Dr. LB Hannahs

Director of Operations and Innovation

As a genderqueer person growing up in Johnstown New York to a large Greek American family, LB’s personal and professional journey can best be described in one word, untraditional. Insight and experience gained from the untraditional journey inform LB’s approach to the role of Director of Service Delivery at Tangible Development. Using a blend of scholarship as a researcher, and practical, hands-on experience as a diversity educator and higher education administrator, LB is a bridge builder and problem solver with an expertise in organizational transformation. A skilled speaker and educator, LB has a featured TED talk and was part of Starbucks’ Third Place Speaker Series in 2018.

Inspired by influential high school music teachers, LB received an Associate’s Degree in Music Performance at Schenectady County Community College followed by a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Syracuse University. While LB came out as queer in community college, it was the LGBTQ community and the LGBT Resource Center at Syracuse University that inspired LB to shift careers and become a diversity educator in higher education by pursuing a Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration at Syracuse University.

After SU, LB escaped the snow and took on the role as Director of LGBTQ Affairs and Coordinator for Social Justice Initiatives at the University of Florida. LB was responsible for support and advocacy for all students, faculty, and staff of marginalized genders and sexualities, and education of LGBTQ issues at the University of Florida and the Gainesville area. As Coordinator of Social Justice Initiatives, LB was responsible for social justice educational opportunities throughout the broader campus community, including teaching and facilitating Gatorship –an intergroup dialogue education program. In 2016, shifted from a diversity practitioner to part of the executive leadership team as the Special Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs at UF. The combination of diversity practitioner and executive leadership experience informs LB’s approach to impacting holistic organizational change.

LB received a PhD from the University of Florida in Higher Education Administration and Policy in the spring of 2020, with a focus on researching strategic diversity policies and planning. LB was part of the executive team of the National Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals for six years, served on the board of the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida and is a co-founder of Gainesville Equality Youth. In 2016, LB was named an Imagining America PAGE Fellow, an organization dedicated to working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides to strengthen and promote public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues.

LB’s biggest and best job of all time is Dad to Elliot and Theo.