#50 Dr. Imani Woody

Dr. Imani Woody has a vision and she is bringing it to life. It reflects a lifetime of working at the intersection of LGBTQ, race, cultural diversity, and aging issues. It is informed by her experience with her father, an accomplished entrepreneur, who, after entering a "good" nursing home, experienced a decline in self-worth and physical health. She took her father out of the facility, into her home, and reimagined what is possible.The model Dr. Woody has developed is based in research, including her own PhD thesis, which chronicled the challenges of aging, particularly for LGBTQ elders who are most likely to suffer from isolation, discrimination and marginalization. She formed a nonprofit, and drew on her experience with the Whitman Walker Center, the Mautner Project for Lesbians, the AARP Foundation Sage Metro DC and as an appointee to the DC Office of LGBTQ Affairs. In September 2020. she will break ground on the first Mary's Center for Older Adults, communal living for LGBTQ elders.