HBHC GETS LEADER
Howard Brown Health Center ended a nine-month leadership vacancy last week with the hire of a new executive director.
Keith Waterbrook, most recently the director of health and mental health at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, will replace Eileen Durkin, who left HBHC in October of last year.
"We are thrilled to welcome Keith Waterbrook to Howard Brown," said Paul Lutter, president of the center's Board of Directors. "Keith is considered a visionary, as well as an exceptional administrator, and has also shown tremendous aptitude for developing meaningful relationships with various community leaders to ensure that all populations have a voice when it comes to quality healthcare."
Waterbrook, a white male who is a Chicago native, worked at the LA Center for six years and is credited with establishing its primary care program, the Lambda Medical Group. Los Angeles has the largest gay and lesbian center in the country. While there, he also created a joint STD/HIV testing program with the People's Republic of China.
Past posts also include serving as president/chief executive officer of the University of Arizona's University Medical Center Corporation and as the hospital director and executive director of the Family Practice Plan at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.
"I am greatly looking forward to the opportunities and challenges this appointment present and am looking forward to returning to my hometown of Chicago," Waterbrook said.
McHale joins race for McKeon post
Former Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike McHale has announced his intention to run for state Rep. Larry McKeon's House seat if McKeon leaves to run for the Senate.
"I'm quite geared up to run for that seat," said McHale, also a board member for Equality Illinois.
McKeon ( D-Chicago ) announced in March that he will run for the Senate if Lisa Madigan ( D-Chicago ) vacates her seat to run for state attorney general. Madigan is not expected to announce her intentions until after the current legislative session is over later this month, and McKeon said he won't make a decision until she does.
McHale, who is openly gay, said he does not plan to run against McKeon if that series of domino effects doesn't pan out.
"I have no desire to divide the community," he said.
McHale has formed a 50-member exploratory committee, drawing a diverse cross-section of activists and advocates "from all walks of life and involvement in the community," he said.
Openly lesbian political activist Mel Ferrand also announced this month that she will run for McKeon's seat if he vacates it. Ferrand, a union carpenter who has been part of the feminist and queer communities in Chicago for over ten years, was an active member of the Women's Action Coalition and was a Horizons support group facilitator.
Ferrand, 35, has lived in Chicago for approximately 15 years and in the North Side district for about eight years. She was Co-Chair of the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance and is a past President of the Illinois NOW PAC. Ferrand was also President of a local NOW chapter. In addition to coalition and lobby work on the issues, Ferrand also participates in activities that will achieve social change. She was a clinic escort for several years when anti-choice activists regularly targeted Chicago clinics that perform abortions.
Currently a sports writer for Windy City Times, she is also Secretary of Chicago's largest and oldest lesbigay multi-sport organization, Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association.
McKeon's district, at just over 98,000 residents, includes parts of Ravenswood, North Center, Lincoln Square, Uptown, Lakeview, Andersonville and Argyle.
ACTIVISTS BACK AIDS PLAN
AIDS advocates are applauding last week's decision by the Illinois Department of Public Health ( IDPH ) to extend a surveillance trial used to collect data on those who test HIV positive or seek HIV care.
The system, adopted in 1999 on a two-year trial basis, calls for healthcare providers to report demographic and risk behavior information on HIV-positive patients to health departments. The system is unique because patients are assigned a code number and their names are never reported.
Illinois' health department had planned to make a decision by July 2001 on whether to keep or scrap the system, but officials have extended the trial until July 2003. That decision was announced May 8 by IDPH Director John Lumpkin.
Advocates said they are satisfied with the extension.
"We appreciate the decision, we think it's the right decision," said David Munar of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago ( AFC ) . "This will afford the department time to decide what's working and what's not working."
AIDS service providers and advocates favor the patient code system, noting that name-based reporting has been found to deter high-risk individuals...namely gay men and injection drug users...from getting tested for HIV.
"We've seen in studies that they delay or avoid testing because of what could happen if their names are reported to the government," Munar said. "We believe that the ( health department's ) decision affirms that belief."
Munar and others had been concerned that IDPH wouldn't give the patient code trial enough time.
"Two years is just getting the system up and running," Munar said.
An AIDS Foundation report issued in November found that the system had outperformed states that use names to report data on HIV-positive patients.
Advocates were surprised by how quickly IDPH made its decision to extend the trial. At an HIV Prevention Planning Group meeting last month, Charlie Rabins of the department had indicated that an extension was under consideration, but he didn't give a time frame.
At www.aidschicago.org .
