SU Hosts Third Annual Transgender Health Equity Symposium

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University recently hosted its third annual Transgender Health Equity Symposium. This year’s theme was “Trans in Delmarva: Social Determinants of Transgender Health and Care,” welcoming community members, health care and social services professionals, and allies.

SU’s Transgender Interprofessional Care Team (TICT) gathered experts to speak on the current challenges and hope for the future of gender affirming care for the transgender community on the Delmarva Peninsula. 

“Our University has a commitment to education, and it underscores the recognition that effective care and support for all individuals requires collaboration across disciplines,” said SU President Carolyn Ringer Lepre. “We have to come together. We have to be able to work together, to solve these universal problems that are facing our society.

“Today, I hope we are all coming together, not just as educators and researchers and healthcare professionals and allies, but … as advocates. We're going to work together for a more inclusive, more compassionate society. We all need to take on this responsibility. We need to work together to cultivate understanding, empathy, and respect for everyone, and especially today, for members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

The audience included SU students, faculty, and staff, along with professionals from the area in medical and social work fields eager to learn how to help.

“What strikes me about today is who's in this room. Improving transgender health isn’t one person’s job or one profession’s responsibility; it's shared work,” said Dr. Jessica Clark, SU associate provost and acting vice president of academic affairs. “Our focus today is practical and grounded in real needs: expanding access to affirming care, understanding the structural barriers that people face and building better systems of support. These conversations matter. They are also urgent. Every person deserves safe, equitable, and respectful healthcare. We all play a role in making that reality.”

In a pre-recorded welcome, U.S. Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware commended those attending the event, underscoring its importance as the rhetoric against the transgender community becomes more prevalent in society.

“That shift has made your work and your commitment to continuing it even more imperative,” she said. “Because when powerful interests, even in higher branches of government, seek to roll back progress by undermining our shared humanity, it is your work that has stood firm in protecting and providing live saving care.

“I especially want to recognize the health care workers in the training who join today’s symposium. Your focus on this work, specifically the support of truly healthy and happy trans people and a commitment to ‘do no harm’ is a light in the darkness of this moment and is truly hope-giving.”

The TICT planning team’s project lead, Dr. Michèle Schlehofer, SU professor of psychology, echoed the sentiments.

“At a time in which social safety nets are under attack, and consequently, health inequities are poised to worsen, there is a dire need to actively work to advance health equity via addressing the social determinants of health,” she said. “Simply put, anyone who works with the public … should know how to support transgender intersex, and gender diverse people.”

Now in their third year, TICT members include Schlehofer; Dr. Hannah Ginn, assistant professor of social work; Dr. Dan Green, assistant professor of social work; Dr. Kim Van Vulpen, associate professor of social work and College of Health and Human Services interprofessional education coordinator; Elizabeth Workman, research and instructional services librarian in SU Libraries; Elliott Albert, student and intern in the School of Social Work; Joshua Smith, academic program specialist in the Psychology Department; Tina Jones, Delmarva Pride Center; Blush Autumn Rain, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Salisbury, Shore Pride Alliance, Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans; and Sage Simone, Chesapeake Healthcare.

Keynote speaker Brittany Yerkes, Chesapeake Healthcare physician assistant and a leader in providing gender affirming care to the area’s transgender community, discussed the challenges of delivering such care, particularly in rural communities like the Delmarva Peninsula.

“Across Delmarva … health care systems are under immense strain,” said Yerkes. “Provider shortages are chronic, [and] transportation and safe, affordable housing are limited. Telehealth access is uncertain. For many, a routine provider visit can be a logistical nightmare. Those are the realities not just for the Eastern Shore, but for many people living in rural America. 

“Now, layer onto that the experience of being transgender or nonbinary. Imagine navigating not just miles of farmland to find a clinic, but also navigating providers who may never have had a single hour of training in gender affirming care. Imagine knowing that the closest affirming provider may be several hours away and still being uncertain whether your name and pronouns will be respected, whether you'll be misgendered, or even whether you'll be safe. Sounds pretty harrowing when we recognize the context of some of the realities that gender queer and nonbinary persons face here on the Lower Eastern shore.”

Yerkes guided the audience on ways to encourage their own organizations to help educate employees to better help clients and make them feel safer when seeking care.
Attendees praised the program as exactly what is needed at this time for professionals and allies.

“It is really hard as both a student and a medical professional to find accurate information on how to take care of my community and my patients that are part of the transgender community,” said Tom Sorum, post-baccalaureate student at SU and an emergency medical technician. “I am really hungry for the information that they gave us here today, that I can't find elsewhere. … I'm finding exactly what I'm needing so that I can learn to be a better medical professional, which is what I'm here at Salisbury University to do.”

Breakout sessions allowed attendees to further their knowledge in areas that appealed to them, including sessions on “Letter Writing for Gender Affirming Care” with Debb Dunn, family practice physician assistant at Resolve MD; “Transinclusive Education as a Structural Determinant of Health” with Dr. Heather Matthews, assistant professor of early and elementary education; “Transcending Barriers: Mental Health Basics for Allies” with Stephanie Hewitt, clinical social worker at Chesapeake Healthcare; and “We Deserve Joy: Choosing Happiness in Hard Times” with Tony Ferraiolo, certified life coach.

The event concluded with the Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil, recognizing and remembering the more than 300 members of the transgender community who died in the past year, often by suicide or violence. Organizers said the vigil helped illustrate why the availability of gender-affirming healthcare is so important.

Learn more about SU and opportunities to Make Tomorrow Yours at www.salisbury.edu.