ReachMD

The executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), Joel Ginsberg, JD, MBA, has broad experience in management, public policy, and law. Before becoming Executive Director of GLMA in November 2003, Joel worked for five years providing management consulting services to nonprofits -- for CompassPoint Nonprofit Services in San Francisco -- and government agencies -- for Arthur Andersen Business Consulting, in Washington, DC.

He held several appointed positions within President Bill Clinton’s Administration, including serving as a Special Assistant to Doris Meissner, Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as a search manager in the Office of Presidential Personnel at the White House, as a Team Leader for Vice-President Gore's Reinventing Government initiative, and as a Special Assistant for Congressional Liaison at the US Information Agency. Joel's first job after graduate school was as a Fellow in the Health Office of the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, where he worked on the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Ryan White CARE Act. He later worked in the House of Representatives, as a Legislative Assistant to Congresswoman Lynn Schenk (D-San Diego).

Joel practiced law for four years, most of that time with the Washington, DC office of Katten Muchin Zavis (now Katten Muchin Rosenman). He is licensed to practice law in California and the District of Columbia. He earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law and his MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Chicago.

Joel currently co-chairs the Advocacy and Policy Committee of the Commission to End Health Disparities and in this capacity serves ex-officio on its Steering Committee. The Commission comprises more than 50 medical societies who are working to eliminate healthcare disparities based in race and ethnicity. Joel also serves as Vice-President of Access Institute for Psychological Services, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that provides low-cost mental health services to the community through a supervised training program for mental health professionals.