LGBTQ Health Equity Symposium Planning Committee
2022 LGBTQ Health Equity Planning Committee
Keith Hughes, Community Co-Chair, is a Sr. Public Health Educator with the Detroit Health Department EHE Initiative and Chair of the Black Treatment Advocates Network. He has been working in the field of HIV for 14 years with a strong passion for HIV Prevention. He has facilitated groups for PLWH and has provided Early Intervention Services to help with individuals navigating HIV Care. He gained the opportunity to experience the African American HIV University, which is under the coordination of the Black AIDS Institute. He have a strong presence and relationships within the LGBT Community and his vision is to provide a space for Black/Brown people to engage in planning bodies and entities that provide services to those most impacted. After completing the cohort, he launched the Black Treatment Advocates Network in 2017, which focuses on improving visibility around the needs of Black and Brown people in Detroit. He have attended and networked at many National Conferences like USCHA, The Biomedical Prevention Summit, and other HIV/STI related conferences to improve his knowledge and awareness to the needs of his community. His role now with the Detroit Health Department is to support organizations funded to provide services under the scope of the National HIV Strategy to ending the HIV Epidemic. His goal is to provide safer and stigma-free spaces for community to access services in spaces designed for community.
Rick S. Zimmerman, PhD, Faculty Co-Chair, is currently a Professor and the Associate Dean for Research in the Wayne State University College of Nursing in Detroit. He is a prevention scientist who received his PhD in medical sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research has focused on models of behavior change; HIV, STD, and teen pregnancy prevention; and understanding and improving the validity of self-reports of sensitive behaviors. His current funded research is an NIH project developing and evaluating a micro-economic intervention to reduce HIV and violence in transgender women and a SAMHSA project to evaluate the impact of programs to prevent and treat substance use disorder and HIV.
Heather Walter-McCabe, JD, holds a joint appointment at Wayne State University Law School and Wayne State University School of Social Work. Walter-McCabe began her career as a social worker at a high acuity pediatric tertiary care hospital in the Midwest working with families whose children had significant medical needs. After law school, she directed a public health research program examining the impact of firearm violence in Indiana. She later served as the executive director of the William H. and Christine H. Hall Center for Law and Health at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law before joining the faculty at the Indiana University School of Social Work.Her research is done at the intersection of law, social work, and public health. Her research translates complex legal issues and research findings across multiple professions to make the information accessible for use by practitioners and advocates in improving population health. As a part of this work, Walter-McCabe was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Public Health Law Teaching Fellow from 2014-16. Most recently she is leading research examining law and policy impacting LGBTQ health equity and well-being. She has published in traditional peer-reviewed academic journals and law reviews and has also been sought by media to explain core issues of public health policy. Walter-McCabe serves on the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association, the Board of Directors for the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work Policy and is a contributing editor to the journal Social Work.
A. Nzere Kwabena, (formally Curtis Lipscomb) has spent years moving throughout the LGBTQ world in different capacities. He's worked as the Executive Director of LGBT Detroit and was the Founder of Hotter than July, Detroit's annual black pride celebration. Kwabena describes his coming out as gay at 15 years old as being a blessed experience. He didn't experience intolerance from his family or bullying and rejection from classmates in his Detroit school. He says he was encouraged to live an open life, true to himself. Kwabena ultimately pursued a career in fashion in New York City, where during the 1980s he first experienced the inequality faced by the LGBTQ community. He watched friends suffer and die from AIDS with little help from their community or government. Much of the work he pursued later in life, he says, was inspired by that period in his life.
Megan Landry, began her career at the American Cancer Society 2014 as a Community Development Manager, responsible for a portfolio of community-based fundraising events. She joined the Cancer Control Team in 2015 as a Hospital Systems Manager and transitioned into her current role as Senior Manager in 2021. In her role, Megan works with health system accounts (including hospitals, FQHC's, health departments) across the state of Michigan on cancer screening and prevention strategies, providing support for cancer patients, and supporting American Cancer Society funded Researchers. Megan serves on the Board of Directors for the Michigan Cancer Consortium and has recently joined the newly formed Advisory Board for the Karmanos Cancer Institute Office of Cancer Health Equity and Community Engagement.
Evan Killingsworth, is the Projects and Operations Coordinator of the safe, brave space LGBT Detroit. Evan was educated at Wayne State University in the College of Business and using those skills he hopes to engage the community to exceed this goal. As such, he will be working on the All Of Us Research Program, a project for LGBT Detroit in consultation with CenterLink, The Community Center For LGBTQ+ centers. The charge is designated for LGBT Detroit to engage in outreach, education, and awareness activities to explain and promote the All Of Us Research Program and will become a part of a center network of partner organizations to serve as trusted intermediaries and messengers. He also works with the Karmanos Cancer Institute, the cancer research center, in advocacy for LGBTQ+ cancer survivors and caretakers. As well as SAGE Metro Detroit, to bring awareness to the unique needs of LGBTQ+ Elders.
