Seattle lesbian named head of Lifelong AIDS Alliance

Out lesbian and former Seattle city councilwoman Tina Podlodowski has been hired as executive director of the King County, Wash., Lifelong AIDS Alliance, the Seattle Times reports. Podlodowski is replacing Chuck Kuehn, who headed the alliance for three years and is leaving to serve in the U.S. Peace Corps in Africa. Podlodowski is a retired Microsoft executive and a national gay rights leader, having served as a board member of the Human Rights Campaign, a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and an advisory board member for the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. The Lifelong AIDS Alliance, one of the Seattle area's largest AIDS service organizations, was formed in 2001 by the merger of the Northwest AIDS Foundation and the Chicken Soup Brigade, a meals program for chronically ill city residents. The alliance provides HIV case management, housing, home care, food services, transportation, insurance assistance, and emergency financial assistance to HIV-positive people in the Seattle area. Podlodowski will begin work with the alliance on March 29.