James Heighington

James Heighington
James Heighington
Born	February 2, 1981 (age 43)
Other names	Halloran
🎓 Alma mater	University of Minnesota
💼 Occupation

James Heighington is an American advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. He is best known for his work to reduce bias against LGBTQ people online. Heighington is currently the Global Head of Measurement & Reporting at Google.

Early life[edit]

Heighington was raised in Eagan, Minnesota and attended Burnsville High School. He graduated from the University of Minnesota studying mass communications. After graduation, Heighington worked as an actor at Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul and 13th Street Repertory Theatre in New York City.^[1]^[2]^[3] He also appeared in the television commercial "Bear Hug" where he performed his own stunts with a live bear.^[4]^[5]

Career[edit]

When same-sex marriage became a political issue during the 2004 United States presidential election^[6], Heighington began volunteering for OutFront Minnesota earning recognition as a "young politico" from the Star Tribune newspaper.^[7] After the election, he continued to work in nonprofit advocacy for nearly a decade.

In 2013, Heighington was hired by Twitter and co-founded a resource group for LGBTQ employees.^[8] He led the company's petition of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to overturn discrimination against gay and bisexual men in blood donations resulting in a change to federal policy.^[9]^[10] Heighington was selected to participate in the 2015 White House LGBT Tech & Innovation Summit as an advisor to U.S. Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil on using technology to conduct a federal needs assessment for transgender Americans.^[11]^[12] Following this, Heighington was named Chief Digital Officer of the nonprofit LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD where he founded a task force of advocacy groups, tech companies, and community leaders to reduce bias in artificial intelligence.^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17] For this work, he was named an executive member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.^[18]

In 2018, Heighington joined Google to oversee the company's corporate social responsibility reporting for diversity, equity, and inclusion.^[19] Under his leadership, the company increased data transparency and expanded the work to include race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and veterans.^[20]^[21]^[22]

Awards and honors[edit]

Heighington was named one of the Top 50 Most Influential Diversity Stars of 2020 and shortlisted for "Male Ally of the Year".^[23]^[24] His work on LGBTQ advocacy at Twitter was honored with the Trevor Project 20/20 Visionary Award.^[25]

Personal life[edit]

In 2018, he married Dave Heighington and took his husband's last name.^[26]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

James Heighington on IMDb

This article "James Heighington" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:James Heighington. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

[1] ttps://www.twincities.com/2007/03/17/young-mans-calling-leads-to-conflict-in-chosen/

[2] ttps://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/minn/minn23.html

[3] ttps://www.playbill.com/article/bent-with-nicholoff-halloran-worley-and-hornsby-begins-limited-nyc-run-oct-10-com-144393

[4] ttps://d2p1nnn035jt22.cloudfront.net/pdf_uploads/prior_years/shoot_2005_sept_09_e.dition.pdf

[5] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la0Oflf9jcg

[6] ttps://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/us/the-2004-campaign-same-sex-marriage-urged-by-right-bush-takes-on-gay-marriages.html

[7] ttp://www.startribune.com/217/story/771158.html

[8] ttps://www.reuters.com/article/usa-gay-twitter-idUSL1N13I1Q620151124

[9] ttps://www.reuters.com/article/usa-gay-twitter/twitter-bans-blood-drives-in-offices-worldwide-until-gays-can-donate-idUSL1N13I1Q620151124

[10] ttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/health/fda-ends-ban-allowing-some-blood-donations-by-gay-men.html

[11] ttps://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/9/30/national-transgender-listening-campaign-kicks-transneeds-hashtag-0

[12] ttps://www.buzzfeed.com/skarlan/transgender-people-are-making-their-needs-known-to-the-feder

[13] ttp://www.prweek.com/article/1425283/glaad-creates-chief-communications-digital-officer-roles-amid-trans-student-reversal

[14] ttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-artificial-intelligence-can-make-the-internet-better-and-safer-for-lgbt-people-2018-03-14

[15] ttps://www.economist.com/letters/2017/09/14/letters-to-the-editor

[16] ttps://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/06/glaad-digital-bias.cnn-tech/

[17] ttps://www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-launches-digital-task-force-advocacy-groups-tech-companies-and-community-leaders-address

[18] ttps://www.iadas.net/member/jim-halloran/

[19] ttps://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-login-11b4c605-3165-4c4a-8ec7-9b445c0cd8bc.html

[20] ttps://www.wired.com/story/five-years-tech-diversity-reports-little-progress/

[21] ttps://diversity.google/story/using-self-id-to-create-more-inclusive-workspace/

[22] ttps://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2019/04/07/googles-2019-diversity-report-reveals-more-progress-must-be-made/?sh=2e49f4233bef

[23] ttps://diversitystars.com/2020-top50-diversity-stars-announcement/

[24] ttps://www.information-age.com/women-in-it-awards-new-york-2020-shortlist-announced-123487405/

[25] ttps://www.thetrevorproject.org/trvr_press/trevorlive-ny-honoring-twitter-cole-ray-davis-jordan-roth-richie-jackson/

[26] ttps://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-login-11b4c605-3165-4c4a-8ec7-9b445c0cd8bc.html

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