Metro Weekly

Mautner Project Appoints New E.D.

Leslie J. Calman hopes to double budget of lesbian health organization

As the newly appointed executive director of the Mautner Project, Leslie J. Calman is hoping to double the health organization’s budget, currently nearing $1 million, and strengthen its local and national outreach.

”Mautner has done a great job, and needs to do more…[in] removing the barriers to culturally competent care for lesbians,” Calman says.

The 55-year-old New York native lives in Washington with her partner, Jane Gruenebaum, and her 17-year-old son, Ben. She comes to the Mautner Project from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), where she served as vice president for two years. She also served as the executive director of NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund for seven years. Calman holds a doctorate in political science from Columbia University in Manhattan.

”On the one hand I have a whole lot of experience now as an administrator of non-profit organizations,” she says. ”On the other hand, I have been in the women’s movement my whole professional life, first as a scholar and an educator [at Barnard College in New York], talking about political and social changes, and then as an activist.”

Calman says she brings ”a combination of skill and passion” to the Mautner Project.

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