Richard Heyl de Ortiz (pronounced HIGH-el day Or-teez)

Richard is Executive Director of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center. Richard’s commitment to community centers and the important role they play in the lives of queer individuals and their families began during his second week in college, on the day he walked into the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center on 13th Street in Manhattan.  It was there that Richard, as a volunteer, founded NYC Orientation, created in the wake of the AIDS crisis. Several years later this commitment continued when Richard became the founding Executive Director of William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia.

Richard’s career also includes significant leadership work in the child welfare field, in which he has lived experience. Most recently, Richard was the Director of Training and Program Support for Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children of New York State (CASA).  Richard was the founding Executive Director of the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York. Other positions include leadership roles as the Executive Director of CASA of Ulster County and the Youth Resource Development Corporation in Poughkeepsie, as well as positions with Historic Huguenot Street, the ACLU, Head Start, the YWCA and GMHC.  

Richard is a member of the Board of Directors of the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) and the President of the Elting Library in New Paltz.  Richard was a Public Scholar with the New York Council for the Humanities, where his work focused on the history of poorhouses, orphanages and residential institutions in New York.  

Richard is a native of New Paltz, where he continues to live with his husband Anthony, who is a teacher in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District.  They have one son, John Paul.