Having just wrapped up Pride Month, you've probably already seen or heard of Alex Sphon: as the President of the NWPA Pride Alliance, he has done a mountain of work spearheading local LGBTQIA+ events, outreach, public relations, and charity drives. He even carries his Pride activism through his day job as an accountant at National Fuel by serving as the Chair of National Fuel's LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group. Sphon also performs civic duties by serving as Secretary to the City of Erie Mayor's LGBTQIA+ Advisory Council as well as being a chairperson for the Erie County Human Relations Commission Advisory Board.
With his work in all of these organizations, helping the Erie queer community grow and flourish is one of his major goals. He does this through advancing legislation, like helping to ban conversion therapy, and also through charitable work: "One series of projects I'm really proud of are the 'Pride Gives Back' drives I have created by bringing together all the LGBT+ organizations to gather much needed items like clothing, coats, school supplies and food. In the last two years, I have led this group of organizations to donate over 500 lbs. of clothes, 250 lbs. of school supplies and 1,700 lbs. of food to organizations like Safe Journey and the Second Harvest Food banks of NWPA."
When he is not working to advance Erie's LGBTQIA+ community, Alex loves photography, in particular nature and animal photography, especially at zoos. Sphon has special childhood memories of visiting the Erie Zoo and has a goal to photograph animals at a zoo or animal park in all 50 states. — EP, Erie Reader.