Insider NJ magazine released its 2024 New Jersey LGBT Out 100 Power List and Maplewood resident and WNYC journalist Nancy Solomon made the #1 top spot.
Solomon is a senior reporter and founding managing editor of New Jersey Public Radio and has won Peabody awards for her coverage of former Governor Chris Christie’s abuse of power and about the achievement gap in South Orange-Maplewood schools.
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Another resident joining Solomon on the list is Shannon Cuttle, a member of the Essex County LGBTQ Advisory Committee who was the first transgender elected official in New Jersey when they were elected to the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education in 2018.
In addition to Cuttle, several other members of the Essex County LGBTQ Advisory Committee, which is housed under the Essex County Executive Office and County Commissioners, were named to this year’s list:
- Committee Chair Kathy Ahearn-O’Brien, the executive director at Hyacinth AIDS Foundation, NJ’s largest HIV/AIDS service provider
- Cathy Renna, communications director at the National LGBTQ Task Force
- Alana Burman, a policy expert and anti-hate bias community advocate and director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey
- Reggie Bledsoe, director of Office of LGBTQ Affairs Essex County
The magazine said that some will notice that some people who have been on the list multiple times in the past were not on it again, to make room for newcomers.
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For more information on those who made this year’s top Out 100, the list is below: