Emmett Schelling

Emmett Schelling is a trans South Korean immigrant by way of foreign adoption and currently serves as executive director of Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT). While his primary focus of work is on trans issues, his leadership is informed by the knowledge and lived experience that trans individuals are not impacted by single issues, but rather a myriad of issues that often manifest themselves in oppression and marginalization.

Before entering into social justice movement and nonprofit work he came from corporate management after studying Business Management and Marketing in college. He felt compelled to invest deeper into the ongoing work towards collective liberation of trans folks after taking on various levels of community organizing and engagement, along with experiencing a series of eye-opening events that pulled him into advocating for trans Texans.

In addition to serving as the Executive Director of Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT), he is also a part of the Community Council for Transform Houston, board member of Deeds Not Words and House of Tulip (HoT), a member of Transgender Law Center’s (TLC) T4All national cohort, and currently serves as Co-Director for the TransFORWARD, a statewide trans powered research collective in Texas with Texas Health Institute, TENT, and Equality Texas. He was a 2020 Trans Justice Funding Project (TJFP) Grantmaking Fellow.

In 2022, Schelling was named one of Time's Most Influential People for his work in Texas