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Comings & Goings
CAMP Rehoboth scholarship honors David Mixner
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].
Thanks to David Mixner for lending his name to a scholarship with CAMP Rehoboth. CAMP and Danny Sebright invite you to an intimate evening with trailblazing, LGBTQ+ rights activist, David Mixner for cocktails and hors d’ oeuvres on Friday, Sept. 1, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at 6 Wade Court, in Canal Corkran. The suggested donation to attend the event is $500. The event is the launch of the David Mixner LGBTQ+ Student Scholarship that will honor the legacy of David Mixner and his long career as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. This LGBTQ+ Student Scholarship, an endowed fund, will perpetually offer a student a real-world learning experience interning at CAMP Rehoboth, the only LGBTQ+ Community Center in Delaware.
CAMP Executive Director Kim Leisey said, “CAMP Rehoboth Community Center, a 501 (c)3 is greatly appreciative of Danny Sebright and his willingness to host this event with David Mixner. David’s trailblazing LGBTQ+ activism will be honored through this scholarship, ensuring that an LGBTQ+ student has financial support for their education. Education is foundational for a sound democracy, a principle Mr. Mixner has exhibited throughout his career and activism.”
Sebright said, “When CAMP told me they wanted to honor David Mixner, I was excited to host this event. David is a lifelong friend and I honor his commitment to pursuing equality, which has been both trailblazing and heroic. This scholarship should inspire young people for years to come to continue fighting for equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community, along with CAMP Rehoboth.”
Congratulations to Andrew C. Wills on his new position as Senior Vice President for Invenergy. He was most recently Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor, Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, at the Department of Energy (DOE). Upon leaving DOE and accepting his new position, Wills said, “It was one of my proudest experiences and a distinct honor to serve my fellow Americans by supporting Secretary Granholm and President Biden in advancing a secure energy future. I’m excited to rejoin the country’s largest private clean energy company, Invenergy, as we work to implement recent infrastructure legislation by deploying affordable, clean, and reliable energy to all Americans.”
Prior to working at DOE, Wills served as Director of Federal Affairs at Invernergy, Washington, D.C.; Government Relations Director and Counsel, American Public Power Association (APPA), D.C.; and Associate Counsel, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), D.C. Prior to that he was a summer associate with Duncan, Weinberg, Genzer, & Pembroke, D.C.; and a legal intern with Georgia Transmission Corporation (GTC), Tucker, GA.
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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Comings & Goings
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Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
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