Marsha Epstein Collection
Full finding aid and list of materials
Marsha Epstein’s materials have been processed in two parts.
The first collection of materials was processed in 2015 and is located in UCLA's Special Collections as part of their relationship with the Mazer.
Read the UCLA Special Collections’ finding aid for the Marsha Epstein Papers.
The second collection was processed in 2023 as part of a California State Grant awarded to the Mazer in 2020. It is currently located at the Mazer.
Read the finding aid for the Marsha Epstein Collection processed in 2023.
An efficient way to search for specific materials within these finding aids is to use Ctrl+f (Windows computer) or Command+f (on a Mac).
Biography
Marsha Epstein (b. 1945) is a lifelong LGBT activist, a pioneering medical professional, and a community organizer. Marsha was born in Chicago, Illinois. She received her Bachelor's Degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1965. She attended medical school at University of California, San Francisco where she received a Master of Public Medicine in 1969. Marsha interned at French Hospital in San Francisco from 1969-1970. She studied Health in Epidemiology at University of California, Berkeley and completed a residency in General Preventive Medicine from 1971-1973. She also completed a Fellowship in Family Planning in the department of obstetrics-gynecology at the University of California at Los Angeles from 1973-1974. During that period Marsha worked in family planning, performing abortions for Los Angeles County.
From 1974-1975, Marsha worked for the women's clinic at the Gay and Lesbian Services Center in Los Angeles. She was the Medical Director of Herself Health Clinic, a women's clinic run by a cooperative of radical lesbians for the women in the community from 1975-1979. From 1978-1982 she ran a private medical practice. She went on to work for the Los Angeles County Public Health System for twenty-eight years, serving as a District Health Officer for Los Angeles County Public Health (1982—2001), Area Medical Director (2001-2007), and then worked with Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (2007—2010). She was also the co-medical director of Clínica Monseñor Oscar A. Romero Free Clinic, in Los Angeles (1992—1993). Marsha has been a member of California Academy of Preventive Medicine, Southern California Public Health Association, Los Angeles-American Medical Women's Association, American Medical Women's Association, American College Physician Executives and more.
Marsha was introduced to substance abuse recovery through her work as a medical professional and after losing a friend to alcoholism, Marsha became passionately involved in communities and organizations supporting people managing alcohol and substance abuse. Since 2010 Marsha has developed a continuing education program online to educate primary care doctors throughout Los Angeles County about tobacco cessation.
In addition to her prolific career as a medical professional, Marsha Epstein has been an activist for LGBT rights and an advocate for the inclusion of bisexual experiences as part of the history of the gay rights movement. She is a subject in the documentary, “On These Shoulders We Stand,” an historical account of early gay life and activism in Los Angeles told by the people who lived it. She is also an active volunteer and participant in the Los Angeles Jewish community through her work with Beth Chayim Chadasim (BCC), the world’s first synagogue by and for gay and lesbian Jews. Marsha was part of the Adult B’nei Mitzvah Class of 2014 at BCC and was a member of their Board of Directors.
Marsha married Tariq Mahmood in 1975. Their son, Lee Rashad Mahmood Epstein, was born in 1980. Marsha and Tariq divorced in the late 1990s. In 2013 Marsha met Mary Aviyah Farkas and the two were married at Beth Chayim Chadashim in 2014.