Immediately following the announcement of my appointment as Fenway Health’s new CEO, I began receiving supportive notes from friends and colleagues throughout the country. The examples below capture the overall sentiment of these messages:
“A great/venerable/truly special organization!”
“An amazing organization and true leader in LGBTQ health care advocacy.”
“Fenway helped me as a teenager and again as an adult.”
“I’m a nurse because of Fenway.”
“I love Fenway!”
And so on. It was an incredible testament to this place, and to everyone who has made it what it is today.
I have spent my career working to advance equity, social justice, and the health and well-being of people and communities. I’m a connector by nature; throughout my career, I’ve led mission-driven organizations that bring people and communities together in pursuit of a better future, helping them to create the conditions necessary for them to realize that vision. Doing so inspires and energizes me.
Fenway Health is an extraordinary and rare combination of direct, community-based engagement and global impact. The opportunity to join the Fenway Health team of clinicians, researchers, advocates, staff, and patients at a time when there is so much to be done to advance the health and well-being of LGBTQIA+ communities – and when the stakes are so high – is what brought me here.
As we look ahead to a future full of enormous opportunities and major challenges, Fenway Health must work relentlessly to identify and develop ways for LGBTQIA+ people and people with HIV to live healthy lives and reach their full potential. To achieve this we must:
- Engage deeply and authentically with the people and communities we serve to understand their needs and the challenges they confront, and work with them – as patients, members of our staff, and leaders in our communities – to develop effective approaches to deliver care impeccably;
- Identify and answer critical research questions to inform how we approach LGBTQIA+ health and well-being;
- Partner with our clinical colleagues, government, and academic partners to redesign the systems that perpetuate health inequities and gaps in care;
- Speak loudly and with one voice when policies impacting our lives, families, and communities are being advanced; and
- Center racial equity and social justice in everything that we do.
And – through it all – we must advance an unfailing message of possibility and hope.
Again, I am incredibly excited and honored to join the Fenway Health team at the beginning of what promises to be a decade of enormous consequence in our communities and our country. I look forward to meeting you, and to working alongside you to leverage the formidable track record, capacity, and passion of this remarkable institution to advance the health and well-being of LGBTQIA+ people everywhere.