Darlene Nipper

Darlene Nipper is an American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activist and the deputy executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force since 2008. She has previously worked for the city government of Washington, DC, the BET Foundation, the National Mental Health Association, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - where she served as chief operating officer. She has been an "out and active lesbian who has been in a committed relationship [since 1996]." She is a person of color who graduated from a historically black college. She became an ordained interfaith minister in June 2006 and mostly practices mindfulness meditation and Buddhism. In that role, she recently served as executive director of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC.

Career Nipper began work professionally as a health advocate, working with those affected by HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, mental illness and other health issues. As senior director and then-vice president of public education for the National Mental Health Association, Nipper managed programs that worked with 340 mental health associations in the United States. From 1994 to 2000, she was the director of community living at the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute, a community residential services program for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Nipper founded the center to increase membership of racially and ethnically diverse people in NAMI and the cultural competency of NAMI programs. She was later appointed chief operating officer, managing the overall operations of NAMI's national office.

In 2005, she was appointed director of the Office of LGBT Affairs for the mayor of Washington, DC, following the murder of her friend Wanda Alston - the first person to hold the position after it was made permanent in 2004.