Lindauer Recruits EVP of Racial Equity and Social Justice for Fenway Health
May 21, 2021 – Lindauer has placed Mark Brimhall-Vargas as executive vice president of racial equity and social justice for Fenway Health. Faith Eutsay led the assignment. “Mark has the perfect combination of professional background, knowledge and lived experience to shape this inaugural role into a force for change at Fenway Health,” said Ellen LaPointe, chief executive officer of Fenway Health. “Throughout his career, Mark has woven vision, strategy, thoughtfulness and humility together to drive meaningful and measurable change in large, complex institutions. Mark will play a key role in helping Fenway Health navigate a transformative process that will enable us to reach and serve everyone who stands to benefit from the care, services, research, education, and advocacy we provide.”
Dr. Brimhall-Vargas brings 25 years of experience in change management, organizational development, and training and programming around systemic inequities, most recently at Brandeis University, where he was chief diversity officer and vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion. In this role, he led efforts to build an equity infrastructure across all areas of Brandeis University. These efforts included establishing an office of equal opportunity, office of DEI programs, training, education, and development, an ombuds office and fully establishing the Gender and Sexuality Center. Prior to this, Dr. Brimhall-Vargas was chief diversity officer and associate provost at Tufts University. He is a contributing editor to Occupying the Academy: Just How Important Is Diversity Work in Higher Education? He holds a doctorate in education policy and leadership from the University of Maryland, where he worked from 1997 through 2015 in a variety of progressively more senior positions in the university’s office of diversity and inclusion.
The executive vice president of racial equity and social justice role is a new position for Fenway Health. Priorities for this leadership role include cultivating a courageous culture and capacity to overcome the disparities and inequities that exist in the services Fenway Health provides, the people it serves and the outcomes it achieves. The EVP of racial equity and social justice will also advance Fenway Health’s investment in community-based partnerships to inform decision making and foster full community participation to advance racial equity and social justice.
“I’m proud to join Fenway Health as its first EVP of racial equity and social justice to expand capacity to deliver the highest quality health care to all people across identity and circumstance,” said Dr. Brimhall-Vargas. “Fenway’s commitment to grow and learn is rooted in its history of providing care to people with AIDS from the very earliest days of the epidemic, and is nurtured by its culture of on-going reflection and self-assessment to meet existing and emerging needs in underserved communities and minoritized populations. I’m excited to support collaboration and co-creation throughout the organization to achieve our shared goals, and also to shape the ways in which Fenway Health shares its learnings about racial equity and intersectional LGBTQIA+ care and research with the rest of the world.”
Since 1971, Fenway Health has been working to make life healthier for the people in the Boston neighborhoods in which its health centers are located: the LGBTQIA+ community of Boston and beyond, people living with HIV/AIDS and the broader population. Approaching its 50th year in 2021, Fenway Health has a budget of $131 million, a staff of more than 600 and a patient base of over 30,000.
Lindauer also recently led the searches for Fenway Health’s vice president of resource development and donor engagement and vice president of communications. Senior consultant Terri Rutter and Ms. Eutsay led those assignments, respectively.
Serving Non-Profits
Lindauer serves higher and secondary education, hospitals and academic research centers, think tanks, research facilities and foundations, as well as advocacy, public service, social justice and other mission-driven non-profits. It has led searches for the Boston YMCA, Center for Applied Special Technology, Healthy Minds Innovations/Center for Healthy Minds, the University of Texas at Austin and the Cockrell School of Engineering, among others.
Ms. Eutsay has 20 years of development experience to help her meet client needs. A self-described “generalist,” she brings both frontline fundraising and management expertise to the Lindauer team. She has placed chief development officers, or the equivalent position, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Babson College, Western Connecticut Health Network Foundation, Society for Science & the Public and Whitinsville Christian School.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
