Local
Comings & Goings
2 locals heading to NYC for new positions
From left, Fabrice Houdart and Mark Anthony Dingbaum
The Comings and Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their businesses, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
This week, we congratulate two members of our community who will leave D.C. for exciting positions in New York City.
First, congratulations are in order for Fabrice Houdart who on Feb. 1 will take up his position as Human Rights Officer at the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR). Houdart will work on issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Houdart was previously country officer for the Maghreb at the World Bank where he worked for 14 years and was the president (2011-2015) of its LGBT Group, GLOBE. He also managed a “Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Development” grant that examined sexual minorities in development. The grant, launched in 2012, provided a first estimate of the economic cost of homophobia using India as a case study. It also funded a short film on the interconnection between discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and poverty. During his career at the World Bank, Houdart has worked in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, first as a human development consultant and later as a strategy officer.
He has authored analyses on Yemen, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Tunisia. He also provided contributions to the 2012 Gender World Development Report (WDR) and the 2011 Conflict, Security, and Development WDR. He holds a bachelor’s in economics and management from Dauphine University in Paris and an MBA from American University in D.C. Houdart is on the board of Alturi and the D.C. Rainbow Theater Company. He has twin sons.
Congratulations are also in order for Mark Anthony Dingbaum who has joined the Clinton Foundation as deputy director of communications, digital engagement. After mobilizing online communities in advocacy, technology and government, Dingbaum will now focus on digital communications and enhancing awareness for the all of the foundation’s initiatives, which convene businesses, governments, NGOs, and individuals to improve global health and wellness, increase opportunity for girls and women, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth and help communities address the effects of climate change.
Prior to the Clinton Foundation, he served as a presidential appointee in the Obama administration, supporting White House initiatives while leading communications and digital activities at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Before joining the Obama administration, he managed campaign and communications strategy at Change.org, empowering several of the most popular petitions launched by the company’s 125 million users, including a 13-month national campaign that rallied nearly two million people to push the Boy Scouts of America to end its policy banning gay youth. Dingbaum also previously provided digital strategy and support to CREDO Mobile and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Yadiel Meléndez, on their new role as Community Associate, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Meléndez is piloting a new role as a Community Associate at the Wanda Alston Foundation, where they support queer and trans young people in finding their footing, building independence, and experiencing a housing community where they are seen, valued, and affirmed. They are coming into this role with more than a decade of experience as a community organizer and operations specialist, supporting diverse communities through service, advocacy, and program coordination.
Previously they worked for Right Proper Brewing Shaw as a server and bartender and at Sephora, Washington, DC, and at FreshFarm, DC, in bilingual food access. They also worked freelance to build foundational structures for local queer BIPOC performance art coalitions, producing variety shows to curate space for marginalized performance artists in the community. They were a production manager for Haus of Hart Productions, a BIPOC centric performance art production. They also worked as field staff with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Stafford, Va.
Meléndez is bilingual, Spanish and English. Their work is guided by a commitment to dignity, safety, and trauma-informed engagement, particularly within LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
Congratulations also to Ben Rosen LICSW, on his new role as program director, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Rosen previously worked with Fountain House’s OnRamps program, helping to build a new, innovative outreach program for individuals considered chronically homeless, and living with serious mental illness, in the Times Square area of New York. Rosen is a Psychotherapist, having worked with SG Psychotherapy, and as the psychotherapist with the Nest Community Health Center (URAM).
Rosen has a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Musical Theatre, Minor in Psychology (Cum Laude) from Malloy University Conservatory; and his M.S.W. in Clinical Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups, from The Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, N.Y. He is independently licensed in New York and Washington, D.C.
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
Minimal version of ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ heading to Dupont Underground
Comings & Goings
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Cuba under pressure and without answers
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