Throughout his career, MJ Okma—the founder and principal of Okma Strategic Consulting—has successfully secured funding, legislative, and campaign wins including:
Organized and led a coalition of older adults living with HIV, HIV providers, LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups, aging services providers, and other stakeholders that resulted in the passage of the New York LGBTQ+ and HIV Long-Term Care Bill of Rights and legislation to designate LGBTQ+ elders and older people living with HIV as populations of greatest social need under New York's interpretation of the Older Americans Act.
Presented and successfully advocated to the New York State Excuvite Chamber Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs to secure a commitment to create a LGBTQIA+ legal hotline and new online resources responding to anti-LGBTQIA+ federal attacks in Gov. Hochul's 2026 State of the State Book.
Helped secure the first-ever enhancement to the New York City Council's LGBTQIA+ Older Adult Services in Every Borough initiative since its FY15 creation in the FY23 budget.
Presented to the New York State Executive Chamber, directly leading to the creation of a $20 million initiative through the NY State Division of Housing and Community Renewal to incentivize the creation of LGBTQIA+-affirming affordable elder housing.
Worked with New York City Council Members and City Council staff to hold and draw community turn-out to oversight hearings on a variety of topics important topics including HIV and aging, the challenges facing LGBTQIA+ elders, and the impacts of underfunding indirect rates on human services contracts.
Provided advocacy support and developed strategic messaging that secured over $120 million in the New York City FY22 budget to restore and baseline more accurate indirect funding for non-profit human services providers on the frontlines of COVID-19.
Helped develop the successful core messaging and initial campaign strategy of the #JustPay campaign, which secured historic cost of living adjustments for government-contacted human services workers in the New York City FY25 budget.
Researched, crafted, and implemented GLAAD's #StopPompeo campaign resulting in three Democratic Senators grilling Mike Pompeo about LGBTQIA+ rights during his 2018 Secretary of State confirmation hearing and national press coverage of his anti-LGBTQIA+ record.
Developed and maintained GLAAD's Trump Accountability Tracker, which monitored and reported every publicly known anti-LGBTQIA+ action from the Trump Administration in real-time.
