In an email sent to staff, the Mazzoni Center, an LGBTQ-centered health center, announced that its board has retained Cybeleum, an outside consulting firm, to find permanent leadership for the organization.
Board President Nu’Rodney Prad said, “We’re in a fact-finding stage. Essentially a year ago, we had an interim leadership team (ILT) that was put into place to establish levels of stability, healing and trust for the organization, and the board definitely believes that they have accomplished those goals that we have set out for ourselves, and now that we know that the ILT has been in place for a year, the board has determined that this could be an appropriate time frame to appoint a more permanent structure to continually sustain our organization in the future.”
In 2017, allegations of sexual misconduct against former medical director Dr. Robert Winn surfaced. His departure was imminent and followed by the resignations of CEO Nurit Shein and Board President Dr. Jimmy Ruiz. In 2018, after seven months, CEO Lydia Gonzalez-Sciarrino, who replaced interim CEO Steve Glassman, resigned, along with COO Ron Powers. Several board members left their posts along the way also.
The ILT, established in 2018, consists of Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nancy Brisbon, Chief Operating Officer Alecia Manley and Chief Financial Officer Racquel Assaye. Prad said these leaders are indicative of the board’s 2018 goals of having leadership that was “very approachable, that could be trusted by the organization and that could also employ levels of healing.”
“We are proud of the work these leaders have done, putting us on the path to continued sustainability and negotiating a landmark collective bargaining agreement that puts Mazzoni Center at the forefront of offering benefits that are sensitive to the unique needs of the LGBTQ community, including guaranteed paid leave for gender-affirming surgery and FMLA leave for employees’ chosen families,” the email to staff said.
In 2019, the Mazzoni Center unionized after two years of negotiations, bringing about reason to celebrate for the LGBT health center, which currently serves 7,593 clients, according to Larry Benjamin, director of communications. The center offers primary health care needs, HIV care, free STI screenings, an adolescent drop-in clinic, community outreach and education, counseling and recovery services, a food bank and legal counsel for youth, among other services.
Mazzoni’s board wants to make sure staff are involved in the process ahead, currently thought to take six to nine months, Prad said. The letter to staff relayed, “We’ll be working with Cybeleum to host in-person focus groups over the next couple of months to solicit feedback from staff.”
While the goal is for a quick and efficient process, Prad said if it continues longer than nine months, the board will be “very open and transparent with our staff.”
The three-member interim leadership team in place will continue to lead the organization until a permanent structure is agreed upon, according to Larry Benjamin, who added that those in current leadership roles support the process.
“I think they’ve done a great job,” Benjamin said. “I don’t know that anybody else could have stepped into this role and do what needed to be done.”
Whether future leadership will be a solitary CEO or a team of leaders is still unknown. Prad said that is part of the reason for hiring Cybeleum.
Benjamin said the step forward to secure permanent leadership is about “sustainability. We’ve been around for 40 years to meet a very specific need within this community. So how do we position ourselves for the next 40 years? How do we continue to meet that need within the community as those needs shift and change? We started out with the beginning of the first big outbreak of Hepatitis C, and then with the AIDS crisis, we moved into a lot of the AIDS work. And now, 40 years later, we have a health system that has all sorts of care, we do trans care, so as the needs of the community start changing, we’ve always met those needs. I think finding leadership that can lead the organization to meet the next set of challenges is what we’re all hoping for.”
“Speaking in a visionary language right now,” Prad said. “I will say that we want to continue to have a premier organization that could support and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community in the Philadelphia region and beyond.”
Like Benjamin, Prad said he hopes those in future permanent leadership will understand Mazzoni Center’s mission but also take the health care center into the future.
“We definitely want this team, not only to come into place and think about the strategy but to also have a very well-rounded understanding of how diversity and inclusion and social justice in today’s age can impact society and the organization as well.”