Theme:  Child and Adolescent Mental Health with a focus in transgender health and neurodiversity

Dr. Ashleigh Yule (she/her) is a registered psychologist specializing in child and adolescent mental health with a focus in transgender health and neurodiversity. Ashleigh provides gender affirming counselling, assessment, and consultation services for gender diverse children, adolescents, and their families. She works in private practice in Calgary and as a visiting professional in remote and rural areas of Alberta and the North West Territories. She is also a psychological consultant with the Institute for Sexual Minority Health in Montréal, Québec. In addition to her work in transgender health, Ashleigh has a 20-year background in autism assessment, treatment, and research. She is a sessional instructor in the Educational Studies in School Psychology program at the University of Calgary and completed her PhD at the Autism Spectrum Research, Education, and Training (ASERT) laboratory there. Ashleigh's dissertation research focused on centring the experiences and perspectives of transgender autistic individuals to ensure that medical, mental health, and research narratives amplify the voices of those with lived experience and first-person expertise. She is accountable to the trans and autistic communities.

Content

‎From January-May, we will be hosting a Journal Club on the third Thursday of the month, held in the same time block as the Mentorship Call (12:10pm - 1:00pm).

Participants will be invited to read one or two selected articles in advance of the meeting, and the facilitator will guide the group through discussion, including critical analysis of strengths and limitations of studies. The over-arching goal of the Journal Club is to improve care through integration of high-quality research into evidence-based practice.

To register for the Journal Club, or if you have any questions, please email trans.edu@phsa.ca 

Theme:  Supporting gender diverse immigrants and refugees

Nazanin is a clinical counsellor, advocate and activist living on the traditional, ancestral, unceded lands of Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh First Nations. Currently, she is providing clinical supervision in gender-affirming and anti-violence sector, as well as working with Rainbow Refugee Society as Support Manager serving LGBTQI+ refugees and new comers, in addition to her private practice.

Dr. Wallace Wong is a registered psychologist in both California and British Columbia.  He has been working with transgender clients, especially with children and youth, since 1996.  While he continued to work with transgender and other sexual minorities, he has also worked with children and youth who present with different sexual health issues for 24 years.  He currently works at the Ministry of Children and Family Development – Child and Youth Mental Health, as a clinical psychologist of the Gender Health Program (GHP), and the Children and Adolescence Sexual Health Program (ACSH).  He also has a private practice where he sees children and youth with different gender and sexual health issues.

Dr. Wong has been doing research on topics of transgender children and youth for numbers of years, and they can be found in different professional journals.  He is also an author of three sexual health related children books called, When Kathy is Keith, It's So Gay and It's Okay, and My Positive Uncle.

Ingrid Cosio has been a family physician in Prince George, BC, since 2005 when she completed her residency training. She has been providing specialized gender affirming care to patients for over 10 years. Since August 2015, Ingrid has worked along side a small team of providers at the Northern Gender Clinic to provide multidisciplinary care to gender diverse people in Northern BC. She enjoys working with Trans Care BC and local resources/groups to improve access to care for gender-diverse Northerners. Ingrid is also actively involved in the training of family practice residents in the UBC Prince George Family Medicine Residency Program.

‎From January-May, we will be hosting a Journal Club on the third Thursday of the month, held in the same time block as the Mentorship Call (12:10pm - 1:00pm).

Participants will be invited to read one or two selected articles in advance of the meeting, and the facilitator will guide the group through discussion, including critical analysis of strengths and limitations of studies. The over-arching goal of the Journal Club is to improve care through integration of high-quality research into evidence-based practice.

To register for the Journal Club, or if you have any questions, please email trans.edu@phsa.ca 

‎Tim is a Clinical Pharmacist and Lecturer at the UBC Pharmacists Clinic. He has a passion for providing culturally safe, patient-centered services. This has enabled him to take on roles collaborating with First Nations communities and advocating for 2SLGBTQQIA+ health at the Clinic.

After completing her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2013 at UBC, Nicole pursued additional training at the University of Ottawa.  She completed a Fellowship in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology in June 2014.  She also added a Health Care Education Scholars Program Diploma from the Academy for Innovation in Medical Education to her list of accomplishments.

She has joined the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology as a Clinical Assistant Professor, and the medical staff at BC Women's Hospital, BC Children's Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital.  Her adult general obstetrics and gynecology referral practice is based at the Diamond Health Care Centre.

Stephanie Kemp:

After completing her BSN from UBC in 2004, Stephanie worked primarily at Children's Hospital. She's spent the past 13 years working in the Emergency Department at BCCH. While working part time at Children's Hospital over the years, she also worked in various other roles as a nurse with a focus on children and youth. She has a passion for working with youth and incorporating family centred care into her practice. She joined the BCCH Gender Clinic last year and has enjoyed supporting youth and their families in their journey.

Robyn Lalani:

Robyn Lalani is a social worker at BC Children's Hospital in the Gender Clinic. After graduating from The University of Western Ontario, with a BA in Sociology, Robyn relocated to the west coast and completed her BSW at the University of Victoria.  She then went on to complete a Master of Social Work from Dalhousie University. In 2007, Robyn began working at BC Children's and Women's Hospitals; for the past two years she has worked in the Gender Clinic, supporting youth who are gender diverse, and their families. Robyn is also a Certified Coach and has a private coaching practice. 

Kendall McSweeney:

Kendall is a social worker at the BCCH Children's gender Clinic. She joined the team in August 2021. She also works part time with the Canucks Autism Network facilitating social and recreational programs for autistic youth and adults, including mental health education and education in healthy relationships and sexuality. Kendall has a BA in psychology from the University of Michigan attending on a rowing scholarship, a BSW from UBC, and an MSW from UBCO. She has worked in healthcare social work since 2018 including physical rehab, ICU, and acute care with adults. Kendall enjoys supporting gender diverse youth and their families access affirming care and is honoured to be doing this work.