Research

My scholarship focuses on four overlapping areas:

🧠 Aging, Cognition, and Inequality

How social stressors, discrimination, and community involvement shape cognitive vulnerability and dementia risk.

🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ Health and Healthcare Systems

Structural barriers to care, gender-affirming medicine, clinical training, and policy environments.

🏛️ Policy, Law, and Health

How state and federal policy decisions reverberate through clinical practice and patient outcomes.

💼 Work, Careers, and Health Across the Life Course

Employment trajectories, workplace discrimination, and downstream consequences for health in later life.

Coming Out as a Period of Increased Vulnerability to Suicide Risk Among Sexual Minorities. Pediatrics. Dec. 2025

Forced to Adapt: Structural Constraints and Healthcare Trade-Offs among Transgender and Gender-Diverse Populations in the United States. SSM-Qualitative Research in Health. June 2026

Minority Stress, Community Involvement, and Cognitive Decline in Rural SGM Older Adults: A Longitudinal SEM and Growth Curve Approach. Social Science & Medicine. February 2026.

Protecting What We Built: A Reflection on Sexual and Gender Minority Research Achievements, What We Stand to Lose, and How to Sustain the Work Ahead. LGBT Health. Dec. 2025

Beyond Prevention: How Gender-Affirming Care Can Transform HIV Outcomes for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Populations. American Journal of Public Health. October 2025.

Public Health and Ethical Risks of Rollbacks on Medicaid Coverage for Gender-Affirming Care. JAMA. August 2025.

A Ham Reduction Response to Bans on Gender-Affirming Care. JAMA Health Forum. July 2025.

Healthcare Access and Utilization Among Sexual and Gender Minorities. Second International Handbook on the Demography of Sexuality. June 2025.

LGBTQ+ Identity Social Support and Care Access Among LGBTQ+ Caregivers of Individuals Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's Disease, and Related Dementias. Alzheimer's & Dementia. May 2025.

Patient Reports of Motivations and Preparation for Penile Prosthesis Among Transgender Individuals. International Journal of Transgender Health. March 2025.