DEB COFFY

Deb(orah) Coffy (they/she) is a Black, fat, queer, non-binary Haitian American peer supporter, writer, creative, and researcher. Growing up with a mom who worked at a domestic violence shelter in Western PA, Deb engaged with social justice at a young age. They co-led NOW UCF’s annual Take Back the Night Event in 2022, focusing on sexual assault survivors.

 

During their tenure at the Multicultural Student Center, they uplifted Black and Queer issues and representation on campus by creating the first Afro Knights event showcasing Black Queer musicians in the Orlando area and alternative band, BLACKSTARKIDZ, and co-created the first Women’s Market Day Event in 2023. Deb continued their work through organizations such as the Queer Trans Project, Healthy Teen Network, Black Girls Smile, the Black LGBTQ+ Migrant Project, The Transgender Law Center, Community Change, and Brown Boi Project, organizations that focus on mental health, reproductive justice, and LGBTQ+ folks. 

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They were a communications fellow for Community Change writing about low-income issues, social justice, LGBTQ+ folks, and Black people. Additionally, they are a certified recovery peer specialist in the State of Florida. They provide peer support as a founding team member at Eva’s Casita, the first peer respite in Central Florida.

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Outside of organizing, they are a poet who has been published in the Blunt Space for their poem, “When I” and “Tonight” in the Caribbean Writer.  They do archival work as a fellow for the The Autistic Voices Oral History Project, the Mahogany Project’s Drag Archive, and Black Girls Know Best,  Black Girls In Archives, and Hems & Brims’s The Art of Fly Black Dandies archival and cultural research cohort. 

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Because of their advocacy, they have been awarded the Legacy Award by the Black Staff and Faculty Association, the Dively-Dupuis Scholarship Award by the LGBTQ+ Staff and Faculty Association, and the Dorothy Walker Ruggles Scholarship by the Florida Supervisor of Elections.