Emily Sproul is the Executive Director of the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center, a role she has held since just after the Center was founded. A native of Staunton, Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, Emily is passionate about opening conversations about LGBTQ identities in communities where queer people have long been invisible, ignored, or misunderstood. Her social justice work began in 2010 with anti-racism initiatives in the Episcopal Church and she brings those principles of allyship to her work in bridging gaps between rural communities and their LGBTQ citizens.