Patrick Yankee (He/Him), is the Chief Development Officer at Corktown Health. He has over 30 years of experience with managing state and federally funded programs for persons living with HIV. Patrick has held key positions as a consultant to the Michigan Department and Health and Human Services and the City of Detroit.
Lon'Dyn Hudson, was born in the Jefferies Projects of Detroit, Michigan. Lon'Dyn grew up on the east side of Detroit from Bewick & Mack to 7 Mile and Barlow. Lon'Dyn later grew into her role as a community activist and advocate for the LGBTQ community. In 1997 Lon'Dyn joined The Infiniti Project where she was able to start her House and Ballroom Career. Throughout the years Lon'Dyn has made major impacts within the community and ball community; mothering over 29 children, being a founding mother of the Tranz Sistas of Color Project as well as an Original Board member. Lon'Dyn has raised the bar for the trans community in her own special ways. I Leave You These Words "Never Allow Anyone To Tell You Your Existence Does Not Exist"
Patricia A. Wren, PhD, MPH, is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health at Wayne State University. Her public health career started when, as a doctoral student, she joined a research team evaluating HIV/AIDS prevention and service organizations funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Since then, her research has largely focused on including participant voices and measuring patient-centered outcomes. She has worked on more than 20 research studies with $33+ million in funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, National Science Foundation, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, National Eye Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These community-based research and clinical trials have addressed a range of health problems including HIV/AIDS, glaucoma and strabismus, breast and colorectal cancer, stroke, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, mental health and suicide, and pelvic floor disorders in women.
Sarah Kiperman (She/her/hers), is a School Psychology Assistant Professor at Wayne State University in the College of Education's Theoretical & Behavioral Foundations division and a behavioral consultant for Beaumont Health System. She received her PhD, MEd, and EdS in School Psychology from Georgia State University. She also received her MA in Educational Psychology from New York University and holds an undergraduate degree from Indiana University in English, Theater & Drama, and Psychology. Dr. Kiperman is a Licensed Psychologist in the State of Michigan and New York, is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, and is a Registered Play Therapist. She became an active ally for the LGBTQ youth community in high school as her close friends came out and identified needing support from people who "get them". Since then, Dr. Kiperman has committed to being a lifelong learner to identify how LGBTQ youth and their people can feel supported. Her specific research interests include: understanding the lived experiences of LGBTQ youth and their support network, developing accessible tools for LGBTQ youth and their support network to help them lead affirming lives, accessible service development, and culture-specific intervention development. Dr. Kiperman has volunteered for nonprofits serving LGBTQ youth since 2005 and served as a board member for Real Youth based in Atlanta, GA. She was a research intern for the Center for Health, Identity and Behavior and Prevention studies at New York University and the Center for School Safety, School Climate and Classroom Management at Georgia State University.
Lloyd Allen, joined Wayne State University's School of Social Work faculty as an assistant professor in Fall 2017. Allen received his PhD (2017) from the University of Georgia, his MSW (2008) from Florida International University, and his Bachelors (2004) from Hampden-Sydney College. His research interests, over the years, include the exploration of issues associated with gender and sexuality, HIV policy and advocacy, mental health and Black/African American gay men, community mobilization, program evaluation, masculinity, mental health, depression, substance abuse, and gender inequality. His dissertation, "Parent-Child Communications with Self-Identified Out Gay Men: A Qualitative Study", helped to unearth some unique insights regarding how to better improve policies, procedures, and interventions that may effectively reduce HIV infection rates, improve self-esteem among gay men, address potential mental health issues among gay males, and expand the various communication styles and techniques within this sub-group. Over the years, he has amassed a vast amount of social work clinical experiences as well as helped to coordinate, oversee, and evaluate several public health, mental health, HIV/AIDS, and STI infection programs that affected LGBT individuals. Research wise, his quest for knowledge and understanding were further enhanced by the various micro and macro research projects, which he undertook as a graduate student. In these studies, he collaborated with mentors and professors to examine what options and differences, if any, existed for gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals in comparison to heterosexual counterparts, when accessing treatment for alcohol abuse. Another research project exploring the citation impact scholarship of high-impact women in the top 25-ranked schools of social work, examined African American faculty publication success rates and scholarship character, specifically in the top 25-ranked U.S. schools of social work, and African American men and depression. Overall, his combined work and research experiences has helped to enhance his breadth and depth of understanding on the fundamental obligations of the core social work tenets.