Local
Comings & Goings
Richmond at EPA; Grant to mayor’s LGBTQ advisory group
The ‘Comings & Goings’ column chronicles important life changes of Blade readers.
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].
Jonah Richmond (Photo courtesy of Jonah Richmond)
Congratulations to Jonah Richmond, who is starting as a Conflict Resolution Specialist in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel. Richmond most recently worked in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, implementing several provisions of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act.
Even though the Trump administration is threatening to drastically cut the staff and functions of the EPA it’s important that smart people like Richmond will still be there. He has kept his dispute resolution skills sharp as an EEO Mediator at the EPA.
Richmond is active in the LGBT community volunteering at the Whitman-Walker Health Name and Gender Change Clinic. He is married to David Olson, manager of the executive office and board engagement at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and the managing director and chairman of the board of the Pointless Theatre Company. Richmond is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Vermont Law School.
Congratulations also to Jaime M. Grant, Ph.D. who is among a number of new people named to the D.C. Mayor’s Advisory Committee on LGBTQ Affairs. Grant is a social justice researcher, advocate and educator with a 25-year track record of strategic research, advocacy and leadership training catalyzing key moments of change to advance racial, economic, gender and LGBTQ justice.
Grant founded the first global transgender research and advocacy project based on the success of her U.S. report, “Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey” working with transgender leaders of color all over the Global South. Since 2015, Grant has run an organization she founded, Trans*Formations LLC, working with clients to achieve sustainability in racial, economic, gender and LGBTQ justice work. Prior to that among the other incredible things she has done Jaime was the Founding Executive Director of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College directing the nation’s largest endowed social justice leadership center for which she secured a $23 million endowment. Many in D.C. know Grant from her years as director of the Policy Institute at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. She had previously served the organization as its director of development.
Grant has written and edited numerous books, including “Friendship as Social Justice Activism,” forthcoming, Niharika Banerjea, Debanuj DasGupta, Rohit DasGupta, and Jaime M. Grant, editors. Grant received her doctorate in Women’s Gender and Sexuality from the Union Institute and University, her master’s from Bucknell University and her bachelor’s from Wesleyan University.
The other newest members of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on LGBTQ Affairs are Saymendy Lloyd, Dwayne Bensing and Craig Langford. The committee works to advise the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs headed by Sheila Alexander Reid.
Jaime M. Grant (Photo courtesy of Jaime Grant)
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
Man faces first S.C. ‘hate intimidation’ charge
Police mental health struggles gain growing attention
Trump budget would codify expanded global gag rule
Cuba under pressure and without answers
