Whitman-Walker Clinic

For Immediate Release
Oct. 11, 2006

WHITMAN-WALKER CLINIC CONTINUES SERVING CLIENTS IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Improved Financial Condition Enables Clinic To Remain in Current Building

ARLINGTON, Va. – Whitman-Walker Clinic will continue to serve clients in Northern Virginia without interruption and in the same location, the clinic’s chief executive officer announced today.

The Clinic has renewed its Arlington lease through 2007, with an option to stay through 2008, Whitman-Walker CEO Donald Blanchon said at a news conference.

“The major reason that we were able to renew this lease is that today, the Clinic is doing far better financially than it was a year ago,” Blanchon told reporters at the Clinic’s Northern Virginia site on Lee Highway. “In reaching this agreement, we have ensured that there will be no interruption in care for our Northern Virginia clients. Caring for our clients is our No. 1 priority, here in Northern Virginia and at all Whitman-Walker Clinic sites.”

Blanchon attributed the Clinic’s improved financial outlook to several factors, including a rising number of clients since Whitman-Walker announced an expansion of primary care services earlier this year.

“Other factors that have contributed to our improved financial stability are: We are accepting an increasing number of insurance plans; we are submitting invoices to our funders promptly and getting repaid more rapidly than in the past; and we are working systematically to increase our client base and the efficiency of our staff,” he said. “We will continue to focus on offering primary care and on becoming the provider of choice for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, as well as for people with HIV/AIDS.”

In addition, Blanchon announced that Bruce Weiss would be the new director of Whitman-Walker of Northern Virginia, and that Brent Minor would become the Clinic’s director of policy and external affairs for Northern Virginia.

Weiss was most recently executive director of SMYAL, the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, based in the District of Columbia. SMYAL is the only Washington metro-area agency serving gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. Before leading SMYAL, Weiss was deputy executive director of DCCARE, the D.C. Comprehensive AIDS Resources and Education Consortium. Weiss begins his new job Nov. 6.

Minor spent nine years working for Food & Friends, which provides food and nutrition counseling to people living with HIV, AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses. Minor also has a long history of community involvement, including serving on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS for five years, on the Alexandria Commission on AIDS and on the Metropolitan Washington DC Regional HIV Planning Council. Minor begins his new job Oct. 16.

Whitman-Walker Clinic has been located at the corner of Lee Highway and George Mason Drive since 1995. In June 2005, when the Clinic was experiencing financial difficulties, Whitman-Walker leadership announced that the Northern Virginia site would close. In August 2005, the governments of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, the city of Alexandria and the state of Virginia pledged one-time financial assistance to keep the site open through the end of 2006.