Midwest LGBTQ+ Health Symposium 2021

Welcome to the Midwest LGBTQ Health Symposium 2021. Last year’s theme Being Healthy is a Radical Act was a call to action to become healthy, declaring for LGBTQ and marginalized people, simply being healthy is a radical act. As we look back on 2020 and our new shared COVID reality, we are mindful the communities we serve have informed much of our response to this pandemic. To underscore this contribution as invaluable to LGBTQ healthcare, this year’s theme, Community Informed Care is a Radical Act, emphasizes the power of the alliance between health professionals and the communities they serve.

Rachel L. Levine, M.D. 

Assistant Secretary for Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Rachel L. Levine (she/her) serves as the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she fights every day to improve the health and well-being of all Americans. She’s working to help our nation overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and build a stronger foundation for a healthier future - one in which every American can attain their full health potential. Dr. Levine’s storied career, first in academic medicine, and as a physician then Pennsylvania’s Physician General and then as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, has focused on the intersection between mental and physical health, often treating children, adolescents, and young adults.

A Conversation with Bamby Salcedo, President and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, and Adriana Cardona-Maguigad, education reporter at WBEZ 

Bamby Salcedo (she/ella) is a nationally and internationally recognized transgender Latina Woman who received her Master’s Degree in Mexican and Latin@ Studies from California State California Los Angeles. Bamby is the President and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, a national organization that focuses on addressing the issues of transgender Latin@s in the US.  Bamby developed the Center for Violence Prevention & Transgender Wellness, a multipurpose, multiservice space for Trans people in Los Angeles. 

Adriana Cardona-Maguigad (she/ella), Reporter WBEZ Public Radio in Chicago, covers Chicago schools, the classrooms and youth culture. She worked on a 2015 award-winning audio project for WBEZ and NPR’s This American Life about unregulated drug rehab centers in Chicago drawing people from Puerto Rico. Her investigation was recognized with a Sigma Delta Chi Award with the Society of Professional Journalists, a 2016 National Edward R. Murrow Award and three Peter Lisagor Awards.  

Miriam Yeung (she/her) is a social justice leader who has fought for LGBT folks, women, immigrants, and people of color throughout her career. She started her career as a sexual health advocate in the midst of the HIV crisis. She later organized with LGBT high school students to win city and state LGBT inclusive anti-bullying laws, and a raft of policy improvements within the education department, foster care, juvenile justice, and family court systems. Most recently, Miriam was the Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, the nation’s only organization focused on building power for Asian American and Pacific Islander women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people where she led efforts to win immigrant rights, reproductive justice and economic justice.  Miriam received her MPA from Baruch College and serves on the boards of MomsRising, Immigrant Defense Project and GalvanizeUSA and is the proud Baba of two amazing young daughters.

Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Diaz (he/his) is a community health scientist with over fifteen years of experience practicing public health and conducting action research in Puerto Rico, the United States of America, and the Caribbean Region. His work has focused on Latino health, with special emphasis on HIV care and prevention, sexual health promotion and health equity through actions on the social determinants of health.

Dr. Rodriguez-Diaz is currently studying health and racial disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past decade he has led several programs and research projects addressing health inequities among populations made socially vulnerable including people with HIV, Hispanic/Latinxs, incarcerated populations, and sexual and gender minority groups. 

Dr. Rodriguez-Diaz’ research and scholarship has led to coverage in well-known national and international media sources such as the Washington Post, The Hill, The Guardian, El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico), El Mercurio (Chile), and Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil), as well as in major research publications and conferences.

Rodriguez-Diaz completed his post-doctoral training in HIV and Global Health Research, holds a Ph.D. in Public Health with a major in Community Health, and an MPH in Health Education. He has also completed post-graduate training in health policy, human rights, and health diplomacy. 

Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University School of Medicine who provides full-spectrum obstetrics and gynecology clinical care and strives to advance scientific knowledge and health equity through her research. 

Her research and educational efforts focus on promoting health equity and well-being for sexual and gender minority people which include but are not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ+) people. 

Dr. Obedin-Maliver, is the Co-Director of The PRIDE Study (pridestudy.org), a multi-site online national prospective cohort of sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals based at Stanford. She has many peer-reviewed publications and NIH and PCORI funded awards on SGM health, and is helping to author the next version (SOC8) of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care. Dr. Obedin-Maliver has also been active in health policy including helping to legally redefine consideration of sexually intimate partner status and to remove the Medicare Non-Coverage Determination ruling on gender-affirming surgeries.

One thing the COVID health crisis continues to teach us at Howard Brown is that being proactive in our networking efforts is more important than ever. In order to continue the tradition of building crucial relationships, the Midwest LGBTQ Health Symposium has adapted to the virtual space and organized innovative digital networking experiences with you in mind.

Join us for our virtual “Meet and Greet” at the end of day one, to enhance and grow your own network. Be inspired and learn from public health leaders like our Meet & Greet Host, Marissa Miller.

Marissa Miller (she/her) is a nationally recognized advocate for human rights, social justice, health equity, and LGBTQ equality. Marissa has worked for the last 15 years on the local, state, and national levels to improve access to treatment and care for transgender people and people living with HIV, and to erase stigma and discrimination through education, policy, advocacy, and visibility.

Marissa is now working to create in the Midwest; she is the Founder and Executive Director of Trans Solutions Research and Resource Center, based in Indiana. Tran Solutions Research and Resource Center is designed to create a Global Culture of safety for the transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming communities through policy, safety networks and plans, web developed concepts, equitable opportunities, certifications and devices.

Marissa currently serves as the Senior Strategic Director for the National Trans Visibility March, an annual event that brings together over five thousand constituents from across the U.S. Marissa brings a great deal of expertise serving transgender and gender non-conforming communities, specifically in the areas of: infrastructure building, program development, evaluation and leadership development.