Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Mobilisa and Intellicheck revenue was $90 million.

A Jefferson County business leader announced a transition from male to female last week after a lifetime of gender misplacement and several years of living a dual identity.

“This is not something I dreamed up last week and decided it would be a nice thing to do,” said Nella Ludlow, 56, who was known as Nelson Ludlow, a founder of the technology firm Mobilisa. “This is something I’ve known all my life. And anyone who changes gender certainly faces a harder path.”

The announcement comes as people around the country are set to observe Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20.

Ludlow said this is a hospitable time for such action, as the transgender community is benefiting from two recent events – Caitlin Jenner’s public identity change and the defeat of an avowed transphobic legislator by a transgender candidate in the Virginia state legislature.

Gone are the days when coming out as transgender would inevitably lead to ostracism and job termination, Ludlow said.

After maintaining a dual identity for several years, she chose last week to take the final plunge, officially changing her name, along with her social media identity. Friends had told her that everybody knew, so she may as well get it over with.

The epiphany came after an incident on a Washington state ferry. She was dressed in “boy clothes” and entered the men’s room, followed by a man who saw her and then did a double take to make sure he was in the right place.

“I decided I needed to get out of this in-between mode,” she said. “I want to be consistent, and respect everybody else.”

To do it correctly, she incorporated research, experience and the cultural touchstone known as “Family Guy.”

“There was an episode a few years ago where a coworker blamed a transgender character for making them go through sensitivity training,” she said. “When I alerted the HR department at Washington State University about my transition, they immediately suggested sensitivity training, but I said that I’d rather speak to them myself.”

The advice proffered was simple: If you see someone in a bathroom who may be transgender, realize that they are there for the same purpose as you are. Don’t ask someone if they are transgender, just as you would not ask a woman if she is pregnant. And don’t ever ask whether the person has gone through surgery.

REMEMBRANCE FRIDAY

Ludlow plans to participate in the third annual Port Townsend Transgender Remembrance Day event, which begins at 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 18 at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave. Nov. 13-17 is Transgender Awareness Week.

The free event includes recognition of transgender people murdered in the past year, along with the screening of the HBO documentary “The Trans List” and a panel discussion.

Ludlow is scheduled to address the group with a brief statement about her own experience.

Ludlow says she is luckier than many of those seeking gender reassignment. She has several college degrees and ran a successful company. She works in academia, a generally open-minded environment, she said. She lives in a supportive community, Port Townsend, and a state with no antediluvian bathroom laws. She comes from a supportive family and has enough money to indulge in purchases such as a 2015 Dodge Challenger muscle car, she said.

Even as she is now living as a female, she does not claim to fully understand the obstacles that women have faced in the workplace and in society.

RECOGNITION

As Nelson Ludlow, she founded the Port Townsend–based technology firm Mobilisa in 2001, along with spouse Bonnie Ludlow. The firm gained media attention in 2005 after developing a program to provide free wireless service on ferries in the Washington State Ferries system. Subsequent products included patented identification scanning and data collection applications. 

The Ludlows received recognition as Business Leaders of the Year by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce in 2005.

After a merger, the company became Intellicheck Mobilisa. Ludlow stepped down as CEO in April 2011, but returned the following year when the company failed to meet projections. He “retired” again in 2014 with the understanding that the company would maintain its Port Townsend office, but it closed for good in 2016.

During its time in Port Townsend, the company brought $90 million into the local economy, Ludlow said.

Ludlow considers Port Townsend home, commuting to Everett during the week. While she is still married to Bonnie Ludlow, whom she calls “my best friend,” they no longer live together.

Ludlow is currently a full professor at Washington State University, teaching electrical engineering and computer science, primarily at the school’s Everett campus. She is training students in the new field of data analytics, which is a hybrid of business, computer science and mathematics.

Students graduating in this field have a 100 percent hire rate regardless of gender, Ludlow said.

“Twenty years ago, artificial intelligence was the cool cutting edge,” she said. “Today, it’s data analytics. All of the large companies value this. It requires hard work, but if you make it through, you will succeed.”

Ludlow has an interest in developing a direct interface between the brain and the computer, which would allow people to bypass such annoyances as operating systems and clunky adapters.

Ludlow stayed closeted while acting as Intellicheck Mobilisa CEO in deference to the corporate mind-set, but she doesn’t wish she’d come out sooner. Her philosophy is to look ahead and not regret paths not taken.

“If you think about [the decision to come out], you might be too scared,” she said. “The only option is to move ahead.”

Ludlow said transphobia is a result of fear and ignorance, with many people stating they have never met a transgender person (although this must always be appended with “that they know of”). There is also confusion about what transgender is.

A common explanation: Transgender is a matter of identity, not of sex. A gender is who you are, while sex is who you love.

That said, even so-called “tolerant” people have trouble accepting the idea at first, she said.

“There can be a difference in supporting transgender rights and having your own daughter come out as transgender,” Ludlow said.