Mary Briggs was one of the founders of the University of Minnesota’s Program in Human Sexuality, located in the Department of Family Practice and Community Health. She was integral in the founding of the Program in Human Sexuality in 1971 and was a staff member of the Program until her departure from the University in 1978.

Interview Abstract
Mary Briggs discusses how she got involved with the Program in Human Sexuality (PHS); the development and creation of PHS; the Glide Foundation and the National Sex Forum; the American Lutheran Church; the Sexual Attitude Reassessment seminars; PHS’s work on disability; the relationship between PHS and local church organizations; staff dynamics; Sexual Health Services; moving PHS into the Department of Family Practice and Community Health; her own education and research; the sex offender treatment program; and why she left PHS. She also discusses community responses to PHS; the decision to house PHS in the medical school dean’s office; the PHS executive committee; the relationship between church groups and medical groups in PHS; the Committee on Religion and Ethics; the family SARS in Mabel, MN; the Medical School curriculum in human sexuality; and transsexuality. She talks about Richard Chilgren, Theodore Cole, Thomas Mauer, James Siefkes, Dan Weiss, Donald Houge, and others who were involved with PHS in the 1970s.

Biographical Sketch
Mary Briggs was one of the founders of the University of Minnesota’s Program in Human Sexuality (PHS). While she was an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, Briggs was hired as Richard Chilgren’s, who was the Phase B Curriculum Coordinator for the Health Sciences and would later become PHS’s first director. She was integral in the founding of PHS in 1971 and became a staff member and worked in many aspects of PHS until she left in 1978.

Interview Transcript
MBriggs.pdf