Clinical Speaker Series

Trans Care BC’s Clinical Speaker Series is an opportunity for registered health care providers to learn from experts providing gender-affirming care to trans, Two-Spirit, and gender diverse people.

NOTE: On hiatus (pause) through Summer 2023

Across B.C., more registered health care providers are asking for, and receiving, training and support to provide gender-affirming care to people in their communities.

Trans Care BC invites physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, clinical counsellors, and other registered health care providers in B.C. to join a province-wide Clinical Speaker Series.

Speakers from a variety of disciplines will share their approaches, best practices, and lessons learned in supporting trans, Two-Spirit, and gender diverse people in various health care settings

Trans Care BC's Clinical Speaker Series takes place quarterly from 6pm-8pm on a weeknight. Participants can join online or listen via teleconference. If you would like to register and learn more, please email trans.edu@phsa.ca

Education

University of British Columbia (UBC) BSc (Hons), PhD (Physiology), MD, FRCPC  (Internal Medicine and Endocrinology).

Current activities

  • Clinical Professor and Head, Division of Endocrinology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  • Chair: Health Authority Medical Advisory Committee (HAMAC) Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) Authority. Member Senior Executive Team (SET) VCH
  • President: Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism of British Columbia
  • Consultant: Vancouver Hospital and St Paul's Hospital, Vancouver

Current research and practice interests

  • Diabetes care system transformation: based on linked administrative data bases
  • Telehealth: evaluation of a province-wide implementation in Endocrinology
  • Transgender Endocrine Care: author of evidence-based guidelines for endocrine care

Lauren is the Nurse Educator at Trans Care BC, where she helps develop clinical education and resources for care providers. She is particularly interested in updating clinical resources and guidelines to include considerations for gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapy. Lauren is responsible for the Sexual Health Screening Guidelines in Trans Care BC's Primary Care Toolkit, which provide screening recommendations that are based on an individual's anatomy and hormone status, instead of gender.

 

Dr. Alex Kavanagh will be speaking about considerations for postoperative urological complications following gender-affirming lower surgeries.

 

Dr. Kavanagh is a reconstructive urologist certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He completed medical school in 2008 at the University of Calgary. He subsequently completed a urologic residency at the University of British Columbia in 2013. He then obtained a masters degree in epidemiology of public health at Harvard University. He has completed surgical sub-specialty fellowships in both female pelvic floor reconstructive surgery (Dr Boone, Dr Muir) and male urethral reconstructive surgery (Dr Kulkarni). Dr. Kavanagh trained with Dr. Curtis Crane, in Austin, Texas in gender-affirming surgeries in 2018. 

Adrienne Smith is a transgender human rights activist and drug policy lawyer. They recently settled a BC Supreme Court case which guaranteed access to opiate replacement therapy for prisoners in BC jails. Adrienne appeared at the BC Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada where they argued about the deleterious effects of mandatory minimum sentences for women, indigenous people, and drug users. As a trade union activist, they advocate for transgender inclusion in our unions and workplaces. Adrienne volunteers at the Catherine White Holman Wellness Clinic where they give free legal advice and notarize name change documents for trans people.


‎Cora Beitel is a midwife and community organizer whose people are settlers of European Jewish ancestry. They work and live on the traditional and unceded homeland of the Coast Salish peoples. Cora is a founding member of the Strathcona Midwifery Collective, a practice located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver where they serve a diverse clientele, including many queer and trans clients. 


As well as providing midwifery care, they run a Trans and Queer Pregnancy and Parenting group and provide education on inclusive care to diverse health care providers in the hospitals and in community settings. When not working, they are spending time with family, sharing food, on their bike or out in nature as much as possible.

Fin Gareau is a trans, Indigenous Two-Spirit Nurse Practitioner originally from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, who fully embraces the importance of community reciprocity. He has worked with gender diverse adults and youth and their families for over 15 years. His previous work included outreach/street nursing in the downtown eastside of Vancouver and he has worked as an NP in Island Health. Fin currently works at the Indigenous Primary Health and Wellness Home out of the Friendship Centre in Surrey BC (FRAFCA).


