30 Days of Pride!

June 29: Aubrey Sarvis

Aubrey Sarvis, former chief counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee and later executive vice president of Verizon Communications, joined SLDN as its executive director in October 2007. He is also a member of the SLDN Board of Directors.

Originally from South Carolina, Aubrey enlisted in the Army immediately after high school. He served for more than three years, including 13 months as a member of the 7th Infantry Division on the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea. He has his BA and JD law degrees from American University. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, Harvard Business School, and at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.

From 1977 to 1983 Aubrey served as staff director and chief counsel to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

In 1984 he joined Bell Atlantic, which later merged with Verizon to form Verizon Communications. At the time the merger was completed, Aubrey was executive vice president for public policy and legislative operations. After 14 years at Bell Atlantic/Verizon, Aubrey formed his own public policy consulting firm in Washington in 1998. He remained there until joining SLDN in 2007.

Aubrey proved an invaluable leader in the fight to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and since has lead the charge to ensure full military equality in filing McLaughlin v. Panetta and advocating for the Military Spouses Equal Treatment Act of 2012 (MSET) that would change the definition of "spouse" in four areas of U.S. Code related to recognition, support, and benefits for married service members and veterans.

In January of 2012 Aubrey announced that he would be leaving SLDN after a national search for a replacement was complete.

In commenting on Aubrey's leadership former Congressman Patrick Murphy, the lead sponsor of DADT repeal in the House has said "Without the leadership, vision, and tenacity of Aubrey Sarvis, it's quite conceivable that getting a 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal bill through Congress and signed by the President would not have happened in 2010. Aubrey pushed early and strategically for repeal, and once it was clear that the Congress would look quite different following the 2010 elections, SLDN went into overdrive to work with us to craft a plan to make the vote happen in the lame duck session.  The nation's service members - straight and gay - owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Aubrey."  We could not agree more.