Mark McSpirit (he/him) has a long history of leadership within The Center and the LGBTQ+ community. He has served in a range of high-level governance positions, including former President, Vice President of Operations, Volunteer Coordinator. Mark has a passion for the Pride Center and those in the community. He continues to give back to the LGBTQ+ community to help ensure that everyone that identifies always has a place to turn to for support, friendship, and family. 

Mark became an official member of The Center in 2010 and spent the years since moving its mission forward through a range of volunteer roles. He joined the Board of Trustees in 2013 as the Volunteer Coordinator, overseeing a team of volunteers recruited to assist in running The Center. Because of his dedication to this role, in 2014 he was elected Vice President of Operations. In 2015 he was elected to the office of President, a role in which he served successfully for two years before stepping aside in 2017 and being re-elected as Vice President of Operations, Mark was again Re-elected President in 2019. As Committee Chair, Mark was instrumental in the success of The Pride Center’s 25 Year Anniversary Gala in 2019, an event which grossed over $50,000 in donations for The Center. Mark now organizes and runs the now annual fundraising Gala.

For the past 10 years Mark has played a major role in New Jersey’s annual Pride Festival and oversees every aspect of The Pride Centers involvement at the annual NJ Pride festival and throughout numerous Pride events across the state of NJ every year. Mark represents the Pride Center as part of Centers United, a group he helped to create to connect all four of New Jersey’s LGBTIQ+ Centers to collaborate in the effort to create awareness of LGBTQ+ issues, both within the community and among allies. All of the work Mark does is on a volunteer basis since the Pride Center of NJ is one of the few all volunteer run LGBTQ+ organizations in the country.