He is honoured to be granted the privilege of providing primary health care for urban Indigenous community, and to trans and non-binary community as well. One of Fin's current focuses in his practice is to work to identify and deconstruct persistent colonized structures and ideologies of health within dominant medical systems, specifically in Indigenous and trans health care in BC. 

J. Matsui De Roo (they/them/theirs) is a registered clinical counsellor and clinical supervisor who offers anti-oppression based education, supervision and guidance for mental health, medical and front line workers with an area of focus in Two-Spirit, trans, non binary and gender diverse wellness.

 

In this session, Matsui will discuss the history and present day landscape of gender-affirming care. Using a trauma-informed, patient centred lens, they will discuss strategies and considerations for offering gender-affirming care, with a focus on low barrier hormone and surgical readiness assessments.

Dr. Taylor is a co-founder and co-director of Olive Fertility Centre in Vancouver, B.C.


After completing her medical degree at Dalhousie University, Dr. Taylor moved to British Columbia to do her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She subsequently completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.

 

She is a Clinical Associate Professor at UBC. Dr. Taylor has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals and has written three book chapters.

 
Dr. Clark is a clinical ethicist whose work focuses on increasing access to care for marginalized communities. 

Dr. Clark completed a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies at The University of British Columbia, with a dissertation on healthcare and ethical decision making among trans youth, caregivers, and healthcare providers in British Columbia. Several peer-reviewed papers have been published based on this work and other research projects on trans healthcare.

At Brandeis University, Dr. Clark currently holds the Allen-Berenson Fellowship in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, conducting research on moral objection to gender-affirming care and teaching courses in feminist bioethics and transgender health. 

‎Elizabeth Saewyc PHD, RN, FSAHM, FCAHS, FAAN, FCAN is Professor and the Director of the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She also leads the multidisciplinary Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre. For more than 25 years, Dr. Saewyc's research and clinical practice as a public health nurse has focused on health equity for marginalized youth, especially for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two Spirit (LGBTQ2S) adolescents. 


Her work with youth has focused on how stigma, violence, and trauma influence adolescents' health and coping behaviours, and what protective factors can foster resilience and improve health equity. 


She was lead investigator for the first federally funded Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey in 2013-2014, and also completed the second national survey 5 years later. Dr. Saewyc has provided consultation on the health issues of LGBTQ2S+ youth and other young people to national and international governments and agencies, including the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, the US White House (under President Obama), the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNESCO. She is a Fellow in the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the American Academy of Nursing, and the Canadian Academy of Nursing. 


Ace Chan, MSc, is a doctoral student in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia whose research centres sexual and gender minority (SGM) people. Ace's research interests include (SGM) health disparities, creating inclusive and accessible health care spaces for SGM folks and illuminate health inequities in marginalized populations. Ace's passion for accessible and inclusive services for SGM people extends beyond academia and into the community as well. 


Ace has served as a member of the Trans and Gender Variant steering committee for the City of Vancouver, is a member of the community advisor group to Trans Care BC and is also a board member for the Catherine White Holman Wellness Center which provides lower-barrier health care services for gender minority people. Ace has demonstrated the ability to communicate science to people of all ages including stakeholders, with their position at Telus World of Science, as a community scientist and being a part of the leadership team for the BC Knowledge Translation Community of Practice.

Riel Dupuis-Rossi, (MA, MSW, RSW), is a Two-Spirit therapist of Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk), Algonquin, and Italian descent. Riel grew up in their traditional territories, off reserve in Hamilton, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec. Since 2011, Riel has been providing decolonising and culturally-centred trauma therapy to Indigenous individuals, couples, families, and groups in Vancouver, British Columbia, located in the unceded and occupied Homelands of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations.


Riel has also designed and delivered educational training on Indigenous cultural safety and provided clinical consultation for allied healthcare staff working with Indigenous peoples within the healthcare system. Riel earned a Master of Educational Studies from McGill University and a Master of Social Work from California State University Los Angeles.

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.

SOURCE: Clinical Speaker Series ( )
Page printed: . Unofficial document if printed. Please refer to SOURCE for latest information.

Copyright © Provincial Health Services Authority. All Rights Reserved.

    Copyright © 2024 Provincial Health Services Authority