Noah Adams hails from Toronto, Canada, which is on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. Having previously completed a Master of Social Work Noah is now working towards a PhD in Adult Education and Community Development at the University of Toronto. He is specializing in investigating the community networks of people who are both transgender and autistic, a subject on which he has recently co-written a book (Adams and Liang; Trans and Autistic: Stories from Life at the Intersection). Noah volunteers extensively within the transgender community, in particular with the Transgender Professional Association for Transgender Health and TransPULSE Canada.

Dr. Hansel Arroyo is the Director of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Institute for Advanced Medicine and the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai, Director of the Mount Sinai Transgender Psychiatry Fellowship, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Arroyo is board certified in Psychosomatic Medicine, Psychiatry, and Neurology. He completed his training in psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital while completing a psychoanalytic fellowship at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. He completed his fellowship in Psychosomatic Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, where he specialized in the treatment of patients with chronic medical conditions, specifically those living with HIV.
Dr. Arroyo’s career has focused on creating and providing mental health services to under-represented and often marginalized populations. His teaching career has broaden the curriculum at the Icahn School of Medicine and Psychiatry Department at Mount Sinai by incorporating lectures on HIV Psychiatry, Transgender Medicine, LGBTQI Health and founded the nations’ first Transgender Psychiatry Fellowship.

Robert Beachy trained as a German historian at the University of Chicago. In 2014 he moved to Seoul as Professor of European history at Yonsei University. He has published four books on eighteenth and nineteenth century Germany, not including his most recent work, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity (Knopf), which has appeared in German (Siedler) and Italian (Bompiani) translations. He was recently a Ben and Zelda Cohen Fellow at the Mandel Center for Holocaust Studies at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. He is currently working on a history of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals and its post-1945 legacy.

Ms. Bob Davis, M.F.A., founder and director of Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive in Vallejo, CA, served two terms on GLBT Historical Society board of directors, one as secretary. She has twice presented papers at Moving Trans History Forward conference at University of Victoria, “Do the Clothes Fit? – Searching for Transgender Identity in Archival Images of Cross-dressing” and “Susanna & Her Guests: Autobiographical Writing from Casa Susanna.” She presented “Glamour, Drag and Death: HIV/AIDS in th e Art of Three Drag Queen Painters” at the Archives, Libraries, Museums, and Special Collections (ALMS) Queering Memory 2019 conference in Berlin. This talk will be published in the November 2020 issue of Transgender Studies Quarterly (Duke University Press). Transgender Studies Quarterly previously published her essay “Using Archives to Identify the Transgender Women of Casa Susanna.”

Ms. Bob has been capitalizing on her advanced age, contributing “For As Long As I Can Remember…” to Glimmerings: Trans Elders Tell Their Stories (TransGender Publishing), and “The View from Now,” to the forthcoming Life Trips: Navigating Transgender Aging, Illness and End of Life Decisions (TransGender Publishing).

She teaches music at Napa Valley College.

Dr. Aaron Devor, PhD, FSSSS, FSTLHE, has been studying and teaching about transgender topics since the early 1980s. He established and holds the world’s first Chair in Transgender Studies; initiated and hosts the international, interdisciplinary Moving Trans History Forward conferences; and founded and is the Academic Director of the world’s largest Transgender Archives. He is an author of numerous articles and five books on transgender topics. Devor has delivered lectures to audiences around the world, including more than 35 keynote and plenary addresses. He is a national-award-winning teacher, an elected member of the International Academy of Sex Research, and an elected Fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Dr. Devor is a former Dean of Graduate Studies (2002-2012), and a professor of Sociology, at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

Photo: Blake Little

Lotus Đỗ is a bilingual, licensed clinical social worker of Vietnamese descent and transgender experience. He combines his experience in clinical care, research, and community organizing to address health disparities and social injustices. As the former Senior Behavioral Health Clinician and Interim Clinical Director, Lotus offered intensive clinical case management and mental health assessments for low-income and uninsured San Francisco residents with significant psychiatric and medical needs seeking gender-affirming surgeries. He also spearheaded the development of clinical best practices for gender-affirming surgeries in the public health setting, which included patient education, psychiatric clearance recommendations, and treatment of complex gender dysphoria. He is now working with Kaiser Permanente Adult Psychiatry where he is joining efforts to improve the quality of care to be gender-affirming and responsive to racial trauma.

Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D. is a developmental and clinical psychologist, associate professor of Pediatrics at University of California San Francisco, and Director of Mental Health of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. She is author of The Gender Creative Child and Gender Born, Gender Made. She specializes in research, clinical work, training, and consultation related to gender expansive children, and publishes and lectures both nationally and internationally on this topic. Dr. Ehrensaft is presently an investigator in two four-site NIH grants, studying effects of gender-affirming medical interventions in gender expansive/transgender youth and the developmental trajectories of prepubertal gender expansive children.

Laura Fassbender is an Executive Assistant in the Office of the Secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Health. In this role, Laura serves as the staff lead on the Pennsylvania Coordinated Medication Assisted Treatment (PacMAT) program, which is an initiative that expands access to medication assisted treatment throughout the Commonwealth. Laura's responsibilities also include researching arising public health issues and coordinating agency-wide workgroups to enhance the Department's response to emerging public health issues. Laura advises and prepares the Executive Deputy Secretary for her engagements, and supports the Secretary of Health by serving as a liaison between the Secretary and diverse programs within the Department. Laura graduated from Temple University with a bachelor's degree in public health and is particularly passionate about addressing the opioid crisis, community violence, and the public health implications of climate change.

Dr. Ferrando is a board certified female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. Her clinical and research interests include surgical outcomes after complex pelvic floor reconstruction in women suffering from vaginal narrowing or shortening as a result of previous pelvic surgery or exposure to radiation therapy, and women who have concurrent colon and rectal disorders requiring a multi-disciplinary approach to their management.
Dr. Ferrando is also the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Transgender Surgery & Medicine Program, which is housed under the Cleveland Clinic Center for LGBT Care. This program provides all aspects of transgender-specific services to patients including gender affirmation surgery. She is very committed to this patient population and has been a long-standing advocate for their health and well-being.
She is passionate about teaching and mentoring trainees in her field and is currently the Program Director of the Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. She has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and 10 book chapters and has made numerous presentations at national meetings. She is also the editor of the textbook “Comprehensive Care of the Transgender Patient”.

Jules Gill-Peterson is an Associate Professor of English, with a secondary appointment in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of Histories of the Transgender Child, (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. She has held an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (2018-19) and received a Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award from the University of Pittsburgh (2020). Since 2020 she has also served as a General Co-Editor of Transgender Studies Quarterly. Gill-Peterson is currently at work on a book project entitled Gender Underground: A History of Trans DIY.

Bio to follow

Trudie Jackson, a Two Spirit transgender woman of the Navajo Nation. Her Clans are of the Bitterwater People and Folded Arms People. Her maternal grandfather is of the Mexican People and paternal grandfather is Yucca-Strung-Out-In-A-Line. Currently residing in Phoenix, Arizona but originally from Teec Nos Pos, Arizona on the Navajo Nation.
Her area of expertise addresses Indigenous gender, identity, and sexuality from a decolonial lens.

Trudie has contributed the following articles:
(July 2019). To Move Forward, We Need Indigenous Leadership and Acknowledgment of Turtle Island. MUSE Collection, Color Bloq. www.colorbloq.com
(Nov 2018). Two Spirit Nation: Water Protector Rise to Reclaim Space in the Sacred Fire. www.EFNIKS.com
(2013). Closing the Gap: A Research Agenda for the Study of Health Needs Among American Indian/Native Hawaiian Transgender Individuals. Ethnic Studies Review Journal 37(1-2): 37-58.

As Trudie continues to become an aspiring writer, she hopes to contribute more from a Dine' Two Spirit transgender perspective by decolonizing with an Indigennous lens.

Terren Lansdaal is a nonbinary speech-language pathologist with an interest in all aspects of voice, particularly transgender voice and communication. With a background in linguistics, they entered the field of speech-language pathology with the goal of providing voice therapy to other members of the trans community.

