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Dave Wait began his involvement with the pride movement in 2004 when he first volunteered for a ‘shift’ at Motor City Pride. That four-hour shift led to being Chairperson of MCP. With his event planning and advocacy experience, he has grown MCP from an afternoon street fair attracting 8,000 people to a regional weekend festival attracting over 55,000 participants each year.

In addition to coordinating Detroit’s annual LGBTQ pride festival, he works to empower others around the globe to offer pride activities in their community as a Board Member of InterPride: The International Association of Pride Coordinators. Dave is completing his second term as treasurer.

Dave has also served eight years on the board of Equality Michigan: Michigan’s statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, and fourteen years at a national level on the Management Team of the National LGBT Task Force’s Creating Change Conference.

When not volunteering, Dave has been employed by Eastern Michigan University since 1986. He serves as the Executive Director of three career and technical student organizations: DECA, SkillsUSA, and FCCLA, which annually provides leadership and career development conferences for over 14,000 Michigan high school students. He has served four non-consecutive terms on the DECA Inc. Board of Directors. DECA Inc. is a not-for-profit international educational association with 195,000 members.