The Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Employee Well-Being (EIEW) is located within the central Office of Human Resources and provides high-level consultation, support and resources to schools, colleges, divisions and units to support the creation and sustainability of healthy, equitable and inclusive policies, systems, and environments for employees to engage, grow, and thrive on campus.As the LGBTQ+ Employee Retention Specialist on the EIEW team, I am responsible for responsible for developing and facilitating diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and programs to advocate for and support the needs of LGBTQ+ employees, within the institution. This includes:- identifying & advocating for the systemic needs of LGBTQ+ employees from an equity lens.- developing innovative strategies to support LGBTQ+ employees.- developing programs that promote the belonging and well-being of LGBTQ+ employees.- sustaining trusting relationships with employees, units, divisions, schools, and colleges across campus.In my work, I provide organizational consulting services for units, departments, divisions, schools, and colleges within UW-Madison to transform their climate, culture, practices, policies, and environments and remove barriers for LGBTQ+ employees and other marginalized employees to thrive. I also work with individual LGBTQ+ employees and LGBTQ+ employee groups (e.g., ERGs, affinity spaces, organizations, etc.) on campus to help advocate for their needs. I am a key leader in several campuswide initiatives to improve climate and culture for LGBTQ+ employees, including the Gender Inclusive Restroom Taskforce, the LGBTQ+ Shared Governance Committee, and the HR equity policy review workgroup. I also create professional development and training opportunities for employees, managers and supervisors, and directors and leaders to improve their cultural competency regarding LGBTQ+ communities and to improve their treatment of their LGBTQ+ colleagues and direct reports.

The Learning Communities for Institutional Change and Excellence (LCICE) program works to build relationships, communities, and a socially just campus climate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. LCICE offers social justice learning spaces called Learning Communities, which provide a forum for active participation in dialogue about creating working, learning, and teaching environments where everyone is included, valued and heard.In my work with LCICE, I develop, co-lead, co-facilitate, and evaluate these dialogue-based Learning Communities (LCs), processing spaces, and other collaborative learning spaces across campus and within units/departments for students, staff, and faculty. During my tenure, I have developed cutting-edge curricula for emergent learning to promote transformational change of individuals, teams/departments, and campus, as a whole, including a new curriculum for white antiracist caucus spaces, a facilitator community of practice for social justice educators on campus, and a capacity-building LC for DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) practitioners on campus. I have provided hundreds of hours of consultation services on antiracist and other anti-oppression praxis to campus departments and schools, as well as increased LCICE’s capacity to provide consultation on LGBTQ+ and disability communities significantly. I also expanded and redeveloped two student courses, one open for all students and one for students entering the health sciences.I have used the transformational leadership style to accomplish this work. Building and sustaining authentic relationships with campus and community partners are essential to promoting antiracist change, because it requires trust and long-term engagement. Additionally, facilitation of LCs requires intentional practices to slow down, manage resistance, and empower others to translate their learning into practice, which transformational leadership encourages.

In this role, I managed statewide, grassroots health advocacy coalition – the Wisconsin Transgender Health Coalition (WTHC) – and a youth-specific health research and advocacy program – the Transgender Youth Resource Network (TYRN) – focused on achieving health justice and healthcare equity for transgender communities in Wisconsin. With WTHC, I focused on increasing access to affirming, accessible healthcare for trans people. I worked with policymakers to develop transgender-inclusive legislation and regulations, as well as organizing with community to resist harmful policy. I also created training for health providers to improve healthcare services for multiply marginalized trans populations. Additionally, I provided these organizations technical assistance to implement inclusive care and ameliorate the social determinants of health. I also developed a provider database for trans community members to find trans-competent healthcare.With TYRN, I led and facilitated community-based participatory research. The Wisconsin Transgender Youth Community Needs Assessment was the first of its kind in Wisconsin that directly asked trans youth about their resource, support, educational, and healthcare needs. Using a community-based participatory approach, I worked with trans youth to develop a survey, create a focus group protocol, and recruit participants, ultimately reaching >300 trans youth in the state, ages 11-22. From the results of this survey, I developed collaborative efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of multiply marginalized trans youth in WI.

Think Again Training & Consulting is a Massachusetts-based social justice training and consulting organization that works with nonprofit, for-profit, higher education, healthcare, and public health clients across the U.S. Think Again supports individuals, organizations, and communities to enact social justice principles in their life and work.As a Trainer/Consultant, I provide single and multiple session social justice training and/or ongoing consulting services for organizations and individuals that focuses on racial, gender, disability, and fat justice praxis and transformational policy, systems, and environment change. I have particular expertise in working with healthcare, public health, and health education clients. Recently, I created a 5-session training for community college faculty to build their capacity to create transgender- and intersex-inclusive biology, genetics, anatomy & physiology, and healthcare field courses and teaching praxis.