Jennifer E. Lee, PhD, MPH is dedicated to making an impact on the world by focusing on health justice by dismantling the root causes and systems of oppression, which impact health. Through the lens of resiliency, community empowerment, advocacy, social justice movements, human rights, community-based participatory research, and a strengths-based approach, her research and work provide unique pathways for individuals and communities to make changes through explicit aims at social and political change. While addressing the root causes of social, cultural, political, structural, and economic determinants that underpin health, she also seeks to build partnerships with various sectors in finding innovative solutions to the most vexing public health issues. She founded the grassroots #HouseLivesMatter initiative in 2015 and serves on several advocacy/coalition groups, where she is a liaison, advocate, and voice for the communities she serves and is actively a member of. Dr. Lee has advanced her journey as a leader, health justice educator, community advocate, cultural provocateur, and social justice/human rights pioneer in the field of public health with an MPH and PhD from the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy. Dr. Lee is also the first recipient of the Dr. Adwele Troutman Health Equity and Social Justice Scholars Award, demonstrating her commitment and dedication to the principles of health equity, social justice, human rights, community activism, and national and global health. She is a NASTAD Minority Leadership Fellow of the 2018-2019 cohort, a space rooted in social justice for health department staff of color to engage in critical conversations regarding intersectional systems of oppression, structural processes, and intersectional causes of health inequities impacting sexual/gender expansive people and communities of color.

Bambi Lobdell received her PhD in English from Binghamton University in 2007. Bambi has taught at SUNY Oneonta since 1999 and developed many classes for the Women’s and Gender Studies departments: Women of Resistance, Witches, Harlots, and Wild Women, Queer Literature, Introduction to Transgender Studies, and American Masculinities. For her campus, Bambi has presented on rape culture and transgender issues, and organized various workshops, presentations, and focused group discussions. Her research on her ancestor, Lucy Ann/Joseph Israel Lobdell resulted in the book A Strange Sort of Being (MacFarland, 2012), the detailed biography of Lucy/Joe Lobdell’s life, analyzed with gender and queer theories and embedded in historical discussions. She has presented on Lucy/Joe at numerous conferences and has been interviewed by The Advocate magazine, Philadelphia Gay News, The Washington Post, and Women4Women radio station.

E-mail: lasavagefemme@yahoo.com; lobelbl@oneonta.edu

Malaya Lakas Mañacop, LMSW (She/Her/Hers) is a social worker, community organizer, and multi-disciplinary artist. She centers her work around LGBTQIA+ individuals, people living with HIV, people of color, and people who come from immigrant families or immigrant backgrounds. Malaya was born and raised in Northern California as a child of immigrant parents from the Philippines. She earned her BS in Business Administration Management from San Diego State University, and her MSW from NYU Silver School of Social Work. She has previously worked at agencies such as: GMHC, the Hetrick-Martin Institute, and Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. She also Currently serves on the NYC HIV Health & Human Services Planning Council, and is part of the founding leadership committee of the Starfruit Trans Justice Collective.

Serena Nanda is professor emeritus of anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. In addition to co-authoring two textbooks, Cultural Anthropology, and Culture Counts, her published works include Neither Man nor Woman: the Hijras of India, winner of the l990 Ruth Benedict Prize; Gender Diversity: Cross Cultural Variations 2nd edition, 2014; and Cultural Pluralism and Law (with Jill Norgren), now in its 3rd edition. She is also the associate editor of the gender section of the International Encyclopedia of Sexuality (2015). Nanda has written two anthropological murder mysteries, Gift of a Bride, and Assisted Dying. She is the author of many journal and encyclopedia articles on the hijras, gender diversity, arranged marriage in India, museum studies and teaching anthropology. Her forthcoming book, Love and Marriage: Cultural Diversity in Changing World will be published by Waveland Press in 2019.

Jack Pickering, PhD, CCC-SLP is a Professor at The College of Saint Rose. He directs the College’s Transgender Voice and Communication Program with Dan Kayajian, M.S., CCC-SLP. Dr. Pickering has been an ASHA-certified speech-language pathologist since 1984. He received his BA and MA from the University of Maine, and his doctoral degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences at Ohio University in 1990. His teaching interests include voice disorders, transgender voice and communication, and counseling for communication disorders. He has written and presented extensively about transgender voice and communication. In 2019, he served as the third author for Communication Therapy for the Transgender/Gender Diverse Client: A Comprehensive Clinical Guide (3rd edition), along with Richard Adler and Sandy Hirsch. In 2018, Dr. Pickering was presented with the Honors of the Association from the New York State Speech-Language-Hearing Association (NYSSLHA). Dr. Pickering also received the 2018, GLSEN Pillar of the Community Award from the New York Capital Region Chapter of GLSEN for his work in transgender voice and communication.

