Gay And Lesbian Medical Association Announces 2007 Achievement And Provider Of The Year Awards, USA

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 09 Oct 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) has named Eliav Barr, Robert Garofalo, Judy Shepard, and Paul Wertsch to receive its 2007 Achievement Awards. Sydney Tam has been named as the 2007 Gayhealth.com GLMA Provider of the Year. The GLMA Achievement Awards are presented in association with the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative. The GLMA Achievement Awards recognize efforts to improve the quality of healthcare for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) individuals, to improve the workplace environment for LGBT healthcare workers, or to advance LGBT civil rights. GLMA Achievement Awards are given without regard to recipients' sexual orientation or gender identity.

Dr. Barr, Executive Director of Vaccine Clinical Research at Merck Research Laboratories, was recognized for his work on a vaccine for HPV, the virus responsible for many gynecological and anal cancers.

Dr. Garofalo, an adolescent medicine specialist affiliated with Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, and Howard Brown Health Center, was recognized for his contributions to caring for HIV infected adolescents and other at-risk teens. Dr. Garofalo is GLMA's Immediate Past President.

Judy Shepard, Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, was recognized for her contributions to promoting tolerance for LGBT people. The Foundation is named in honor of Mrs. Shepard's son, who was murdered in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming because he was gay. Dr. Wertsch was recognized for his leadership as a straight ally to LGBT people. Dr. Wertsch, who has a gay child and is active in PFLAG, serves as the Chair of the American Medical Association's Advisory Committee for GLBT Issues.

Dr. Tam, a family medicine physician at the Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto, was nominated by her patients to receive the Gayhealth.com/GLMA Provider of the Year Award, because of the positive impact she has made in their lives.

The mission of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association is to ensure equality in healthcare for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and healthcare professionals.

http://www.glma.org