Local
Comings & Goings
Levie lands at Accenture; Leffler heads to Chicago
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, landed an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.
During these difficult times when our community is being especially hard hit, there are some who are finding success and we will continue to share their stories.
Congratulations to Joshua Levie on his new position with Accenture Federal Services (AFS) as a Manager and ServiceNow Experience Lead. In this role some of Levie’s responsibilities include leading the strategy, experience, and design of custom interfaces of client and internal portals, websites, and products for internal AFS customers to government clients. He has said, “I am looking forward to this new career path and using my expertise to help Accenture’s clients. It is great when friends who work for the federal government tell me about their positive experiences with portals and websites I have designed.”
Prior to this, Levie was founder and CEO of Brunch Digital for 10 years. He worked as a project manager with TIG Global and an account manager with both Virilion and the Business Software Alliance. He began his career at Dickinson College as an Assistant Web Manager and was a website intern with the Human Rights Campaign.
Levie earned his bachelor’s in psychology from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa.
Congratulations also to Jeremy Leffler who is now a licensed real estate broker with The Brad Lippitz Group at Compass in Chicago. Leffler said, “After significant outreach and research into various teams and brokerages, I realized that the best way for me to assist my clients and also impact the broader community would be to work with my friend and mentor Brad Lippitz. As an agent with The Brad Lippitz Group at Compass, I am now part of a dynamic team bringing over 25 years of trusted experience in Chicagoland. That trust and leadership under Brad has resulted in the team’s consistent ranking as a top 10 producer in Chicago.”
Prior to moving to Chicago and starting this new career, Leffler was director of Public Policy with Sanofi (sanofi-aventis), in D.C. His other experience includes being COO and Head of Government Affairs with BayBio in San Francisco; manager of Federal Public Policy at Eli Lilly & Company, in Indianapolis; and assistant director of Federal Affairs with the American Academy of Physician Assistants, Alexandria, Va.
He is currently volunteering with Howard Brown Health in Chicago. Leffler served as an elected ANC Commissioner in D.C. and as a board member of the California Biotech Foundation. He earned his bachelor’s in Political Science and Communications, graduating cum laude, from the University of Louisville, Arts & Sciences Louisville in Louisville, Ky.
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.).
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