From masslive.com (I was to freaked out to take my own picture!)
By Emilia Dunham
Program Associate, Reporting from the Philly Trans-Health Conference
I’m so pleased to be reporting from the Philly Trans-Health Conference. Though I’ve wanted to attend this conference for years, this is the first year I’ve been able to make it. Beyond attending, I’m excited to have a platform with the Network to share information from this conference and its workshops.
Every year I haven’t been able to attend because of school or other commitments and I nearly wouldn’t have made it if I left about 20 minutes later as when driving down I was about one exit away from a tornado that struck down on the highway and littered hail all over our car! For a moment I thought Harold Camping may have been wrong with his Judgement Day date, but it turns out we were fine. That’s another story, but it’s an even greater reason to be happy to be here!
I’m also excited to not be here alone. This is a record-breaking year for participants with 1,800 expected attendees which includes trans people, providers/advocates of trans people and allies. I’m also not alone as I have a fabulous and fierce Lexi Adsit who is our blogging scholar for this conference. She’s a super cool youth from the west coast advocating for a huge number of issues including trans people, people of color and health disparities, specifically tobacco too. You’ll be hearing from her this week as well. Check out her intro post about one entry back for more about her background! Between us I hope you all can get a great perspective on the conference whether or not you are here.
Emilia Dunham is currently a Project Manager at MassHealth/Department of Public Health, and formerly the Project Manager of the Life Skills project at The Fenway Institute, an HIV intervention study for young transgender women. Emilia worked at Fenway for 7 years, first as a Quality Control and Regulatory Assistant mainly involved with biomedical HIV prevention trials, before serving as the Program Associate for The Network for LGBT Health Equity, a network instrumental in many national LGBT health policy improvements. She is also involved with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, serving as a Steering Committee member and the Policy Committee Co-Chair, an organization largely responsible for the recent passage of the Trans Rights Bill. Additionally she serves as a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, Co-Chair of the Recommendations Committee. Emilia received a Bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University. There she served as President of the LGBTQ student group where she planned programs such as Pride Week, Transgender Day of Remembrance, and AIDS Week. In addition, she advocated for LGBTQ inclusive policies and programming on campus such as a Gender Neutral Housing program, an LGBTQ Center and the expansion of Women’s Studies to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Emilia recently earned a Master of Public Policy and Master of Business Administration in health policy and management from the Brandeis Heller School School for Social Policy and Management.
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One thought on “Neither Rain, nor Sleet, nor TORNADOES, will Keep Me from the Philly Trans-Health Conference”
One thought on “Neither Rain, nor Sleet, nor TORNADOES, will Keep Me from the Philly Trans-Health Conference”