Local
Comings & Goings
Uritus named CEO of Out & Equal
The ‘Comings & Goings’ column chronicles important life changes of Blade readers.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
Erin Uritus
Congratulations to Erin Uritus who has been named CEO of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. Out & Equal Workplace Advocates is a nonprofit organization dedicated to achieving LGBT workplace equality. According to its website “We partner with Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies to provide executive leadership development, comprehensive training and consultation, and professional networking opportunities that build inclusive and welcoming work environments.”
Board Chair Michael Cox said, “Erin joins Out & Equal with unparalleled domestic and international experience as an executive in the corporate, government and nonprofit sectors – a critically important combination to us at Out & Equal.”
Uritus said, “As we look to the future, I am fervently committed to leveraging the spirit of and driving Out & Equal to be the transformational force needed to create global LGBT workplace equality. I’m eager to get down to the important work of ensuring everyone — no matter who you love or how you identify — finds inclusion, belonging and equality at work.”
Prior to joining Out & Equal, Uritus was a senior leader at Booz Allen and the education powerhouse nonprofit International School Services (ISS). She has worked internationally, including for nine years in the Middle East where she supported efforts to modernize government in the midst of the Arab Spring. Uritus opened the African Women’s Media Center in Dakar, Senegal – funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In this work and at the early dawn of Internet access in Africa, she collaborated with U.S. embassies and international NGOs to convene the first-ever online training in multiple cities for journalists covering HIV/AIDS. She also supported the annual IWMF “Courage in Journalism Awards,” including facilitating the participation of women actively reporting while in hiding from governments and terrorist groups trying to silence their voices.
At Booz Allen, Erin spent much of her time as a leader on the Strategic Communications Team helping government agencies navigate the massive challenges brought on by modernization programs. She is a member of the All-Souls Unitarian Church in D.C. – a progressive religious community. While in the Middle East, she met and married her now ex-partner, and they are the proud parents of two girls Amira and Haneen who share American and Egyptian heritage.
Congratulations also to Rob Keast who is the new Vice President of External Affairs at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). The Progressive Policy Institute is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in D.C. Its mission is to create pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock.
Before joining PPI, Keast spent four years running his own consulting firm focused on strategic development, third-party outreach, advocacy building, fundraising, relationship management, and policy communications for non-profits and various other organizations. Prior to that he spent more than six years at Third Way as the Vice President for Outreach and worked in government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service, where he helped oversee outreach to Capitol Hill and the administration. He also worked at the Welfare to Work Partnership.
Keast earned his bachelor’s degree from the Catholic University of America and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. He served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in El Paso, Texas and spent one year as a National Service Fellow at the Corporation for National and Community Service. He is a board member of “Q” Street.
Rob Keast
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
District of Columbia
D.C. Council member honored by LGBTQ homeless youth group
Doni Crawford receives inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award
About 100 people turned out Tuesday evening, April 7, for a presentation by D.C.’s Wanda Alston Foundation of its inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award to D.C. Council member Doni Crawford (I-At-Large) for her support for the foundation’s mission to support homeless LGBTQ youth.
Among those who attended the event was Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, who delivered an official proclamation issued by Bowser declaring April 7, 2026 “A Day of Remembrance for Wanda Alston.”
Alston, a beloved women’s and LGBTQ rights activist, served as the city’s first director of the then newly created Office of LGBTQ Affairs under then-Mayor Anthony Williams from 2004 until her death by murder on March 16, 2005.
To the shock and dismay of fellow LGBTQ rights advocates, police and court records reported Alston, 45, was stabbed to death inside her Northeast D.C. house by a man high on crack cocaine who lived nearby and who stole her credit cards and car. The perpetrator, William Martin Parrott, 38, was arrested by D.C. police the next day and later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced in July 2005 to 24 years in prison.
Crawford was among those attending the award event who reflected on Alston’s legacy and outspoken advocacy for LGBTQ and feminist causes.
“I am deeply humbled and honored to receive this inaugural award,” Crawford told the Washington Blade at the conclusion of the event. “I think the world of Wanda Alston. She has set such a great foundation for me and other Council members to build on,” she said.
“Her focus on inclusivity and intersectionality is really important as we approach this work,” Crawford added. “And it’s going to guide my work at the Council every day.”
Crawford was appointed to the D.C. Council in January of this year to replace then Council member Kenyan McDuffie (I-At-Large), who resigned to run for D.C. mayor as a Democrat. She is being challenged by four other independent candidates in a June 16 special election for the Council seat.
Under the city’s Home Rule Charter written and approved by Congress, the seat is one of two D.C. Council at-large seats that cannot be held by a “majority party” candidate, meaning a Democrat.
A statement released by the Alston Foundation last month announcing Crawford’s selection for the Wanda Alston Legacy Award praised Crawford’s record of support for its work on behalf of LGBTQ youth.
“From behind the scenes to now serving as an At-Large Council member, she has fought fearlessly for affordable housing, LGBTQ+ funding priorities, and racial justice,” the statement says. “Council member Crawford’s leadership reflects the same courage and conviction that defined Wanda’s legacy.”
Organizers of the event noted that it was held on what would have been Wanda Alston’s 67th birthday.
“Today’s legacy reception was a smashing success,” said Cesar Toledo, the Alston Foundation’s executive director. “Not only did we come together to celebrate Wanda Alston on her birthday, but we also were able to raise over $10,000 for our homeless LGBTQ youth here in D.C.,” Toledo told the Blade.
“In addition to that, we celebrated and we acknowledged a rising star in our community,” he said. “And that is At-Large Council member Doni Crawford, who we named the inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award recipient.”
At the request of D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) the Council voted unanimously on Jan. 20, 2026, to appoint Crawford to the Council seat being vacated by McDuffie.
Council records show she joined McDuffie’s Council staff in 2022 as a policy adviser and later became his legislative director before McDuffie appointed her as staff director for the Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development for which McDuffie served as chair.
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
The ‘X’ returns to court
Trump budget would codify expanded global gag rule
Police mental health struggles gain growing attention
Man faces first S.C. ‘hate intimidation’ charge
Cuba under pressure and without answers
