Our Team
Executive Director
Tonda L. Hughes, PhD, RN, FAAN
- Henrik H. Bendixen Professor of International Nursing (in Psychiatry)
Research Areas of Focus: sexual minority women’s health, alcohol use/abuse, violence and victimization
Co-Director
Walter Bockting, PhD, LP
- Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry and Nursing)
Research Areas of Focus: identity development across the lifespan, transgender health, SGM aging
Core Members
Billy Caceres, PhD, MSN, BSN, BA, FAAN, FAHA
Research Areas of Focus: psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease in SGM populations across the lifespan
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Kasey B. Jackman, PhD, MPhil, MS, BS, BA, PMHNP-BC
- Assistant Professor of Nursing at CUMC
Research Areas of Focus: Prevention and Treatment of Mental Health Disparities Among SGM People
Ronica Mukerjee, DNP, MsA, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, LAc
- Assistant Professor of Nursing at CUMC
Research and Clinical Areas of Focus: border-police-prison abolition; racial, economic, and health care justice in LGBTQIA+, refugee, and migrant communities, for people with substance use disorders, and for people living with HIV.
Jean-Marie Bruzzese, PhD
- Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology (in Nursing)
Research Areas of Focus: understanding and reducing health disparities in children and adolescents
Maureen George, PhD, AE-C, RN, FAAN
- Professor of Nursing at CUMC
Research Areas of Focus: community-based participatory research, health inequities, health beliefs, behavioral interventions
Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, PhD, MPhil, BA
- Associate Professor of Health Sciences Research (in Nursing)
Research Areas of Focus: racial, ethnic, sexual and gender minority health equity; stigma and discrimination; mental health; substance and alcohol use; HIV/AIDS continuum of prevention and care; global health; multi-level intervention research; mobile health technologies; implementation science
![Profile Headshot]( "Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, PhD, MPhil, BA")
Phoenix A Matthews, PhD, MS, BS, LCP
- Professor of Behavioral Sciences (in Nursing)
Research Areas of Focus: health inequities, cancer prevention and control, tobacco cessation, sexual and gender minority health, racial and ethnic minorities, culturally targeted health promotion interventions
Fellows
Lauren Bochicchio, PhD, MSW
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: mechanisms linking childhood sexual abuse and hazardous drinking among sexual minority women
Jeremy D. Kidd, MD, MPH
- Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: clinical research, culturally adapted psychosocial interventions, alcohol use, opioid use, transgender health, medical education
Patrick J. Lao, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology and in the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center)
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: neuroimaging and biofluid biomarkers, ontextual factors that capture relevant mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease in underrepresented and underserved groups
Jessie Ford, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: influences of expectations and inequalities around gender and sexuality on sexual health, violence, and pleasure
Sarah Leonard, MSN, RN
- PhD Student
- Predoctoral Fellow
Research Area of Focus: intersectional discrimination as an underlying cause of SGM mental health disparities
Tyler Gaedecke, BSN, RN
- PhD Student
- Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: supporting transgender and non-binary health by improving nursing practice, policy, and care delivery
David Lopez Veneros, MA, BSN, RN
- PhD Student
- Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: stress management, cardiovascular health, and health disparities among sexual and gender minority people
Susan Maloney, BSN, RN, BA
- PhD Student
- Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: transgender adolescent health, sex education, policy at the school, district, and state levels
Staff
Lizzie Chadbourne, MPH
- Project Manager
Former CSGMHR Pre and Postdoctoral Fellows
Cindy Veldhuis, PhD
- Former Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Role of Intimate Relationships in Sexual Minority Women's Alcohol Use
Current position: Assistant Professor, Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University
April Ancheta, PhD, RN, BSN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: SGM Adolescent Health, Bullying and Obesity-Related Health Disparaties
Current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program at Penn and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute
Kodiak Soled, PhD, RN, MSN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Social Support Experiences Among SGM+ Childbearing Individuals
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School Department of Population Medicine
Joseph Belloir, PhD, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: SGM Mental Health, Relationship Between Traumatic/Adverse Experiences and Sleep Disturbances in Transgender and Nonbinary Individuals
Current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University School of Nursing
Yashika Sharma, PhD, RN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Impact of Minority Stress on Substance Use and Mental Health of SGM People
Current position: Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Columbia University School of Nursing
Sarah Zollweg, PhD, RN
- Former Predoctoral Fellow
Research Areas of Focus: Structural Influences on Sexual Minority Women’s Substance Use and Mental Health
Current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the National Clinician Scholars Program (NCSP), David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA