Golden Rule Services Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors are a group of qualified individuals dedicated to supporting the work of Golden Rule Services and providing mission-based leadership and strategic governance. Our board reflects the demographic profiles of the target populations that the organization serves. Their responsibilities include determining the organization’s mission and purpose, selecting a qualified Executive Director, supporting the Executive and reviewing his/her performance, ensuring effective organizational planning, ensuring adequate responses, effective resource management, determining and monitoring the organization’s programs and resources, enhancing the organization’s public image, and serving as a court of appeal, and assessing its performance.
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Current Board of Directors
Michael Misha Kennedy, BFA, CNA, CMA, OPSII
President – Golden Rule Services
They/Them/Theirs
Michael Kennedy was born in San Bernardino CA and lives in Sacramento since 2002. He is the Owner and Director of Kennedy Gallery in Midtown; the heart of the second Saturday monthly art walk. Mr. Kennedy is a longtime community activist and philanthropist who believes in paying it forward. He has over the years raised over one million dollars for local charities such as Golden Rule Services, the Native American Health Center, CGNIE, Matthew Sheppard Foundation, the Jose Sarria International Scholarship Fund to name but a few. Mr. Kennedy has been a tireless champion for the community for outreach and prevention work in the HIV Community in Eugene, Portland and Sacramento. In the past he has been both an Outreach / Prevention Specialist and MSM Director of Services. He is a renowned award winning international artist who continues through his gallery to provide Minority Communities with an equal platform and voice in the Arts to share their stories and culture.
William Green III, MSW
Vice-President – Golden Rule Services
He/Him/His
Matthew Burlingame-Couk
Secretary - Golden Rule Services
He/Him/They
Matthew Burlingame-Couk is an award-winning journalist and playwright. He has spent over 20 years working with LGBTQ nonprofits and is a founding member of Sacramento’s Lavender Library, Archives and Cultural Exchange. He has served on numerous theater boards, including Sacramento City Theater, and was a board member for the Sacramento Gender Assoc. He is a nationally published journalist and has been the co-founder and/or Editor for over five Sacramento publications. He was also an LGBTQ radio talk show host, co-hosted a groundbreaking MSM focused sexual education podcast that was number one in seven countries, and is a Vicar (Reverend) of the Universal Life Church, focusing on pagan spirituality.
James Douglas
Interim Treasurer – Golden Rule Services
He/Him/His
James Douglas became a volunteer for Golden Rule Services in 2008. Because of years of demonstrated dedication and commitment to the organization, he was elevated to board member in 2013. Since then he has helped raise over $100,000.
George Raya
Member-At-Large – Golden Rule Services
He/Him/His
George Raya is native of Sacramento, Mr. Raya is is a retired Sacramento County employee with a Bachelors degree in Political Science and a Juris Doctorate from Thomas Jefferson School of Law. A long-time Latino LGBT community activist who has served on many boards, he helped organize Sacramento’s first openly LGBT organization, the Society for Homosexual Freedom and lobbied passage of the Willie Brown Consenting Adult Law, decriminalizing sex between consenting adults. In 1987 in San Francisco, he helped to co-found the Latino AIDS Project to provide HIV/AIDS prevention services to non-English speakers.
Kendall Bennett
Member-At-Large – Golden Rule Services
She/Her/Hers
Kendall Bennett is an attorney who has lived in South Sacramento for the last
45+ years. Ms. Bennett is an advocate for members of communities who have
limited access to legal services. She has represented people who were victims of financial elder abuse in civil litigation, and families create estate plans. She has also successfully advocated for clients at government agency hearings and has
represented clients who were unhoused in applications for public benefits and
petitions for record expungement. Law is her second career. Her first career was in banking and mortgage for 10+. She was a team leader at a major mortgage lender.
Golden Rule Services Staff
Clarmundo Sullivan
M.ED, BSW
Founder & Executive Director
NeGel Robinson
HIV Test Counselor
PrEP Navigator
Mitchell Faust
HIV Test Counselor
PrEP Navigator
