Forging Queer Leaders: How the Lgbtqia+ Community Creates Impact from Adversity

LGBTQ+ individuals disproportionately encounter bias, adversity, stigma, and marginalization throughout their lives. It’s an enormous obstacle - but also prepares them for leadership in a fast-moving, volatile, uncertain, complex, and adaptive working world.
The book explores the unique and inspiring developmental experiences of LGBTQ+ leaders, the amazing capabilities they bring to teams, and what that means for everyone pursuing positive and inclusive organizational strategy. With stories from the armed forces, lawyers, entrepreneurs, authors, academics, thought-leaders, medical professionals - you name it - this shows how queer folk everywhere are harnessing their hard-won power and resilience to excel.
With a history of excellence in queer leadership, the contextual underpinning of adversity and resilience theory, and uplifting stories and soundbites from queer game-changers in every field - this is an essential resource for LGBTQ+ individuals, allies, advocates, business professionals and leaders of all kinds.

Liz Cavallaro is an adult development scholar and professional executive coach, who specialises in helping leaders thrive through the development of enhanced cognitive capacity. Through her work she’s observed the powerful impacts of adversity on the development of leaders with unique personal and professional journeys. Forging Queer Leaders has provided her the opportunity to combine her professional expertise in leader development with her personal dedication to advocacy and support of the LGBTQ+ community.

Liz’s research has been presented to the International Leadership Association and published in the Oxford Handbook of Meaningful Work and The Journal of Adult Development. Liz is based in Newport, Rhode Island.

Lieutenant Colonel Bree Fram is an active duty astronautical engineer in the US Space Force, and currently one of the highest ranking out transgender officers in the United States military. She?is president of SPARTA, an organization dedicated to the support and professional development of over 1400 transgender service members.

Bree’s writing has been featured in the Washington Post, Military Times, Inkstick, and LGBTQ Nation. She’s been a featured speaker on leadership, diversity and inclusion, and LGBTQ+ topics at Fortune 500 corporations such as Cerner and Ecolab, universities, and military and government organizations. Bree is the co-editor of the book With Honor and Integrity: Transgender Troops in Their Own Words, which came out in 2021. Bree is based in Reston, Virginia.