After years of turmoil, Pierce County LGBTQ+ center names new leader
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Joanne Levy appointed executive director to restore stability and transparency.
- Center addresses past financial mismanagement and aims for self‑sustaining model.
- Levy plans program expansion, events and improved community outreach.
After years of turmoil, Tacoma’s LGBTQ+ resource center has named its director of operations, Joanne Levy, as its new executive director.
Levy, 48, brings a wide breadth of experience in nonprofit and executive strategy. In an interview with The News Tribune at the Rainbow Center on Wednesday, Levy vowed to bring transparency and stability to the center and talked about the many ideas she has for ways to strengthen its finances and programming going into 2026.
The Rainbow Center, 2215 Pacific Ave., serves about 3,000 people directly in Tacoma each year, Levy said. In addition to offering a community space downtown with a library, the center provides advocacy and educational services, and hosts social events, including an annual Gayla and Tacoma Pride festival, which drew a record 30,000 people this July.
As previously reported by The News Tribune, the Rainbow Center saw significant turnover in 2023 and 2024 when its staff, executive director, board members and board president all resigned, citing internal conflicts and a lost sense of mission. As a result, the center closed for a month in 2024.
The Rainbow Center has since hired four new staff (including Levy) and has a new board of directors. Troy Christensen, who filled in as executive director, serves as board president. Levy was hired as the Rainbow Center’s director of operations in June, and the center announced her new position as executive in November at its annual Gayla fundraiser.
Levy acknowledged financial mismanagement and turnover happened before she was hired. She said she is taking responsibility and vowed to listen to community concerns and use that feedback to inform future programming.
Levy brings more than two decades of experience fighting for queer visibility, gender inclusivity and equitable access in various nonprofits and global media. Most recently Levy was the executive director of the Greater Seattle Soccer League, where she introduced the league’s first nonbinary and women’s divisions. From 2017 to 2023, Levy was the senior director of global marketing at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, where she led large-scale events and helped develop a free teen arts program for LGBTQ+ youth. Levy also has led rebrands and helped other companies generate self-sustaining revenue streams, per her LinkedIn.
A single mom, Levy described herself as a queer Jewish woman who has lived in Lake Tapps since 2018. She loves to rock climb, spend time with her child and help create soccer tournaments for non-binary players, refugees and others.
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Past financial issues meant ‘running into a burning house’
When Levy started as the operations director of the Rainbow Center in June, Levy said it “was like running into a burning house.”
“It wasn’t just in ashes. It was in flames. And we were putting Band-Aids on bullet holes,” Levy said. “For the last six months, I really truly wanted to stop the bleeding.”
Without naming names, Levy said financial mismanagement in the past meant the Rainbow Center had no self-sustaining revenue. Significant turnover in leadership and staff also affected the center’s ability to build long-term institutional knowledge, make strategic plans and find stability, she said. Levy clarified there was no evidence of embezzlement or illegal activity, rather a “mismanagement of funds that didn’t lend itself to a healthy financial strategy.”
According to tax forms submitted to the IRS in 2024, the Rainbow Center ran a deficit of about $60,000 in both 2023 and 2024.
Although the Rainbow Center did not have a detailed budget in 2025 due to leadership turnover, Levy said the center has a $1 million budget in place for 2026.
Grants currently make up about 30% of the Rainbow Center’s revenues, Levy said. Moving into the new year, as the Trump administration continues to cut and revoke federal grants, the Rainbow Center will not be seeking federal grants but look more locally, she said. Pierce County awarded the Rainbow Center a $50,000 community needs grant in the 2025-2026 budget.
Levy said the Rainbow Center will explore new revenue streams, including events and the sale of new merchandise. The Rainbow Center also plans to launch a new website with a chat function, expand its programs and outreach, hire more staff and improve communications with monthly newsletters, quarterly surveys and expanded office hours, she said.
A big part of moving forward will be rebuilding trust in the community, Levy said.
“I want to meet with every single person that has ever felt harm, because it is my job to make it right, to create a safe space for them, whatever that looks like,” Levy said. “We really have rebuilt. We really have heard the community. We have an incredible board now of social-minded justice seekers, Tacoma leaders that are committed. We have diversity on the board. We had an executive director who, for six months, really listened and made change that you can see and feel. I can’t change the past. I can learn from it, and I can listen, and I can repair, and I want to build anew.”
Levy’s leadership comes at a time of rampant partisan attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, particularly against the transgender community. More than 1,000 bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community have been proposed in 49 states so far in 2025, according to the research organization Trans Legislation Tracker.
“Visibility and joy is now our best sign of resistance. To shut Rainbow Center down, it means that we are also laying down our arms. And we’re not,” Levy said. “We represent a queer community that is going to fight back, that is going to raise its voice, that is going to be joyful and that is going to celebrate our diverse identities.”
