Lorraine Langlois is the current CEO of Metro Tampa Bay and has been with the organization since the beginning when it all got started at the King of Peace church in St. Petersburg.
“That first year I think we had a budget of $43,000, and here we are, 23 years later, and it’s going to be a little over $6 million,” Langlois says. “We started off with 14 or 15 clients and now we are serving about 15,000 in the Tampa Bay area.”
The expansion of Metro was not overnight, nor was it the work of just one person, Langloissays.
“This was a huge year of expansion, and thank God for the staff, because you’re here to give me a most remarkable award, and you can only be remarkable by the people you surround yourself with, and I have surrounded myself with some of the most remarkable people, people like Priya[Rajkumar] and Chris [Rudisill], because I can dream it, but these are the people who make it happen,” she says.
And expand they have. Metro now employs 102 personnel in five locations; three HIV/LGBT Centers, the LGBT Welcome Center and the Metro Thrift Store.
“There are always times where there’s huge growth then you level out for a while to make sure everything is solid and then it spurts up again and that has certainly been our history,” Langlois says.
2015 turned out to be a growth year for Langlois and Metro. They branched out to include behavior health, brought on mental health therapists and began primary care.
“As it worked out, Dr. Lyter talked with Kevin Beckner saying how he wishes there was a place to do just LGBT healthcare, and he said talk to Lorraine at Metro,” Langolis says. “We got along so well, and he has helped us develop that program and has been on staff since July as a full time doctor. With him we have developed STD screening, primary care and transgender health.”
With the addition of these services, Metro has become a one stop shop for LGBT healthcare.
“People like to have everything they in one place, we have our pharmacy that will be opening in the next month or two, so everyone can get everything all at the same place,” Langlois says.
