Who are we?
Trans-Academics.org was founded by Eli Green in 2002 and was run as an independent project for five years. In 2007, the Association for Gender Research, Education, Academia & Action (AGREAA) was founded and Trans-Academics.org became its flagship project. AGREAA is run by the following dedicated board members:

Elijah Edelman - Activism Chair
Elijah is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology concentrating in Race, Gender and
Social Justice at American University in Washington, D.C. His research interests include, but are not limited to: stealth identity/practice in post-transition FTMs, queerness and FTMs, and FTM utilization, engagement, and negotiation of virtual homoerotic spaces (e.g., 'manhunt', 'craigslist', etc). He is also a flaming queer, FTM, and a hardcore cyclist. He can be painfully serious and delightfully playful.

Eli Green - Founder & Board Chair
In 2002, Eli founded the website Trans-Academics.org to meet the growing need for connectivity within transgender-related academia. Based on the success of the site, Eli reached out to the community in 2007 with the goal of founding a non-profit organization (AGREAA) dedicated to connecting those who have a dedicated interest in ending gender-related oppression. Eli has a strong history of social justice and direct service work, with a strong focus on serving highly marginalized communities. Currently a sexuality educator, Eli is also doctoral student at Widener University’s renown Human Sexuality Education Program. Learn more at www.EliRGreen.com.

Seth T. Pardo - Vice Chair
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Seth graduated from Miami Beach Sr. High School. Seth went on to obtain a bachelor's degree with honors in psychology and a certificate in human development at Duke University in Durham, NC. While at Duke, Seth collaborated in research with Dr. Francis Keefe in the Pain Research Center, and with Drs. Linda K. George, and Dr. Timothy Strauman in the Department of Psychology. Seth 's undergraduate thesis investigated the dynamics of closeness in sibling relationships. Following graduation, Seth served a two-year academic appointment as an Associate in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, MA and was the Research Coordinator for the Bipolar Disorder Research Program under the supervision of Dr. S. Nassir Ghaemi at the Cambridge Health Alliance. Seth entered Cornell University's Department of Human Development at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, the Fall of 2005 under the advisorship of Dr. Ritch C. Savin Williams to study the psychosexual development of adolescents, identity development, and resiliency of gender non-conforming individuals. Seth 's secondary interests include the ecology of family dynamics.

Rhodes Perry - Finance, Development & Fundraising Chair
Rhodes Perry joined the Board in January 2007, serves as Treasurer, and chairs the Finance Committee. He comes to AGREAA with a varied career in public finance, budgeting, evaluation, and nonprofit program management. Rhodes currently works as a Program Examiner for the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and focuses on federal benefit programs and policies designed to provide assistance to low-income communities. Before working at OMB, he held the position of outreach coordinator at the Ali Forney Center (AFC) – a community-based nonprofit providing culturally competent housing services to street-oriented and homeless LGBT youth living in New York City. At AFC, Rhodes designed, executed and managed a street and service provider outreach program aimed at reducing the inordinate rates of substance abuse and sexually transmitted infections amongst these communities. He has also led a variety of nondiscrimination campaigns at the University of Notre Dame and New York University (NYU). In 2004, Rhodes was honored for this work by NYU’s President, John Sexton, with the prestigious Presidential Service Award. Currently Rhodes volunteers with the DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), a group of transgender people and allies united to improve the lives of trans and gender diverse individuals living in Washington, DC. His work helped DCTC expand and create policies designed to strengthen existing regulations protecting trans and gender diverse people from discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression. Rhodes earned his B.A. in Economics and Gender Studies from the University of Notre Dame and graduated Magna Cum Laude. He earned his M.P.A. from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service where he focused on Public and Nonprofit Management. Rhodes currently lives in Washington, DC and enjoys devoting his leisure time to writing graphic novels and biking all over the East Coast.

Dr. Cianan Russell - Professional Development Chair
Cianan has spent his entire life in the Midwest. He grew up in the Kansas City metropolitan area, and moved to Iowa for college, where he attended the University of Iowa and earned a BS in chemistry and a certificate in sexuality studies. While there, he was very active in trans and anti-violence activism. He moved to Indiana for graduate school to attende Purdue University where he earned his Ph.D. in chemistry, emphasis in chemical education. He has done academic projects which have focused on trans identity intersections with science and science education. Cianan is the current chair of the Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance, a statewide organization in Indiana, and he organizes a local support group for trans*, gender variant, and questioning individuals in his town.

Eli Vitulli
Eli is a master’s student at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. His main area of study is trans studies with a focus on intersections of class, race, and the criminal justice system. He is currently working on a master’s thesis that will look at how legal systems, particularly courts and prisons, construct and regulate gender, sexuality, and race for trans people. In 2007, Eli received his B.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago with an independent plan of study called "Gender and Sexuality in a Global Perspective: History, Culture, and Politics". Activism and social justice work are central to Eli’s life and work both inside and outside the academy. Beyond trans issues, Eli has worked on issues such as opposing the war on Iraq, the stripping of our civil liberties, neoliberal globalization, and the prison industrial complex.