The Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute, a nonpartisan professional development organization for LGBT leaders, announced yesterday its 2011 class of David Bohnett Gay & Lesbian Leadership Fellows, which included out Georgia lawmakers Alex Wan and Karla Drenner.

Wan represents Atlanta's 6th District on the Atlanta City Council and Drenner serves Ga. District 86 (DeKalb County) in the General Assembly. Fourteen lawmakers and nonprofit leaders, including one from Ireland, were selected in total.

The Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute will send the fellows to Harvard's Kennedy School Senior Executives in State and Local Government program, a two-month leadership course held in June and July, aimed at helping seasoned professionals connect with constituents.

“This program is an investment in our community’s leaders. LGBT officials and community leaders deserve the best training and professional development available, and the Harvard Kenney School program is the best of the best,” said Chuck Wolfe, GLLI’s president and CEO, on GayPolitics.com.

GLLI also hosts an annual conference for LGBT politicians and leaders. This year's event, the 27th such conference, will be held in Houston, Texas, in December.

Here are the participants in this year's Bohnett Leadership Fellows:

Rep. Nickie J. Antonio – Lakewood, Ohio (Ohio State Representative, District 13)
A. J. Bockelman – St. Louis, Mo. (Executive Director, PROMO)
Kim Coco Iwamoto – Oahu, Hawaii (Civil Rights Attorney, former member of the Hawaii State Board of Education)
Cindy Dick – Tallahassee, Fla. (Tallahassee Fire Department Chief)
Rep. Karla Drenner – Avondale Estates, Ga. (Georgia House of Representatives, District 86)
Sen. Jolie Justus – Kansas City, Mo. (Missouri State Senate, District 10)
Leslie Katz – San Francisco, Calif. (San Francisco Port Authority, former Supervisor)
Rev. Cynthia “Cindi” Love – Abilene, Texas (Executive Director of Soulforce)
Councilwoman Rosie Mendez – New York, N.Y. (New York City Council , District 2)
Rep. Blake Oshiro – Honolulu, Hawaii (Hawaii House of Representatives Majority Leader, District 33)
Kathy Padilla – Philadelphia, Pa. (Philadelphia International Airport)
Councilman Amaad Rivera – Springfield, Mass. (Springfield City Council)
Brian Sheehan – Dublin, Ireland (Gay & Lesbian Equality Network Managing Director)
Councilman Alex Wan – Atlanta, Ga. (Atlanta City Council)

For more information, please visit www.glli.org.

Top photo: Atlanta Councilmember Alex Wan will participate in the 2011 class of David Bohnett Gay & Lesbian Leadership Fellows (file photo)