chaired of the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. Originally from Indiana, Michael received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Public Administration from Michigan State University and Doctor of Philosophy in Student Affairs Administration from the University of Georgia, where he currently serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the College of Education’s Department of Counseling and Human Development.

As Southern Regional Director, Shutt will oversee programming and outreach efforts in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and Mississippi.