After almost four years at the helm of The Center’s public policy department, director AJ Davis has resigned. Her last day will be June 23.

Davis joined The Center in July 2002 as public policy coordinator and was promoted to public policy director soon after in January 2003.

“I have enjoyed working at The Center and in the San Diego community very much. I am proud to have had the opportunity to serve this community as we work together for equal rights,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, due to health issues, I must step down from this position. Although I will miss The Center and this community very much, I believe strongly in the commitment and skills of The Center’s staff, board and volunteers who work every day to serve the San Diego LGBT community”

Her interest in community organizing and activism started when Davis was a second-grade student at a Catholic elementary school. After finding out the school fired her teacher for getting a divorce, Davis rallied support in favor of the dismissed teacher.

“I started a petition to have her reinstated and had ‘meetings’ with nuns that I thought would be sympathetic to the cause,” Davis recalled. “I have no idea how I even knew what a petition was, and was ultimately unsuccessful, but I haven’t given up on trying to change the world yet.”

Prior to working at The Center, Davis worked as a business manager for an independent film company in Ojai, was an English teacher in Poland, and, among other jobs, conducted research on the recruitment practices of Aryan groups and Holocaust deniers. She received her bachelor of arts in psychology from the University if Nevada, Reno and her master of arts in psychology from Antioch University in Santa Barbara. Originally from Ojai, Davis has lived in Paso Robles, Reno, Nev., and parts of Poland. She and her partner are moving to Portland, Ore., at the end of June.

At The Center, Davis helped address vital GLBT civil rights issues within the community, including domestic partnerships and marriage equality for same-sex couples, transgender equality, hate crimes, GLBT family issues and ending anti-GLBT discrimination in schools and the military.

During her tenure, Davis conducted several comprehensive voter education projects within San Diego’s GLBT community. She said that she received a lot of help from other concerned citizens and community leaders along the way.

“Everything we have accomplished, we accomplished together. Collaborations and community involvement have been integral to every step forward we have made,” she said. “Whether it was amending the Human Dignity Ordinance to include protections for the transgender community or getting out the largest number of LGBT voters that San Diego has ever had, or the numerous other steps we have taken, I didn’t do any of it alone.”

Delores Jacobs, The Center’s chief executive officer, said she counted on Davis’ dedication and hard work over the last four years.

“We are so grateful to AJ for her outstanding years of dedicated service to The Center and the entire San Diego community,” Jacobs said. “Under her leadership, she brought The Center’s public policy work to a whole new level, while at the same time always working to establish productive collaborations with other human rights organizations to achieve full human and civil rights for all people.”

Davis co-founded and was the former chapter head of the San Diego chapter of Marriage Equality California. She said she started organizing the group in late 2001 when she knew she would be moving to San Diego in March 2002.

During her years of service, Davis was also a member of the San Diego Regional Hate Crimes Coalition, Congressmember Bob Filner’s LGBT Advisory Committee, the San Diego Police Chief’s LGBT Advisory Board, Momentum San Diego, the Cesar E. Chavez Commemorative Events Committee and the California Safe Schools Coalition, among others.

As a member of the San Diego Regional Hate Crimes Coalition, Davis was involved in several campaigns. One incorporated billboards, bus stop signs and bus advertisements in anticipation of and in response to increased hate crimes against people perceived to be Muslim or of Middle Eastern decent. She also worked on a campaign to create anti-bias bumper and window stickers for businesses and other anti-bias curriculums and trainings for schools.

Davis said public policy is an important component of The Center and she hopes her replacement can continue to be a strong and visible presence at local, state and national levels. She said the public policy director serves as a liaison between the community and public officials, and that she repeatedly served as a referral for questions about domestic partnerships, discrimination at work, reporting hate crimes and other issues.

“So, folks who have never met me or maybe have never even been to The Center know that there is this person at The Center that can either help them or connect them to someone who can,” she said. “It’s important for our community to have that.”

Davis said the hardest part of her job was working with the public policy department’s limited budget.

“While community members consistently report that marriage equality, school safety, combating discrimination in housing and employment, and so many other issues are of great concern to them, the public policy department is one of the hardest departments to fund,” she said.

Davis said the GLBT community is at an exciting and critical time in the GLBT rights movement and that marriage equality will be a matter of time, but the community can’t sit back and relax.

“We are at that particular time in any civil rights movement where, while we are often frustrated by setbacks, we also are beginning to see the positive results from all of the work we are doing and the work of those who have come before us,” she said. “Every law we pass, and every ally we make, is a huge stride toward acceptance and equality.”

Davis said she is not sure what is in store for her in the future when she moves to Portland, but community and the general civil rights movement will remain in her life.

“I couldn’t imagine a life without that,” she said.