Rhode Island
Dr. Jerome Larkin is one step closer to leading R.I. Department of Health • Rhode Island Current
After a small clinic’s worth of physicians showed up to testify in support of Gov. Dan McKee’s choice for the next director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services affirmed its support for Dr. Jerome “Jerry” Larkin at a hearing Thursday.
The committee voted 5-1 in favor of Larkin’s nomination, with Sen. Elaine Morgan, a Hopkinton Republican, serving the only nay vote.
Greg Paré, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Senate, said in an email Thursday that Larkin’s appointment will hit the Senate floor on Tuesday, May 19.
The clinicians, many of them colleagues and former protégés of Larkin, came to say nice things about the doctor who serves as medical director of inpatient infectious diseases consultation services at Rhode Island Hospital and teaches clinical medicine as a professor at Brown University. The committee’s mailbox had also been stuffed with written testimonies.
“We got many, many letters,” said Sen. Joshua Miller, who chairs the committee. “I don’t remember seeing a letter that was not in support.”
But the most memorable affirmation may have been from Dr. Sabina Holland, medical director of the pediatric HIV clinic at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
“The highest compliment that a pediatrician can give another pediatrician is to entrust them with the care of their children,” Holland said. “He could have my children.”
The crowd laughed. Chair Miller offered a playful retort.
“He can’t have my children,” Miller said.
Jokes aside, Larkin’s competency with children was underlined in several testimonies — including those from members of the Tiverton School Committee, which Larkin has chaired since 2017. Larkin has served on the school committee since 2012 and was most recently reelected in 2020 with 31.1% of the vote.
The afternoon’s first two testimonies came from school committee members, including Deborah Pallasch.
“I have known Dr. Larkin since he became involved in the anarchy that can be Tiveron politics,” Pallasch said. “In the middle of COVID, as the chair of our school committee — as you can imagine, quite a scary time for us, quite a scary time for our parents, quite a scary time for our children — he led us as a community through that so deftly and so patiently and so respectfully.”
Larkin, in his own words to the Senate, emphasized the at-time martial nature of municipal school politics. “As chair for the last seven years, I am the veteran of 12 hardball budget seasons — some of them scorched earth, some of them merely trench warfare,” Larkin said. “I believe if you can understand the budget of a small-to-medium-sized school district, you have a better-than-even chance of understanding the budget of the Pentagon.”
“The Pentagon might actually be easier, as it seems to be able to spend money unbudgeted, freely, without any apparent consequence.”
Priorities include stabilizing hospitals and nursing homes
The consistency of Larkin’s school board role contrasts the revolving door at the health department, a fixture of the McKee administration. The last permanent director, Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, worked under Gina Raimondo’s administration and led the department during the height of the COVID pandemic. Alexander-Scott was reappointed for another five years in 2020, but vacated the position in January 2022, less than a year into McKee’s governorship.
That vacuum has been plugged by three interim directors since then: Dr. Jim McDonald, Dr. Utpala Bandy, and most recently Dr. Staci Fischer, who took over as acting director when Bandy retired on March 31. Statewide health directors are rare birds nationally, and regional directors are common in larger states. The compensation for such an encompassing job has been criticized for the turnover, although McKee recently and successfully raised the base salary to $250,000.
Speaking to reporters, Larkin said that, if confirmed by the full Senate, his priorities would likely include the stabilization of hospitals and nursing homes, as well as responding to the opioid overdose crisis.
“But I’m still on the outside looking in,” Larkin said.
Larkin was so far outside, in fact, that he was unsure how to assess the time demands of his possible new job. Would he continue serving on the school committee?
“I haven’t made a decision,” Larkin told a reporter. “Certainly, you know, the Department of Health is a full-time job but so is being a doctor.”
We got many, many letters. I don’t remember seeing a letter that was not in support.
– Sen. Joshua Miller, a Cranston Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services
Judging by the afternoon’s testimonies, Larkin is a good clinician. His 1993 medical degree is from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and his research specialty is tick-related illnesses and Lyme disease in children and pregnant women.
Dr. Michael Koster pointed out Larkin’s talents as a “med-peds” physician, or someone who “understands pediatric issues as much as he understands adult medical issues.”
“You don’t get a showing of physicians like this,” Koster said, referring to the turnout for the hearing. “You have to earn it. It’s not something you can buy.”
While the public offered no opposition, the senate committee did have a few questions. Miller pointed out the statute that outlines the health director’s qualifications — a prescription which includes “a minimum of five (5) years full time experience in health administration.” Miller was curious how that requirement fit into Larkin’s experience.
“I think it depends,” Larkin began. “So, if you look at how much time do I spend seeing patients — so, everything I do is subsumed under the title of the director of infectious disease consults service. So in many regards, my clinical work is an administrative responsibility. I have to know how those services work.”
