National LGBT Cancer Network: People

Liz Margolies

Founder and Executive Director

Liz Margolies, LCSW, founder and executive director, has served the LGBT community for 25 years as a psychotherapist, political activist and volunteer before becoming the executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network.

• Liz is the co-chair of The NYC Lesbian Cancer Support Consortium, a network of oncology social workers and cancer survivors whose mission is to share resources, improve treatment of LBT survivors in institutions and agencies and reach out to underserved and underinsured LBT survivors in NYC. She is also on the Diversity Outreach Committee of The Young Survival Coalition and a member of The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association
• Liz was the original Coordinator of The Lesbian Cancer Initiative, the first program in NYC devoted exclusively to the needs of lesbians, bisexual women and transgender men and women with cancer. She both developed and directed the program, providing individual counseling, support groups, community outreach and training, advocacy, referrals and large public educational forums.
• Liz is one of the founders of the LGBT Mediation Project and currently coordinates the service for the NYC LGBT Community Center.
• Liz has maintained a private practice in psychotherapy in NYC for over 25 years, specializing in cancer, trauma, loss, sexuality and fertility.
• Liz has published scholarly articles, a training manual and lectured around the world.
• "Ethics and Activism", in Feminist Therapy Theory and Practice, Ballou, Hill & West, eds, Springer Publishing, 2007
• "Stories from the Ground: A Community Initiated Narrative Archive in Lower Manhattan Post 9/11". With Jack Saul, Hali Breindel and Linnae Hamilton, Proceedings of the XIIIth International Oral History Conference Rome, Italy, 2004. http://communityresilience.org/nyc/
• "Client Communication and Counseling: A manual for veterinary technicians" produced for Hills Pet Nutrition, 2003
• "The Long Goodbye: Women, Companion Animals and Maternal Loss". Clinical Social Work Journal, Volume 27 (3), Fall, 1999 Kluwer Academic/Human Sciences Press
• "Violence at the Door: Treatment of Lesbian Batterers" Violence Against Women, Volume 1 (2), June 1995, Sage Publications
• "Cracks in the Frame: Feminism and the Boundaries of Therapy" Women and Therapy, Volume 9 (4), Winter 1990, Haworth Press
• "Internalized Homophobia: Identifying and Treating the Oppressor Within" Lesbian Psychologies, University of Illinois Press, 1987 Winner; AWP Distinguished Book Award, 1988

Additional program consultants for trainings and presentations are culled, as needed, from the country's best experts on LGBT issues and cancer.