Date Posted: August 13, 2024

black woman researcher

ORWH is pleased to announce the recipients of the Galvanizing Health Equity Through Novel and Diverse Educational Resources (GENDER) Research Education Program (R25) grant, in collaboration with the Office of Aids Research, National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office. GENDER R25 supports educational activities that enhance and complement the skills of the current workforce to address the diverse biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs across the country. Each awardee’s proposed project will be crucial in advancing sex- and gender-specific education in science, medicine, and allied health professions by supporting the development of sex- and gender-focused courses. Learn more about the awardees below.

If you’d like to hear more about GENDER R25, ORWH and its institute, center, and office colleagues will host the annual principal investigator meeting on Friday, September 20, 2024, for ORWH’s first-ever GENDER R25 (RFA-OD-22-015). Funded investigators will provide overviews of their projects and discuss next steps. Learn more about the event and how to register.

University Of California-Irvine
The University of California-Irvine project, Advancing Gender and Health Justice Research and Education, will develop several short courses aimed at bolstering the knowledge and skills of the emerging public health workforce in diverse career stages to advance the intersection of HIV prevention and gender and health justice. Targeting undergraduate students, master of public health students, and community health workers, the initiative will leverage the esteemed resources and framework of the University of California Center for Gender and Health Justice.

Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital will develop, implement, and evaluate a virtual education program called “EMPOWHer” Embracing Midlife and Menopause Positively: Offerings by Women with HIV. It aims to bolster clinicians providing midlife health and menopause care to women with HIV (WWH). Co-created by WWH (including transgender women) from diverse U.S. geographic regions, the program partners with transdisciplinary and transprofessional clinicians and researchers to communicate sex- and gender-related science, and clinical and social support needs. The virtual program and related resources will be publicly available to clinicians providing care to WWH and will be disseminated to national HIV community organizations, clinics in the outpatient/inpatient area, and provider education forums.

University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco project, Queering the Curriculum: Preparing Family Medicine and Other Primary Care Residents to Care for Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Diverse (TGD) People, will create a curriculum for family medicine and other primary care residents addressing the unique health care needs of TGD people across the lifespan. The curriculum will leverage both didactic and clinical education to create long-lasting gains in knowledge, comfort, and desire to provide gender-affirming health care (GAHC) to TGD communities. It will be disseminated to other primary care residency programs to adapt and implement. The clinical component of the curriculum will address the lack of adequate resident exposure to high-quality TGD patient care by providing a blueprint for assessing and improving clinical care for TGD patients within a residency teaching clinic. It will also create partnerships with local GAHC programs for elective rotations.

Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago will create the Trans*forming Care: A 7-Module Program Experience, a multi-pronged online learning curriculum for nursing students based on essential components of TGD health care utilizing the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care Version 8, community partner relationships, empirical research, and subject matter experts. The Trans*forming Care program will be created through focus groups and expert validity, as well as utilize an innovative platform to improve nursing students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, and connections of TGD patients.

University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati’s Healthcare Interprofessional Gender Health, Education and Research (HIGHER) Academy will create a year-long research course for interprofessional graduate students that is taught exclusively by transgender/gender expansive (TGGE) individuals and cisgender women. The course will include asynchronous modules that will focus on health disparities, opportunities in the delivery of clinical care, and opportunities in research methodology (with a focus on intersectionality and participatory methods). It will also engage HIGHER scholars in interprofessional team-based collaboration to design a research proposal aimed at promoting TGGE health. The course curriculum will be informed by a newly established community-academic advisory board.