Larkin estimated that administrative duties probably comprise half his time currently.
Sen. Linda Ujifusa, a Portsmouth Democrat, asked Larkin about the state’s shortage of primary care doctors as well as reimbursement rates. Could any initiatives from the health department help shape a more positive environment for Rhode Island’s doctors?
Larkin replied that neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut are well known to have superior reimbursement rates, but that “rectifying that ultimately is actually a federal issue.”
“Would you mask our kids again?”
Morgan asked Larkin about the state’s handling of the pandemic. Larkin suggested looking at a map, and that Rhode Island ultimately “dodged a bullet” given the severity of the pandemic in nearby Massachusetts and New York.
Morgan then narrowed her focus. “Closing down the state: Would you do that again?” she asked.
“Do I think the decision was right to shut down in March of 2020 at that time? Yes,” Larkin said. “Could we have reopened faster? Probably. There was certainly a loss in school districts, and there’s certainly an economic impact on this. So that’s my sort of armchair general retrospective perspective on it.”
“Would you mask our kids again?” Morgan continued.
“Yes. Yes,” Larkin said, and pointed to the measure as effective in reducing transmission, allowing kids to get back in school sooner.
At 4 p.m., bells started ringing.
“It’s not a fire alarm,” Sen. Pam Lauria said. “It’s just the bells for the Senate.”
Miller used the literal sounding of the alarm as a backdrop for one more comment.
“And with that bell from the Senate, I just would like to ask you to be aware of a couple of issues that we have discussed in committee this session,” Miller said, and pointed to recent discussions involving scope of practice. Should committees in the General Assembly be tasked with regulating scopes of practice, or should that be left entirely to medical boards and the health department?
But rather than discuss “going down a very slippery slope of having scope of practice legislated,” Miller filed the question away for another day, and the motion for a vote on Larkin’s advancement began. Sen. Alana DiMario seconded the motion. Only Morgan voted no.
Larkin’s own words to the committee were punctuated with the occasional cough.
“Excuse my voice. My allergies decided to start today,” Larkin said after he sat down in front of the mic, following odes from his colleagues. “Yeah, I guess that was the easy part. It’s the fondest wish of every Irishman to attend their own wake, and I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing this afternoon.”
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WARWICK, R.I. (WJAR) — The local community hosted a send-off celebration for Special Olympics Rhode Island athletes on Friday.
Twenty-four athletes, along with partners, coaches, and medical personnel, are traveling to Minneapolis for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.
The local community hosted a send-off celebration for Special Olympics Rhode Island athletes on Friday. (WJAR)
Textron hosted the team in a private jet for travel to the games, officials said.
“The USA Games represent months of dedication, hard work, and perseverance for our athletes,” President and CEO of Special Olympics Rhode Island Ed Pacheco said. “Our athletes, Unified partners, and coaches carry with them the hopes and aspirations of achieving gold while representing the very fabric of our great state. This journey would not be possible without Textron, and we are incredibly grateful for their support in creating a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Team Rhode Island as they travel to compete on the national stage.”
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Officials said the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games will be held from Saturday through next Friday.
“They were truly the unrelenting voices of their time, and made sure that this was something that happened because they knew it was important,” Jess Motyl-Szary, director of Rhode Island Pride, said in an interview on Thursday.
The 1976 pride march came after local Bicentennial Committee organizers “refused meeting space for the group of community members hosting the Congress of People with Gay Concerns,” according to research by Matthew Lawrence and published on the Providence Public Library’s website.
“Calling themselves Toward a Gayer Bicentennial Committee, the group sued the official Bicentennial Committee and won the right to assemble at the Old State House, where about 30 people met in June 1976 to discuss civil rights concerns,” according to Lawrence.
But the contingent also had to fight to join the Bicentennial Parade after they were initially denied the right to do so by officials who pointed to the state’s anti-sodomy law at the time, according to Motyl-Szary.
The 76ers “knew that being a part of an existing parade meant there was a little bit of safety there, because it was an existing infrastructure,” Motyl-Szary said.
“But it also meant that there was a much higher visibility for them to be able to be out there, be proud, and show other people who might not have been out that there is a safe space for them,” Motyl-Szary said.
With the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union, they won the right to march, she said.
“It wasn’t safe to be out in the ’70s,” Motyl-Szary said. “Incredibly great people marched. Some had to march with paper bags on their heads because there were no legal protections to protect their jobs, their home, their families, but [it was] still incredibly brave to go out there, create visibility, and create this organization.
“Being here 50 years later, and being a part of their legacy has been so incredible,” she said.
A lot has changed for LGBTQIA+ Rhode Islanders in the decades since, Motyl-Szary said.
“But the closeness of it still feels relevant because we’re seeing these continued attacks in our community, and a very real resurgence of attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community, especially our trans brothers, sisters, and siblings,” Motyl-Szary said.
