As reported on ebar.com:
The LGBT Seniors Task Force has been given 18 months to come up with a detailed plan on what the most pressing needs are for the estimated 25,000 older adults living in San Francisco who identify as LGBT. The panel's report will also include how the city can address LGBT elders' concerns.
In September 2012, the Board of Supervisors selected 15 people to serve on the task force. The members are a diverse group representing the LGBT senior community and service providers.
The list includes Perry Lang, executive director of the Black Coalition on AIDS; Shanti Executive Director Kaushik Roy; transgender senior activists Jazzie Collins and Felicia Elizondo ; housing rights activistTommi Avicolli Mecca; and attorney Bill Ambrunn , one of the key people who pushed for the task force's creation.
The other members of the panel are Meals on Wheels Executive Director Ashley McCumber; Daniel Redman, the National Center for Lesbian Rights' elder law fellow; and Jorge Rodriguez , an HIV clinic case manager at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center.
"I am extremely confident about meeting the deadline set for the task force," said Ambrunn, who is seeking to become the panel's chair. "What it does is give everyone an incentive to get to work immediately and not waste time in getting things done."
With little concrete data collected about the city's LGBT seniors population, one of the first things proponents of the panel did was secure funding to conduct its own research. Karen I. Fredriksen-Goldsen , Ph.D., a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Institute for Multigenerational Health, will oversee the $60,000 study.
The city's Department of Aging and Adult Services kicked in $30,000. The San Francisco Foundation gave $15,000, Horizons Foundation granted $10,000, and longtime gay donor Al Baum contributed $5,000.
Outside of working on this task force, Larry is preparing to present at the for the upcoming International Conference on Positive Aging in Los Angeles, CA in February 2013. He is presenting a workshop emphasizing senior LGBT members of color, women who have been bypassed by the general public, and media relative to their historic roles in the Gay Rights movement. Larry states "I am thrilled to be offered the chance to give voice to those who have been omitted in the history books."
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Harris is a multi-lingual (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian) business advisor with the Northern California Small Business Development Center Network. Harris’ career reflects over 18 years of operations, training, management, leadership, and consulting experience in a range of industries including: U.S. Department of Defense, business development, risk management/loss prevention, logistics, education and non-profit. He also serves as business services coordinator at Canal Alliance, and Consulting Partner with Shamana, Inc. Noah holds a BS in Business Management from the University of Phoenix and a MA in Organization Management & Development from Fielding Graduate University where he is currently completing a graduate sustainability leadership program and was appointed to the Fielding Alumni Council.
Wallis received his PhD in 2006 from Fielding Graduate University. He has more than a decade of experience as an organizational development consultant in Northern California and a broad range of interdisciplinary interests. Wallis also serves as Adjunct Faculty at Capella University and as Director for the Foundation for the Advancement of Social Theory (FAST). At FAST he supports emerging scholars who are working to identify rigorous paths for the validation of theory through a deeper knowledge of critical metatheory and metapolicy analysis. His academic publications cover a range of fields including ethics, management, organizational change, social entrepreneurship, and policy.
