Longtime lesbian community activist Lisa Tonna passed away Jan. 8 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, succumbing after an 11-month battle with cancer.

Tonna served the Chicago community in a number of posts over the years. For six years she directed the Anti-Violence Project at Horizons Community Services, which later became the Center on Halsted.

She also helped organize the Bitch to Quit stop-smoking program at the Lesbian Community Cancer Project and served as interim executive director of LCCP. She continued her work with LCCP when it moved its offices into the Howard Brown Health Center. Howard Brown honored Tonna with its Cornerstone Award at its Taste for Every Palate benefit for women’s programs last May.

Plans for memorial services for Tonna were incomplete as CFP went to press, though a friend said there would likely be a memorial event the weekend of Jan. 12-13. For more information, as those plans become finalized, go to kalilunar.blogspot.com.

—G.B.