Massachusetts LGBT Aging Commission Hires Its First Full-Time Executive Director

BOSTON — March 10, 2026 — The Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Aging named its first full-time executive director and held a commission-wide DEI workshop focused on its own representation gaps at the March 10 quarterly meeting. Alison Bauer, a former Boston Foundation program officer and Northeastern University professor with a background in health policy and state legislative affairs, will begin March 30 and plans one-on-one meetings with every commissioner in lieu of the April work group sessions. Adriana Bowen, director of racial equity at Fenway Health and president of Boston Pride for the People, led commissioners through a "Tending Equity" workshop that identified empowerment, openness, collaboration, and commitment as the commission's top values. Commissioners named the absence of transgender elder members, limited Black and Latino representation, and structural barriers including CORI background check requirements for governor-appointed seats as active recruitment obstacles. A pending name-change bill in the Legislature could add speaker- and Senate president-appointed seats, which commissioners said could provide the most direct path to diversifying membership without separate legislation.