THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Torie Osborn

“I really believe that women are the future. Feminism instilled in me a new and different way of looking at the world, and I can’t get rid of it. It’s in every cell, it’s in every fiber of my being.”

Author, Activist, Music producer, Educator, Organizer. Founded the Middlebury College Women’s Union to reform women’s health services on campus. Founding staff of In These Times newspaper in Chicago, mid-1970s. Ran Holly Near’s record company, organized Holly’s 30-city tour with Meg Christian, and later co-produced the West Coast Women’s Music Festival, some 5,000 women congregating in the woods near Yosemite National Park. Northern California Director for the National Organization for Women, 1981. The first woman executive director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, 1988-1992.  Served as executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C. Executive director of the Liberty Hill Foundation, Los Angeles-based non-profit dedicated to environmental justice, 1997-2005. Served as Deputy Mayor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, working to reduce homelessness and poverty, resulting two years later in the formation of the City of L.A. Office of Strategic Partnerships. Served as Chief Civic Engagement Officer for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, 2009. Senior Strategist for California Calls, a network of 27 organizations throughout California committed to “common-sense” government reform including fair tax and budget policy.

Interviewed by Judy Waxman, Oral Historian, August 2025