The first meeting of the Chicago Midwest Lesbian Health Research Consortium will be held Wed., Feb. 21, at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Nursing. Still in the formative stages, the Consortium is a broad-based effort to bring together current and future researchers, service providers and public health professionals to promote lesbian and bisexual women’s health research.
“The idea for creating a research consortium has been floating around for awhile,” said Tonda Hughes, PhD, one of the researchers involved, and a leading expert in the area of lesbians’ use of alcohol. “We’ve seen a lot of exciting progress in lesbian health research in the past three years. By providing a broad-based forum, we can learn from each other, provide resources to one another, and most importantly, strengthen the Midwest’s presence in the national lesbian health research movement.”
The Consortium was conceived by a number of women who worked together on the 1998 Creating Healthy Lives Conference and who were involved in the Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report Lesbian Health and the follow-up scientific workshop, held in March, 2000. Lora Branch, the Director of the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Office of Gay and Lesbian Health, notes, “The Consortium is an exciting step for Chicago and the Midwest, and I’m happy to be involved in it. While there are many researchers in the area already doing important and groundbreaking work in lesbian and bisexual women’s health, this represents an opportunity for people to come together and share their knowledge and resources.”
The meeting will be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing, 845 S. Damen, 3rd floor, from 3-7 p.m. For more information or to RSVP call (312) 413-1924.