Email - Fenway e-News: LGBT health summer institute; Sox raffle

July/August 2011

Newsletter Archive

From Our President

Steve Boswell

While summer sees many students leaving classrooms and their studies behind, July saw Fenway welcoming 18 graduate students and recent post-doctoral graduates from around the country for the 2011 Summer Institute in LGBT Population Health. The Summer Institute convenes both at Fenway Health’s Ansin Building and on the campus of the Boston University School of Public Health and is a one-of-a-kind advanced program that provides these scholars with foundational training in interdisciplinary theory, knowledge and methods for conducting population research in sexual and gender minority health. Read more.

Back Row from left: Michelle Williams, Eric Grollman, Judith Bradford, Tristan Guarini, Shandu Foster, Robert Coulter, Hale Thompson, Tonia Poteat, Edward Alessi, Nicholas Eaton, Aimee Van Wagenen, Niccole Pamphilis.

Front Row from left: Sari Reisner, Mark Williams, Nicole VanKim, Larissa McGarrity, Kristi Gamarel, Alexa Martin-Story, Luis Gutierrez-Mock, Amee Schwitters, Mieke Thomeer, Ning Hsieh, Saundra Schneider.

Fenway welcomes the 2011 Summer Institute in LGBT Population Health

The Fenway Institute is hosting the Summer Institute in LGBT Population Health from July 18 - August 12. Eighteen graduate students and recent post-doctoral graduates from around the country have gathered in Boston to gain foundational training in the interdisciplinary study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health. You can read more about the Summer Institute on BayWindows.com and RainbowTimesMass.com.

Please join us in welcoming the 2011 cohort!

Get your stylish l.a.Eyeworks Quinn frames from Fenway Optician, Debra Quinn

If you’ve stopped by the 6^th floor of Fenway’s 1340 Boylston Street location, odds are you probably met our fab Optician, Debra Quinn. Well the next time you see her, ask her to show you a pair of l.a.Eyeworks new Quinn frames. That’s right, Debra now has a pair of eyeglass frames named after her!

How did that happen, you ask? Well, Debra got her start in the eyewear biz back in the 1980s, when she was a struggling musician playing in a band in Los Angeles where she met four lesbians who owned a little place called the City Café. Debra went to work for them and shortly after, started at the optical shop next door called l.a.Eyeworks that was owned by two of those women, Barbara McReynolds and Gai Gherardi. She soon began her apprenticeship with them, eventually becoming their lab manager and fitting countless pairs of eyeglasses, including frames for celebrities like Elton John and Ringo Starr.

When Debra began working at Fenway, she began carrying l.a.Eyeworks frames in our Optical Shop. Barbara and Gai visited her last summer and thought Fenway’s eyewear dispensary was beautiful and were particularly pleased to see the vintage l.a.Eyeworks ad campaign posters of Pee Wee Herman, Divine, and Andy Warhol wearing their designs. Fast forward several months when Debra’s l.a.Eyeworks rep stopped by to show her new samples from the forward-thinking line.

“As he was pulling out cases of frames, I noticed one named ‘Quinn’, and know I must have looked quite surprised,” said Debra. “He simply said something like, ‘we all think this should be your new frame.’ I was thrilled!”

“We are often awed and inspired by how far the DNA of our brand has spread; how the branches continue to grow.” said l.a.Eyeworks co-designer Gai Gherardi, “We couldn’t be more proud of Debra, and a frame named Quinn barely does justice to her amazing work at Fenway Health!”

Remembering Kip Tiernan

When Kip Tiernan passed away on July 2, the Fenway family lost a friend. Kip is best known for founding Rosie’s Place, the first drop-in and emergency shelter for women in the United States, in 1974. She also helped start a number of other social service organizations, including the Greater Boston Food Bank and the South End’s Victory House for homeless, alcoholic men with nowhere else to turn. Fenway Health recognized Kip for her good works with the Dr. Susan M. Love Award at the 1997 Women’s Dinner Party. The Love Award is given to honor and celebrate a woman and/or organization that has made a significant contribution to the field of women’s health.

Jonathan D. Scott, the President and Executive Director of Victory Programs, remembered Kip in a July 8 piece on Boston.com that is well worth reading and you can read more about Kip’s life and accomplishments on BayWindows.com. Fenway extends our condolences to Kip’s partner Donna Pomponio, and to her family, friends and loved ones.

Fenway: South End’s Dr. Julia Ireland co-authors article on identifying unhealthy alcohol use in HIV-positive adults

Dr. Julia Ireland, a medical provider at Fenway: South End, is co-author of an article in the journal AIDS Care titled Operating characteristics of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) for identifying unhealthy alcohol use in adults with HIV infection. Research has shown that unhealthy alcohol use is common in HIV-infected persons and that it can interfere with HIV medication adherence, may lower CD4 cell count, and can cause liver damage. Dr. Ireland and the other authors of the paper evaluated the effectiveness of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin as a way of measuring heavy drinking in people with HIV. You can read a PDF of the paper here.

Win tickets to see the Sox vs. the A’s at Fenway Park
August 27

Thanks to a generous friend of Fenway, we have four tickets to the August 27 Sox vs. Athletics game at Fenway Park and a newly renovated Junior Suite at The Westin Copley Place for the night. The tickets will be awarded via an online raffle which closes at 12 p.m. eastern time on Friday, August 19. A winner will be selected, notified and announced later that day. Chances to win are $25 each, three for $50 or ten for $100. Enter now!