UPMC v Highmark: Chapter 897689

Highmark UPMC

For the past several months, I have been interviewed by reporter Carolyn Johnson for a Washington Post piece on the Pittsburgh healthcare scene. More specifically, she was writing about the impact of two companies ‘stacking’ healthcare insurance with healthcare providers into what we know as UPMC and Highmark/Allegheny Health Network. I think vertical integration is the […]

The 20th Summit Against Racism Call For Proposals 2018

The Summit Against Racism, a multicultural initiative of the Black and White Reunion, is accepting workshop proposals for this year’s Summit, January 20, 2018. The theme of this year’s conference, chosen by volunteer organizers, is The Struggle Continues: Healing Trauma, Building Community, Inspiring Action. We need ideas and action to make Pittsburgh a better place for all! Please consider […]

Stop enabling Delta Foundation

  One thing I’m learning in therapy is that when I have someone in my life who’s spoiled rotten and who doesn’t have my best interests in mind, then at some point, not only do I have to call them to account, I also have to hold their enablers accountable. And I include myself. For […]

Pittsburgh Pridefest: The Resistance Years

  The roots of what we’ve come to know as Pridefest in Pittsburgh are, as with many cities, deeply embedded in LGBTQ culture and more as we moved from the multiple resistance efforts in the 1960’s to a nationwide demand for visibility and freedom. At no point was this more apparent than in June 2015 […]

My Family’s Immigration Story

This was not something I thought about as a child in the 1970’s and 1980’s in suburban West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. I knew my living grandparents and their basic backstories and a little bit about their respective parents. I was raised to believe I was mostly an Irish Catholic/little bit of German kid which turned out […]