Thanks to Danielle’s advocacy and leadership of the PRIDE LGBT+ employee group, the group grew from 450 employees in 2015 to more than 1,300 in 2017. American has also made transition a qualified life event (which means that an employee who transitions on the job can choose new insurance/benefit policies mid-year), they’ve ensured their insurance carriers have trans healthcare subject matter experts, and they’ve expanded the trans medical benefits availability to all workgroups, as well as all eligible dependents. American also expanded family benefits to include time-off and other considerations for adoptive parents. Externally, Danielle is the co-chair for the Lambda Legal Dallas Leadership Committee and serves on the national board of directors for Lambda Legal, an LGBT+ civil rights advocacy organization. She mentors and works with transgender and questioning teens as a volunteer with the Dallas Resource Center’s Youth First program. Furthermore, she has spoken several times and served on two different committees for Reaching Out LGBT+ MBA, and was recently asked to join a strategic planning committee to engage LGBTQI alumni from her alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