Since returning to office last year, the Trump Administration has taken aim at transgender rights across the country, especially after President Donald Trump signed an executive order recognizing two sexes, male and female. Among other actions, Trump has often sought to tie adherence to the order with federal funding requirements, and the administration has also attempted to gather private medical records from hospitals that provided gender-affirming care to transgender children and teens.
Reflecting on what pride means to her right now, Motyl-Szary said pride festivities are new to at least somebody every year.
“Someone is coming and getting to feel this embrace, this huge hug of their community for the first time every year,” she said. “And in a time like this, when our community is being told that we are hated by the rest of our community, by the rest of our country, when we are told we should hate ourselves, coming out and celebrating ourselves, loving ourselves, loving each other is so incredibly important. Our community creates the space that we need.”
Motyl-Szary said she also believes that “queer joy is resistance.”
“There is a real need for us to have a space and a celebration of who we are and to remind ourselves that we are worthy of love and that we are worthy of being a part of a community that gathers, celebrates, and fights for ourselves and our rights,” she said.
Rhode Island Pride kicks off on Friday night with the “Golden Anniversary Eve” party from 6 to 8 p.m. at the 195 District Park in Providence, Motyl-Szary said.
Festivities continue at the park on Saturday with yoga at 10 a.m. and PrideFest entertainment beginning at 11 a.m., alongside approximately 260 vendors, she said. A rally at 2 p.m. will focus on “what’s happening, get people motivated to be involved in [the] community to speak up and be an activist in whatever way is right for their path of activism,” Motyl-Szary said.
The Illuminated Night Parade steps off at 7:30 p.m. at Washington and Empire streets before moving through downtown Providence, according to organizers.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.
(WJAR) — While Rhode Island prepares for its 50th Pride celebration, many are looking back on the history of the event and remembering the people who launched the movement.
“Being in the first parade in 1976, it was the bicentennial year,” said Billy Mencer Ackerly. “It was absolutely very scary and we didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Mencer Ackerly was among a group of between 70 and 100 people who marched in Providence’s first pride parade in June of 1976, at the time of the nation’s bicentennial celebration.
“People on the sidelines were still looking at us like we just came off of a spaceship,” Mencer Ackerly said. “It was almost like they didn’t believe that we would have enough courage to be able to say who we were.”
Billy Mencer Ackerly was among a group of between 70 and 100 people who marched in Providence’s first pride parade in June of 1976, at the time of the nation’s bicentennial celebration. (WJAR)
For some, it was a chance to come out and be seen. For others, like Billy’s family members who took part in the parade, it was an opportunity to show their support.
“My mother was in a car with two other mothers, and it was driven by a gay guy. And on each side of the car it said, ‘I’m proud to say my child is gay,’” Mencer Ackerly said. “It was the best thing my mother ever did for me.”
But the parade itself was almost shut down before it began.
“They were denied the parade by the police chief who said there would be no parade in providence over his dead body,” retired judge and former civil rights attorney Stephen Fortunato said.
First, the bicentennial commission rejected a proposal to include the pride parade in the bicentennial celebrations.
“They can be gay. I have no qualms about their activity or their private habits. We denied endorsement primarily because their activities do not sufficiently relate to the bicentennial,” said Patrick Conley in 1976. He was the Chairman of the Bicentennial Commission at the time.
Stephen Fortunato, who was a civil rights attorney at the time, took on the case.
“This group was ostracized, hated, discriminated against,” Fortunato said. “These civil rights and civil liberties cases depend on the courage of individual people or groups of people like the gay community at the time.”
Billy Mencer Ackerly’s mother, among other mothers, were in a car that read ‘I’m proud to say my child is gay’ during the first parade.
They took the case to federal court and won, paving the way for not just one parade, but five decades of love, acceptance and visibility.
“This movement is based on love,” said Rodney Davis, the current president of Rhode Island Pride. “I want people to come and experience themselves. Their whole selves, who they are.”
This year, organizers are honoring those who came before as well as the tens of thousands of people who show up every year to continue to carry the torch.
“Our theme for this year is ‘We are the people,’ because without everyone America isn’t America,” Davis said.
NBC 10 asked Davis what he hopes to see in the future.
“I want to get to a point where we don’t have to fight to exist,” Davis said. “It’s gotten better, but it’s not there yet.”
Since 1976, Mencer Ackerly has attended Rhode Island’s Pride celebration nearly every year. This coming weekend, he’s once again looking forward to participating.
“When I’m in the parade, I will also be thinking of all those ’76ers that have passed away over the years and about their bravery and their courage,” Mencer Ackerly said. “And I just believe they’ll be clapping up in heaven and celebrating for all of us.”
This year’s PrideFest kicks off Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. at District Park in Providence.
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