"She hit the floor running," says Eileen Kopp, president of the DeFrank board of directors, which voted unanimously to offer Sellers the job on Feb. 20.

"I really like her energy. She has lots of ideas, and she brings a fresh, new eye to the center," Kopp says.

Sellers says starting work before she was on the payroll is a natural thing to do.

"It's always nice to come in and see the place and get a feel for it before you have to start answering all sorts of questions," she says.

The questions started immediately with media calls about the Los Altos City Council's vote to ban city proclamations referencing sexual orientation.

Sellers told them, "No matter which way you look at it, the message being sent to LGBT people is that you are unwelcome in our community."

Sellers replaces Patrick Soricone, who left in November after more than three years to become director of community impact at United Way Silicon Valley.

Clark Williams, who served as interim director, says of Sellers, "I'm very excited for the agency. Aejaie is a terrific executive. She's already setting up a new vision for the organization.

"I didn't participate in the selection process, but I sat in on the interviews with the final three candidates. The executive board wanted feedback on the role of the executive director, but quite honestly they didn't need me there. She was the clear favorite."

Born in upstate New York, Sellers earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Post College in Waterbury, Conn.

Now 41, she has more than a dozen years of experience working with nonprofits, including Transitional Services for Youth & Families in Burlington, Vt.

Sellers founded the group and served as executive director, taking it from a startup to an annual budget of $600,000. She also secured $1.5 million in public and private funding and developed partnerships with local, regional and state agencies.

In 2001, Sellers became executive director for Court Appointed Special Advocates in Monterey. There, she doubled the number of child advocates and expanded the annual budget from $150,000 to $500,000, while obtaining new private, state and federal grants totaling more than $1 million.

Sellers' efforts in Monterey won awards for both her and the agency.

Additionally, Sellers founded Transitional Life Coaching, which offers individual, couples and group coaching for those going through a transition in their personal or professional lives.

Asked why she applied for the DeFrank job, Sellers, who had been commuting to Monterey from her San Jose home, quipped, "It's closer to home, much closer."

In a more serious vein, Sellers says, "I see it as an opportunity. There's a tremendous amount of potential here. We live in the 10th largest city in the country, and the LGBT community should have a voice in it."

Sellers says she sees the job as one with many components that "overlap, intermingle and support one another. There is a place where this job is a community leader, is an advocate and support; it is a development person in the sense of developing relationships and securing funding; and there is a teacher component and a listening component. They all kind of overlap.

"I'm walking into a position where I'm familiar with being. As an executive director, I understand the roles," she says.

Sellers is the second woman to serve as executive director of the DeFrank in its 25-year history.

She describes herself as a "post-operative female."

Sellers says she "always knew" she was female.

"At the age of 5, I wrote a letter to Santa asking for the power to be a girl," she says.

While she never asked her parents about that incident, she knows they must have read the note, as the milk and cookies she'd left with it for Santa were gone on Christmas morning.

"I transitioned at 17. My parents were extremely supportive through the process and are supportive to this day. They're excited I got this job," she says.

Sellers' unusual first name Aejaie (Ah-Jay) is the feminized version of Arthur, her father's name in Lithuanian. Her mother, Thomisa, is of Lithuanian descent.

Recognizing the woman within was, she says, "one of those things I needed to get through in my life, but I've never let it define me, nor do I plan on letting it define me now."

That said, Sellers says it gives her empathy for what the general LGBT community goes through in the process of self-acceptance and understanding.

Going forward, Sellers says, "One of my real goals for the center is that while it's a community center for the LGBT community, we want to extend ourselves to the general community.

The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center is at 938 The Alameda, 408.293.3040, www.defrank.org.

Interim DeFrank director gives
$20,000 salary to the center

Clark Williams describes his four-month tenure as interim director of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center as "great."

So great that Williams has donated his salary of more than $20,000 back to the center.

"I've met so many amazing volunteers who have donated hundreds to thousands of hours, away from their families and professional lives, to give back to their community. I felt inspired to follow their lead," he says.

While Williams was initially reluctant to take the post, saying he didn't want to see Patrick Soricone leave, he did accept when it became clear Soricone was taking a job with United Way.

Williams also made it clear he had no interest in the position himself, saying he much preferred working as a part-time nonprofit management consultant and being a stay-at-home father to daughter Caroline.

"Certainly this job has had some impact on my life and the lives of my partner and our daughter. We've made sacrifices, but I was raised in an environment of community service," Williams says.

As Aejaie Sellers starts her tenure as executive director, Williams has started working on "reclaiming the center's history.

"We didn't keep any history of the people who have served on our board of directors or our volunteers. I'm tracking them down and trying to document all they did and invite them to our 25th anniversary gala April 29," Williams says.