Summer 2021
Our Legacy Today Legacy Community Health Operating Board
A Farewell from Katy Dear Legacy family,
Alex Jessett Chairperson Naveen Pinglay Vice-Chairperson Ryan Martin Treasurer Gary Hammett Secretary Abigail Caudle, M.D. At-Large / Executive Committee George Burch LaMetrice Denise Dopson Taryn Hargrove Gore Bryan Hlavinka Ronnie Kurtin Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, M.D. Amanda Goodie-Roberts
In late July I officially announced that I will be retiring as the Chief Executive Officer of Legacy Community Health at the end of 2021. I joined this organization as its Executive Director in 1996, when it was called the Montrose Clinic and was focused exclusively on HIV/AIDS in the LGBTQ+ community. While those vital programs and services are still a core part of our mission, over the past 25 years we have expanded to become the largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the Southwest, treating anyone and everyone who walks through our doors. We now see more than 220,000 patients each year. I am so proud of what Legacy Community Health has become, and of the friendly, compassionate, devoted community we have built among our staff. I am fortunate to have led an amazing team for the past two and a half decades, one that has never shied away from a challenge, whether it was the merger of the Montrose Clinic and The Assistance Fund to create Legacy, earning our FQHC status, expanding into Beaumont, providing primary care and behavioral health in schools, or becoming a Patient-Centered Medical Home. Together, we have made our communities a better place for Texans. While I am certainly sad to be leaving such an amazing organization, I am excited to start the next chapter of my life. This has not been an easy decision, but I know in my heart that it is the right one. It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as Legacy’s CEO, and to play a role in driving healthy change across Southeast Texas. Thank you for being a part of this journey with me, and for supporting the life-changing work performed by Legacy’s dedicated health care professionals for all these years.
Johnson Olatunji Neftali Partida
Wayne Bockman, former Medical Director, Montrose Clinic:
Marissa Taler Devin Vasquez Allison Floyd Wells, M.D..
Legacy Community Health Endowment Tripp Carter Chairperson Mike Holloman Vice-Chairperson
This year Legacy marks four decades of driving healthy change in our communities. We are commemorating Legacy’s 40 years of care and innovation by sharing the recollections of people who worked with and supported us through the years. Join us as we celebrate The Power of 40.
Bryan Hlavinka Secretary Linda Cantu George Hawkins Sharon Land Mark McMasters, M.D.
Board Member Emeriti
Melissa Mithoff
Montrose Clinic at its first location on Westheimer Road
James A. Reeder, Jr. Monsour Taghdisi Claire Cormier Thielke
Rusty Mueller, ERSICSS Houston and former Montrose Clinic board Member: I hated going to funerals two or three times a week. I couldn’t even say the word AIDS. It was going to take community involvement to change things, because back then the government certainly wasn’t stepping up to the plate. Performing in the Mint Julep drag show was a way to help fund the HIV programs that really needed the cash.
Lynne Tyer, former HIV educator and Legacy Sr. Director of Development:
Ray Purser
Melanie Gray
It was so hard that at this point in my life; I look back and I can’t imagine how I did it. It was facing the death nearly every day of friends and people you knew and worked with. And, as a physician, it was so frustrating not being able to offer them more. It was just a matter of protecting them from everything that we could possibly protect them from, and doing our best to extend their lives.
Katy Caldwell, Legacy CEO: Back then, the Montrose Clinic opened as an STD clinic for gay men because they were being discriminated against. Then the HIV pandemic hit, and we became a first responder offering HIV testing. This was a disease that was striking young people, many of whom didn’t have huge savings accounts or insurance. There were people whose families wouldn’t allow anybody to wear red ribbons at their funerals because they didn’t want anybody to know that their child had died of AIDS.
Montrose Clinic figured out quickly that they needed to have a variety of ways to deal with or to care for people living with HIV. It wasn’t just let’s treat this virus and send them home. There were other things that needed to be provided, education about healthier eating and exercise, and connecting them with resources.
Chris Jimmerson, former Associate Director, Montrose Clinic: We participated in drug trials and were also part of the American Foundation for AIDS Research communitybased clinical trials. We even designed some of our own studies. When the protease inhibitors came along and the integrase inhibitors after that, it was exciting to see them working so well that we could tell which patients were actually getting the drug in the trials.
continued. . .