Brian Ellner
Brian Ellner is a native New Yorker, who grew up in Stuyvesant Town and attended the City's public schools (Middle School 104 and the Bronx High School of Science). 
In 1995 he was appointed to Community Board 5 by current Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, and in 1999 was elected to Community School Board 2 where he served as President until July 2004 when the Boards were replaced by the Community Education Councils. During his tenure the Board founded two new high schools, Eleanor Roosevelt and Millennium, creating much needed classroom space in underserved neighborhoods. Ellner also led the 2000 campaign that severed the City's ties to the Boy Scouts of America in light of their continued discriminatory practices against gay Scouts and Scoutmasters.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Ellner has served as a special advisor to Mark Green, both in the Public Advocate's office and during Green's 2001 campaign for mayor. In private practice as litigation counsel at O'Melveny & Myers LLP until May 2005, Ellner provides free legal counsel to the LGBT community center and Freedom to Marry, and has worked on numerous landmark civil rights cases, including Lawrence v. Texas. Ellner also serves on the Board of Directors at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School.
