Profile

“It is our obligation to do good in this world.” 

Michelle Wiener grew up in Northeast Massachusetts and has lived in the Boston area for the last 10 years. Since her childhood, she has had an interest in community building and social justice. She recalls how she 

"was raised Jewish, and learned a lot about the Holocaust growing up, [alongside] the ideas of "Never Again," and that it is our obligation to do good in this world. I took that to heart and got involved in some social justice work in high school, and then spent a year in [Washington, DC for] AmeriCorps City Year between high school and college."

Her passion for service led her to doing sex education work in middle and high schools as well as supporting impact litigation and public policy advocacy work on behalf of LGBTQ+ communities and people living with HIV at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) after college. These experiences ended up setting her “on the path of both public health and youth development work,” which resulted in her pursuing a Master of Public Health with a focus on adolescent development and policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  

For the past year and a half, Michelle has continued down the paths of public health and youth development while serving as the Director of Program Development and Impact at Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth (BAGLY). Alongside BAGLY's Director of Program Operations, Michelle oversees BAGLY's three core programs: Health & Wellness, Stabilization & Success, and Youth Leadership & Advocacy.  

Michelle learned about the Mel King Institute during her time as Dorchester Bay EDC’s Youth Force Manager in 2019, not long after finishing her Master’s degree. After attending a few of our workshops, she quickly connected with Elana Brochin, MACDC’s Health Equity Director, who eventually asked her if she wanted to co-develop a workshop on health equity and community development. Enthusiastic about collaborating with a like-minded peer, Michelle agreed.  

After several sessions bouncing ideas off each other in a Jamaica Plain coffee shop, Michelle and Elana created the first iteration of Health Equity and Community Development.* Michelle explains that the session’s primary focus is examining 

"how CDCs can really think about their work through a health equity lens and can understand the work that they are already doing as public health work. Addressing housing, economic, access, and food insecurity, for example, addresses social determinants of health, and start to get at the root causes of health inequities. The session focuses on building a shared public health vocabulary and providing tools for thinking about new and existing programs as public health interventions." 

Looking forward, Michelle is especially excited to continue developing BAGLY's Youth Leadership Committee (YLC) initiative. The YLC has existed since BAGLY's founding 44 years ago, and today "helps plan, implement and evaluate BAGLY's programs, advise on BAGLY's marketing and outreach work, and ensure that BAGLY is by and for LGBTQ+ young people." YLC members serve on the committee, participate in the YLC Training Institute, and engage in a 1-year internship with a BAGLY program or the Development & Marketing team. Michelle is eager to continue growing the initiative and to support this year's cohort. 

During her days off, Michelle enjoys frequenting local cafes in Jamaica Plain, reading on the lawn of the Loring Greenough House, cooking for her family and friends with locally sourced ingredients, and spending time with her cat, Willow. 

*The Mel King Institute has offered Health Equity and Community Development four times, and we are proud to offer it again this year on September 24!