Officer Biographies
LIAM DACEY, '04 Chair
In 2004, Liam co-founded and directed the first-ever Notre Dame Queer Film Festival, drawing national attention and attracting renowned film directors. Also during his time at Notre Dame, he served on the Standing Committee for Gay and Lesbian Student Needs (now the Core Council), was an active member in OutreachND and co-directed a short documentary film about being gay at Notre Dame that later premiered at the 2004 ND Student Film Festival. Liam graduated magna cum laude in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in Film and Television Production.
After graduating, Liam was brought to Philadelphia in January 2005 by Equality Forum to serve as their Operations Coordinator. In this role, Liam supervised operations for nearly two years, running such events as the Cyndi Lauper concert at Penn's Landing and also helping to produce the powerful documentary Saint of 9/11, which premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.
After he left Equality Forum, Liam served as Director of Operations at the Provincetown International Film Festival, General Event Manager at The Philadelphia International Film Festival and Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and worked in an administrative role at The Delaware Valley Legacy Fund at The Philadelphia Foundation.
Liam is passionate about radio and was an active member from 2005-2008 of Y-Rock on XPN, an internet and HD radio service that is part of WXPN-FM, the University of Pennsylvania's public, non-commercial radio station. He currently works full time as Promotions Coordinator at Classic Rock 102.9 WMGK and is a graduate student in Temple University's Strategic Communication Management program, where he will graduate with a M.S. in strategic communications.
Liam served as GALA-ND/SMC Secretary from 2008-2010 and officially became Chair in January 2010. He hopes to strengthen ties with members, increase GALA-ND/SMC's presence both locally at Notre Dame and nationally, and press for GLBT rights on campus.
CODY LASSEN, MBA '09 Vice Chair for Programs
Born and raised in the Chicago area, Cody earned a BA in business at DePaul University and completed his MBA at the University of Notre Dame. Recently relocated to Los Angeles, where working in the entertainment industry is required, he now manages consumer insights initiatives for Universal Studios.
Cody is an active member of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, the City Club and The Human Rights Campaign. When not writing about himself in the third person, he enjoys traveling, supporting local theater, drinking one too many glasses of wine, and is currently preparing for his first triathlon.
He hopes to get GALA-ND/SMC members more involved by organizing engaging events that reflect our diverse membership, and hopes to build on the relationship with current students and staff to create an even stronger connection between our members and the ND community.
LANCE GALLOP, '05 Vice Chair for Membership
Hailing from small-town Michigan at the apex and intersection of Wolverine and Spartan fanaticism, Lance made his way to Notre Dame, where in 2005 he earned a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Philosophy and Theology. Self-evidently cursed with dual analytical and mystical attitudes toward life, he found an outlet writing an opinion column for the ND/SMC Observer for two years and as a senior editor for the short lived career magazine Changing Times.
Today Lance works for a small, Catholic liberal arts college, where he leads the software development team and administers the institution's enterprise information system. As Vice Chair for Membership, he brings 10 years of IT experience to GALA, which he hopes to leverage--first and foremost--in an update the the organization's web presence.
In his spare time Lance creates control logic for robots (of all things) and has recently taken up hiking. His latest project--an Ethernet controlled, auto-targeting Nerf machine-gun station--is perpetually delayed due to the serious complexities of determine friend from foe.
TESSA SAINZ, 03 Secretary
Tessa Sainz graduated from Notre Dame with a BA in Graphic Design and a minor in Art History in 2003. She designed the promotional material for the first Notre Dame Queer Film Festival co-founded by GALA-ND/SMC Chair Liam Dacey in 2004. She's also supported Elsie Publishing, which publishes a lesbian magazine with international distribution and which seeks to encourage a worldwide lesbian community. Recently, having relocated to the Philadelphia area, she has become involved with several other non-profits such as the American Philosophical Society, ActionAIDS and volunteers weekly at Philly AIDS Thrift Store.
As an officer of GALA, Tessa hopes to encourage the participation of our female members in GALA events and help to boost the activities of our regional groups and foster connections between local alums.
MELANIE LEMAY, 10 Treasurer
Melanie LeMay graduated from Notre Dame in May of 2010 with a BA in English and Gender Studies. Melanie has worked with GALA-ND/SMC since she became co-chair of OutreachND in the spring of 2009. She was also a member of the Core Council for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Questioning students and co-chair of AllianceND from 2008-10. In this capacity, Melanie was an organizer for the January 2010 protest "No Home Under the Dome," which received substantial media coverage and led to a series of meetings with University President Fr. John Jenkins. While at ND, she was also a four-year member of the Band of the Fighting Irish. In the summer of 2009, Melanie worked as an intern at Resource Center Dallas, which serves the GLBTQ and HIV/AIDS communities in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Upon graduation, Melanie returned to Dallas as a Teach For America 2010 Corps Member, where she taught 7th grade English language arts and reading in Dallas ISD. Now she is helping establish Wake Forest University's new LGBTQ Center in Winston-Salem, NC, as the Program Coordinator.
As treasurer of GALA, and newly minted alumna, Melanie hopes to further strengthen the link between current ND and SMC students, faculty, staff, and alumni and to continue the excellent record-keeping, banking, and financial efficiency established by the previous administration.
TOM O'BRIEN, 86 Immediate Past Chair
Tom is a 1986 graduate of Notre Dame and currently the Director of Research at the Center for International Trade and Transportation at California State University, Long Beach. He has been involved with GALA-ND/SMC for approximately seven years as Chair and as Southwest regional coordinator.
