I've known Lorraine since they were in my advanced concepts of human
sexuality class and that quickly led to a mentorship and then a friendship.
And we traveled around the state
doing focus groups asking parents and teens
about their experiences with or without sex education.
Sex education is a mutual interest of ours,
and since that time,
they have done a number of trainings on campus and in the community
because they are a health educator and a sex educator.
And that's what they do best.
I would say my biggest success has been working with various departments
and faculty and staff and just community members
to increase access to care
for our LGBTQ+ populations, but also like increase
knowledge of affirming practices for our students here.
So moments like that, I would say are rewarding,
like having someone lean on me and being able to be that person
because I've been fortunate enough to have those people in my life.
And so being able to kind of pay it forward
or even some folks would say, like,
I found the ladder and instead of pulling it
up, I'm just leaving it down to other folks can use it
is I think that's
that's the most rewarding part of my work.
Lorraine and I have been involved with the LGBTQ+ community
for a number of years now in different capacities.
Most recently, we've been involved with a LGBTQ+ subcommittee here on campus
there at UAMS And through that work, we've been able to oversee
a variety of initiatives to try to make the working environment here
more culturally sensitive and humble, more affirming.
My biggest thing that I've always been passionate about
and why did I do the DRP, which is why I went into public health, is education.
Education is the one thing that you can never take away from anybody.
And that's what has really been the driving force behind my work
since I started doing this work almost a decade ago.
With that being my passion, like I believe
like if we're able to educate both providers and staff
and community members and even members of the LGBTQ+ community
about things and their going to be able to walk in more confident and
in receiving and accepting care.
But also our providers are going to be more informed on how to give affirming
practice care.
So I think UAMS understands
pretty well and its policies, its values
that inclusion, diversity are fundamental to who we are,
not only in our hiring practices and our commitment to inclusion
for all of our employees or students or volunteers or faculty members,
but but also our patients.
So we can provide the kind of compassionate care
that we strive to and profess to provide.
If we don't have inclusion within our own campus,
because it takes a degree, large degree
of an understanding of empathy, of
living in the world of diversity to understand
that the unique needs of any patient.
And so my ultimate goal would be to
include LGBTQ folks in curriculum
and include them in policy changes,
remove barriers to accessing care, reduce stigma.
Now that I've been doing public health for so long, it's like being able
to bring my experience out to folks like, Hey, this is what I do,
and it's considered public health. And they're like, What?
I'm like, I know that's pretty cool.
What are you interested in?
And being able to relate that with them has been really, really awesome.