As a lesbian rabbi serving an LGBT congregation during a period that has spanned the AIDS crisis and the legalization of gay marriage, Rabbi Lisa Edwards has spent decades working to make the Jewish community a more welcoming place for gays, lesbians, and transgender Jews. Edwards earned a BA from Brown University in 1975, an MA from the University of Chicago in 1977, and a PhD in English literature from the University of Iowa in 1985 before deciding to enter rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. In 1994, after her ordination, she took a position as rabbi of Los Angeles’s Beth Chayim Chadashim, the country’s first LGBT synagogue. The following year, she and her longtime partner, Tracy Moore, created a commitment ceremony for themselves, renewing their vows in 2008 when gay marriage became legal in California. An outspoken speaker and writer on the subject of LGBT inclusion in religious and secular communities, Edwards is a regular columnist for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal and has written essays for The Women’s Torah Commentary and Introduction to Judaism: A Sourcebook, as well as one of the introductions to the new High Holiday prayer book of the Reform movement in 2015. In 2014 the city of Los Angeles honored her as one of seven LGBT Leaders and Legends.