Ga. Health Initiative Garden Party to honor LGBT healthcare heroes

Dorothy Gallaway, an RN and nurse practitioner who retired after 20 years as the head of Family Health Enterprises, a nonprofit she founded to serve all people and their medical needs regardless of ability to pay, is one of the first recipients of the Legacy Award.

Also receiving a Legacy Award is Dr. Kimball Johnson, founder and medical director of Jobri Center for Integrative Health. Johnson worked 23 years in internal medicine, HIV medicine and sports medicine and was also an early board member for the organization under its original name, the Atlanta Lesbian Cancer Initiative.

The Legacy Awards will not be an annual award and were created to recognize people for longstanding work to ensure everyone has access to quality healthcare.

Receiving this year’s Healing Angel Award is Jeff Graham. Graham is the executive director of Georgia Equality but is also a founding member of Georgians for a Healthy Future and is a leader with the organization Cover Georgia, a group working toward Medicaid expansion for the state.

The Garden Party is the Health Initiative’s largest fundraiser and helps fund programs that provide quality healthcare and services to LGBT people who otherwise could not pay.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence received the Healing Angel Award in 2012. That year the Health Initiative also decided to put off its annual Garden Party, its largest fundraiser, so it could prepare resources to offer LGBT people and others for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The Garden Party will be held at the Rush Center. To learn more, visit http://tiny.cc/2014gardenparty.