OutInform: Houston Pride Guide 2017 Issue | Page 32

GRAND MARSHAL
Q&A
SALLIE
WYATT-WOODELL
Female Grand Marshal
Sallie Wyatt-Woodell’s parents
always stressed the importance
of volunteering and community
involvement. Taking that advice to
heart, Sallie, 40, has been working
to make her little corner of Houston
a better place for most of her life.
In 2010, she started focusing her
time and energies on the Houston
LGBT community by joining and then
serving as Secretary of the Diana
Foundation, the longest-running
LGBT non-profit in the United States.
After leaving the Diana Foundation
in 2013, she joined the board of Out
for Education, an organization that
raises money to send LGBT students
to college.
Since first volunteering with the Diana
Foundation, Sallie has held more than
8 different positions for 6 different
organizations. Quite a feat, which
she attributes to her wife, Carol
Wyatt-Woodell, a former Grand
Marshal in her own right, and her
employer’s generous support for
community involvement.
What does becoming Female Grand
Marshal mean to you?
32
OUTINFORM
It’s a huge honor. I never expected to be
nominated for Grand Marshal, so finding out
that I had been nominated was a huge surprise!
Finding out that I won was amazing and
humbling. Becoming Female Grand Marshal
means that I can draw more attention to the
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