The San Diego LGBT Community Center has announced that Jon Potter (pronouns he/him/his) will join The Center as the organization’s chief external officer. Potter will assume his role on Monday, August 5.
Potter brings two decades of management experience to The Center, having served in executive leadership with organizations ranging from Bank of America, Nelnet and The College Board, with a primary focus on supporting higher education students achieve their educational goals. He also provided development support to Huckleberry House, a community-based shelter for runaway and homeless teens in San Francisco.
While in San Francisco, Potter was an active volunteer with several non-profit organizations, including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Meals on Wheels. He also completed the AIDS LifeCycle three times — the 545-mile, seven-day bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which raises funds for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
“Jon is a passionate and respected senior manager, and we’re thrilled to bring in someone of his caliber for this position,” said Caroline (Cara) Dessert, Esq., The Center’s chief executive officer. “In this new role, Jon will lead our resource development efforts, including fundraising and volunteer services, as well as The Center’s immigration and asylum advocacy work.
“Born and raised on the US/Mexico border in Calexico, this work is deeply personal to him. As the gay son and grandson of Latino migrant workers, he brings valuable insight and tremendous passion to assisting the full diversity of our San Diego LGBTQ community, and those seeking humanitarian relief and asylum,” Dessert continued. “We look forward to Jon’s leadership at The Center and to the contributions he will make to our LGBT and allied communities.”
Potter earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Riverside.
—The San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center, Inc., (d.b.a., The Center) is one of the largest and most vibrant LGBT community centers in the nation. Functioning as the San Diego LGBT community’s anchor organization, The Center is led by a 10-member board of directors, employs more than 65 paid staff and utilizes more than 1,200 community volunteers to achieve its twin goals of promoting LGBT health/wellness and human rights. The Center provides targeted programs and services to the full diversity of the San Diego LGBT community, including men, women, youth, seniors, transgender and non-binary individuals, families, LGBT Latino community members and their families, and those living with HIV. Last year, The Center provided more than 82,000 direct service visits to San Diego community members, and through its events, activities and advocacy, touched the lives of thousands more.
