LIZ MARGOLIES
As the founding executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network, Liz Margolies leads the first program in the United States to address the needs of LGBT people with cancer and those at risk. “Learning about cancer in our community profoundly changed me,” Margolies says, “I was stunned to discover that LGBT people have dramatically increased cancer risks, coupled with significantly decreased screening rates. Once diagnosed, we then face extra challenges in survivorship.” After establishing the National LGBT Cancer Network by herself in 2007, Margolies now has a guiding board of directors, committed volunteers and colleagues nationwide, as well as 21 network hubs in major cities. She successfully spearheaded the effort this year that requires NYC hospitals to implement LGBT competency training for all 38,000 employees and wrote the curriculum they will use. She is also a psychotherapist in private practice, specializing in trauma, loss, health disparities and sexuality. “Always an activist, [I’ve] spent most of my professional life as a psychotherapist, changing the world one soul at a time,” Margolies says. –SLO
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