Elizabeth Millen Birch (born September 2, 1956) is an American attorney and former corporate executive who chaired the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1992-1994. She served as the executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT organization, from January 1995 until January 2004. Education and law career Birch was born at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, in 1956. Her father was a Canadian Air Force officer and she lived on numerous Canadian Air Force bases in her youth. During high school, she joined Up With People, a student performance group, and toured Europe and North Africa for a year. Birch graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1980 and earned a J.D. degree at the Santa Clara University School of Law. She was an associate attorney with the law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen until joining Apple in 1989. She later earned a Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii in 2004. Birch was worldwide director of litigation for Apple Computer and general counsel for its Claris subsidiary until 1995. Activism Birch began her LGBT political activity as a member of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee (BAYMEC), an LGBT political action committee based in a San Jose, California. She was co-chairwoman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1992 to 1994. Birch joined the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as executive director in January 1995. Over the next several years she dramatically increased its size in both membership and budget. Her marketing approach to political organization provoked criticism that HRC was setting an agenda through its influence on sources of funding to the exclusion of local initiatives. In 2003, the organization opened its national headquarters building in Washington, D.C. During her tenure, a major problem arose when the HRC endorsed New York Senator Al D'Amato for re-election in 1998 when he was opposed by Chuck Schumer. Birch was executive director of the HRC until January 2004 when she left to spend more time with her partner, Hilary Rosen, and their children. She joined the Howard Dean presidential campaign as a senior advisor. She then became a professional public speaker. Birch was still the executive director of HRC when its staff and board of directors, with her encouragement, "discussed and then finally decided to add the 'T' to the organization’s mission statement" in 2001, although the