Chair – Tom Watson
tom@lovehonorcherish.org
Tom is a long-time community organizer. In addition to his work with Love Honor Cherish, Tom has also been a leader in the fight against Proposition 22 and in the fight to remove ROTC and military recruiting from university campuses. Tom is a partner in the law firm of Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman LLP, where he specializes in complex litigation, commercial arbitration, bankruptcy litigation, and the False Claim Act. He received his law degree from Georgetown University and his undergraduate degree from Harvard University. After college, he won a Harvard University Pforzheimer Fellowship and studied the creation of civil society in post-communist Eastern Europe.
Vice-Chair – Lester Aponte
lester@lovehonorcherish.org
Lester F. Aponte is Senior Counsel with the law firm of Bate Peterson Deacon Zinn & Young, LLP, where he specializes in the representation and counseling of employers in all aspects of labor and employment law. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Lester has been a proud Angelino for the past 20 years. He is a founding member and a member of the Board of the Latino Equality Alliance, Board member of the Stonewall Democratic Club and former Chair of the LGBT Committee of the Hispanic National Bar Association. Lester received a B.A. degree in Political Science from Haverford College in 1986 and a J.D. degree from the Columbia University School of Law in 1989.
Eric Harrison
eric@lovehonorcherish.org
Eric Harrison is the Executive Director of Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing (GLEH), the first affordable housing complex in the nation serving the LGBT community. He recently departed Love Honor Cherish as its interim executive director from November 2011 until March 2012 . Prior to his arrival at LHC, Harrison served as development director at Equality California, the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocacy organization in the state since 2009. Harrison, named by the North Bay Business Journal as one of the 2009 top ‘Forty under 40′ remarkable professionals, previously served as Vice President of Resource Development at United Way of the Wine Country. United Way of America named Harrison an Emerging LGBT Leader in 2005 and a Resident Fellow in 2006.
He has also served as an education volunteer/teacher trainer for the Peace Corps in Madagascar. Harrison holds a bachelor’s degree in speech communications and theater arts from Concordia College and an MBA from the Minnesota School of Business