As an independent consultant and trainer, I worked with nonprofit organizations, for-profit corporations, and colleges/universities regarding increasing equity capacity and action at Board, staff, consumer, and community levels particularly focused on health equity, antiracist praxis, and intersectional equity/social justice. These services included (i) holistic assessment (SWOT, readiness, needs, etc.), (ii) ongoing training, pre/post session readings, and supporting resources to identify exclusionary practices, identify potential change targets (polices, systems, and environment), guide strategic planning, write change plan(s), and develop evaluation, and (iii) ongoing technical assistance and consulting regarding the implementation of strategic change plan(s), practices and systems change, policy development and implementation, stakeholder relationships and communication, and environment/structural improvement.

Pathfinders serves youth and young adults (ages 6-25) who are experiencing trauma, crisis and homelessness, providing emergency shelter, counseling, basic needs, case management, and supportive housing services.While working at Pathfinders, I managed the Drop-In Center, which provided basic needs access, case management services, and programming focused on leadership, life skills, and health for more than 400 youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness, ages 16-25. I worked to integrate social justice programming and an equity/justice framework for all services, as well as intentionally building a safer space for LGBTQ+ youth, significantly increasing the number of LGBTQ+ youth served annually. In additional to supervising and training all staff and managing all grant funding, I also created a youth leadership program, increasing youth voice and power in decision-making about the program.Outside of the Drop-In Center, I provided cultural competency, capacity-building and social justice training to youth and young adult-focused agencies and institutions of higher education, and worked collaboratively to address health and other needs of marginalized youth in Wisconsin, particularly RHY and LGBTQ youth, focusing on addressing structural inequities and the social determinants of health that result in homelessness.

During my time with Planned Parenthood of WI, I managed community engagement efforts and agency health equity initiatives in Southeastern Wisconsin, including those focused on LGBTQ+ and Black/African American communities. I created and provided internal and external professional development training to improve cultural competency/capacity to work with these communities, such as best practices for antiracist health and education services, implementing reproductive justice praxis, and quality improvement for LGBTQ+ inclusion. I also acted as a local, regional, and national resource for sexual health educators and service providers regarding LGBTQ+ healthcare and health equity. In addition to these training and community engagement efforts, I provided sexual health and reproductive justice training for youth and adults in Wisconsin, including creating a statewide sexual health education conference, working with my team to grow it into a regional and national event over three years.I managed the Youth Health Clinic program, in which I managed 5-8 youth health educators who provided evidence-based, direct education to youth patients (ages 13-24) in the two largest health centers in Milwaukee. In order to effectively work with the youth health educators, I used a coaching style of leadership, working with each individual educator to identify areas of weakness and strength, then developing their capacity to be able to take on the complex health education and administrative tasks required to maintain and evaluate the program. As a result of this work, more than 90% of youth patients engaged demonstrated improved self-efficacy regarding improving their sexual health protective behaviors (e.g., barrier use, consent, negotiation, birth control, STI testing/treatment, and so on).

The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center works to develop the vibrant LGBTQ+ communities in the greater Milwaukee area by delivering educational, health promotion, and community building services. Project Q is the largest LGBTQ+ youth development program in Wisconsin.While I worked at Project Q, I managed all programs and events for >800 LGBTQ+ youth annually, including evidence-based health promotion, life and leadership skills-building, and anti-oppression initiatives, as well as case management and HIV services. I also worked to develop collaborative efforts to address health inequities affecting marginalized LGBTQ+ youth in WI – particularly trans youth, homeless youth, and BIPOC youth – and provided dozens of intersectional LGBTQ-inclusion, capacity-building and social justice trainings to youth-serving agencies annually.I significantly expanded the programming for transgender and nonbinary youth during my tenure. In addition to developing programs within Project Q, I also worked with a national board of trans and nonbinary youth to create a capacity-building and cultural competency curriculum – the National Trans Education Project (NTEP) – and disseminate it to more than 180 healthcare, social services, and public health organizations and colleges. From regional connections in the NTEP project, I launched the Midwest Trans Youth Conference, a leadership, life, and health skills-building and social justice conference for trans and nonbinary youth.To effectively supervise the large team of staff, interns, volunteers, and youth leadership board members, I used a collaborative leadership style to build the relational trust and professional commitment necessary for long-term, inclusive processes. I worked to flatten the hierarchy, share power equitably among all staff, interns, volunteers, and youth leaders, and use consensus-based decision-making processes to set program priorities, allocate resources for programs, and develop new services.