Gareth Fenley
- Guide for Lesbians Moving to Atlanta, Georgia, 1995 to 2015, by Gareth Fenley
Gareth Fenley is a professional social worker, entrepreneur, and community volunteer. A proud graduate of the University of Georgia (2004), Gareth has been a homeowner in Walton County, Georgia, since 2018.
In 2024, Gareth Fenley was elected as the Democratic Party nominee for Georgia State Senate District 46. She has been endorsed by the Georgia WIN List, which backs women candidates who champion reproductive freedom. Gareth’s campaign slogan is, “For choice. For democracy. For tomorrow.”
Gareth Fenley founded and owns Seven Points LLC. She instructs learners at all levels on an individual basis and in courses of all sizes up to hundreds of students. Gareth specializes in exam preparation, especially for social work licensing. She hosts free (pro bono) study groups for social work exam candidates every Sunday evening on Zoom.
Gareth Fenley was born in California in 1961, grew up in the Midwest, and came out as a lesbian in 1979 by joining the Oberlin College Gay Union. This marked the beginning of her lifelong work as an activist in the LGBT community. After earning a bachelor’s degree in government, she began a career in writing and editing that took her to Oregon, and eventually, to Atlanta in 1989. Since then, Gareth has lived in Georgia and South Carolina, taking root as a permanent Southern transplant.
Gareth Fenley worked from 2006 to 2013 as a founding member of Project GREAT (Georgia Recovery-Based Educational Approach to Treatment) at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. In presentations around Georgia and around the United States, her team trained psychiatrists, other physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, administrators, and healthcare researchers. The American College of Psychiatrists recognized Project GREAT with its Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education in 2012.
Gareth Fenley has been honored with a national Multicultural Outreach Award by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and she was inducted into the NAMI Georgia Hall of Fame.
Gareth is a member of Atlantaâs Ebenezer Baptist Church. She has been married to her wife, Judy, since a Supreme Court ruling made it possible in 2013. They have three dogs and a cat.