Dr. Radix is the Senior Director of Research and Education at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York and a clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU. Asa is board certified in internal medicine and infectious disease and completed postgraduate training in public health and epidemiology. Asa serves on the DHHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents and is the Co-Chair of the WPATH (World Professional Association of Transgender health) Standards of Care 8 Revision committee. Asa’s research focuses on LGBT health, STI/HIV risk and HIV prevention.

Joshua Safer is the Executive Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York City and Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Safer received his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin. He completed his internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City and his endocrinology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Previously, Dr. Safer was the founding Medical Director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Boston Medical Center / Boston University School of Medicine in Boston and the inaugural president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH).

Dr. Safer serves on the Global Education Initiative committee for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), on the Standards of Care revision committee for WPATH, and has been a scientific co-chair for WPATH’s international meetings. Dr. Safer is a co-author of the Endocrine Society guidelines for the medical care of transgender patients and of the transgender care treatment sections for UpToDate. He is also lead author of the most current reviews of transgender health care in the New England Journal of Medicine and in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Jillian C. Shipherd, Ph.D. Dr. Shipherd is currently a Clinical Research Psychologist at the Women's Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD at VA Boston Healthcare System and a Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. In addition, Dr. Shipherd serves as Director for the LGBT Health Program at the Veterans Health Administration in Washington DC, a job she shares with Dr. Michael Kauth. In this role, Dr. Shipherd oversees policy, provider education programs, and clinical services to support personalized, pro-active, patient-driven healthcare for LGBT Veterans. Dr. Shipherd's area of expertise is the interface of mental and physical health subsequent to trauma with a focus on sexual and gender minority populations. More broadly, she has published on improving healthcare system responses to the unique needs of LGBT Veterans, particularly gender minority people. She is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, several book chapters, as well as co-editor of the book "Adult Transgender Care: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Training Mental Health Professionals".

Teri Wilhelm
(She/Her)
Lacking a deep inclination for a linear life, Teri Wilhelm is a musician, a studio and teaching artist, a Mathematics instructor and has been drawn to activism. For nearly a decade she had been a Union advocate for New York State’s Security Unit Employees and continues to actively support labor and strikeline coalitions.
Shortly after retirement and making a gender transition, she began to write and lecture on being transgender and issues affecting the transgender community, as well as helped to build coalitions pressing for the passage of New York’s GENDA legislation. Teri is a devoted advocate for LBGTQI youth and health related issues and formerly a long serving co-chair for GLSEN Upstate NY. Teri is a member of the Board of Directors for Equality New York, member of the Board of Directors for the Albany based Rainbow Access Initiative and also serves on the Community Research Advisory Board for the Gender Wellness Center of Oneonta.
Teri is currently the Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming Community Advocate with the Albany Damien Center and a Mathematics Instructor for SUNY Adirondack College. She is an alumna of SUNY Adirondack College, UAlbany and Castleton University.

CLAYTON J. WHISNANT is Professor of History at Wofford College (Spartanburg, South Carolina) where he teaches a range of courses on modern Germany, twentieth-century Europe, and the modern Middle East. He received his B.A. from Rice University in 1992 and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001. His early research focused on masculinity, sexuality, and the Cold War in West Germany. His first book, Male Homosexuality in West Germany: Between Persecution and Freedom, 1945 - 1969 (Palgrave Macmillan) was published in 2012; his second book, Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 1880-1945 (Harrington Park) was published in 2016. He is currently working on a history of West Germany during the 1970s, focusing on the challenges faced by the two Social-Democratic chancellors of this decade.

Kelley Winters, Ph.D., is a mom of grown sons, a Silicon Valley industry refugee, and a writer and consultant on issues of gender diversity in medical and public policy. She is the founder of the Trans Policy Reform blog and administrator of the International Transgender Health Facebook group of nearly 8000 members. She is the author of Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays from the Struggle for Dignity (2008) and a chapter in the Lev and Gottlieb anthology, Families in Transition: Parenting Gender Diverse Children (2019). Kelley has presented papers on diagnostic policy issues at multiple symposia of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and annual meetings of the American Psychiatric Association. She served on the International Advisory Panel for the WPATH Standards of Care, Version 7, and was recognized in the 2013 Trans 100 Inaugural List for her community contributions. Kelley wanders the highways of America in an old Mazda, ever in search of comfort food.