The National Coalition for LGBT Health will now have a Philadelphia voice, as it has selected one of the city’s leading LGBT health advocates to join its board of directors.
The agency selected Mazzoni Center executive director Nurit Shein for one of two board positions. The other appointee is Michael Plankey, assistant professor of medicine at Georgetown University, bringing the total number of members to 11.
The Washington, D.C.-based coalition now has more than 75 member organizations, including Mazzoni Center, The Safeguards Project, the city’s AIDS Activities Coordinating Office and Drexel University’s Program for LGBT Health. The coalition advocates at the federal level for research, policy, education and training initiatives to improve the health of the LGBT community.
Shein said coalition interim executive director Hutson Inniss approached her about the board position and she gladly accepted.
The appointment is for one year, after which time Shein will be eligible for board election to the position.
Inniss said Shein’s reputation is well-known among coalition members.
“Nurit is a national leader when it comes to health and incorporating health issues of the LGBT community,” he said. “Her leadership at the Mazzoni Center has been a model for other health centers to follow. She’s been a member of the coalition since its founding and she’s well-respected by her colleagues around the country.”
Shein said she already has two primary goals for her involvement with the agency.
Currently the federal government does not list the LGBT community as an “underserved” population, a designation the coalition, guided by a committee on which Shein will sit, will pursue.
“The federal government designates funding according to those types of designations,” Shein said. “While for the first time in [Health and Human Services 10-year report] Healthy People 2020, the federal government recognized the disparities of LGBT individuals, it has not yet made the step to actually give the designation of underserved population to the LGBT community. With that designation, there will be more resources to address those disparities.”
Also on her slate of objectives is the expansion of research to include the LGBT community, to better identify health trends.
“Once we have more data about LGBT individuals across the country, we will be able to better judge trends and better access resources.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].