Marlene Pray
Marlene Pray
Community Leadership Award
Marlene Pray
Marlene Pray (she/her) has more than 30 years’ experience in community organizing around topics such as LGBTQ+ issues, racial and social justice, sexuality education, environmental and outdoor education, social-emotional wellness, and human rights.
In 2011, Pray was elected to Doylestown Borough Council, where she spearheaded an LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance. She was appointed to the Bucks County Human Relations Council; helped launch the Bucks County Partnership for Healthy Teens; and founded Planned Parenthood Keystone’s Rainbow Room - Bucks County’s only center for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer youth, where she is director and coordinator for LGBTQ+ education.
Pray serves on the boards of NAACP Bucks County and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Bucks County, and on the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Committee of the Bucks County Historical Society. She’s a facilitator of the program White People Confronting Racism, and is the Community Advisory Group Facilitator for the Michener Museum’s “Behind These Walls” project on its history as a jail, focusing on prison reform.
The California native is a PhD candidate in human sexuality education with a focus on racial justice at Widener University. She facilitated the Alternatives to Violence Project, working with incarcerated people. Pray is also a mother, homicide survivor, earth-based celebrant, and leader of the Rise Up Resistance Community Chorus.