Center for Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research

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 CUSON Faculty

  • Billy Caceres, PhD, MSN, RN

    • Assistant Professor of Nursing

    Research Areas of Focus: psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease in SGM populations across the lifespan

  • Kasey B Jackman, PhD, MPhil, MS, BS, BA, PMHNP-BC

    • Associate Professor of Nursing at CUMC

    Research Areas of Focus: Prevention and Treatment of Mental Health Disparities Among SGM People

    Hear Dr. Jackman speak about his work with LGBTQ patients

  • 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.

    Photograph of Ronica Mukerjee, DNP

  • Jean-Marie Bruzzese, PhD

    • Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology (in Nursing)

    Research Areas of Focus: understanding and reducing health disparities in children and adolescents

    Photograph of Jean-Marie Bruzzese, PhD

  • 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

    Profile Headshot

  • 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

  • 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

    Dr. Phoenix Matthews

Core CUMC Affiliates

  • Jeremy D. Kidd, MD, MPH

    • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry

    Research Areas of Focus: clinical research, culturally adapted psychosocial interventions, alcohol use, opioid use, transgender health, medical education 

    Headshot, Dr. Jeremy Kidd

  • Patrick J. Lao, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology and in the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center)

    Research Areas of Focus: neuroimaging and biofluid biomarkers, ontextual factors that capture relevant mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease in underrepresented and underserved groups

    Headshot, Dr. Lao

  • Jessie Ford, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences

    Research Areas of Focus: influences of expectations and inequalities around gender and sexuality on sexual health, violence, and pleasure

    Headshot, Dr. Jessie Ford

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

    Learn more about Lauren Bochicchio's research

    Headshot of Lauren Bochicchio.

  • Tyler Gaedecke, BSN, RN

    • PhD Candidate
    • Predoctoral Fellow

    Research Areas of Focus: Access to care and healthcare teams for transgender and gender-diverse individuals, care delivery after gender-affirming surgery, mixed-methods research, social network analysis

  • David Lopez Veneros, MA, BSN, RN

    • PhD Candidate
    • Predoctoral Fellow

    Research Areas of Focus: Mindfulness and mind-body connection, stress management, physical activity, cardiovascular health, and health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations

  • Susan Maloney, BSN, RN

    • PhD Candidate
    • Predoctoral Fellow

    Research Areas of Focus: Transgender and gender diverse adolescent sexual health as it relates to policy at the school-, district-, and state-levels; gender diverse populations, pediatrics, sexuality and gender, and an intersectional approach to public policy

    Headshot, Susan Maloney

  • Sophia Kalomeris, BSN, RN

    • PhD Student
    • Predoctoral Fellow

    Research Areas of Focus: Sexual minority women, improving sexual health outcomes by mitigating barriers to care, STD/STI status 

    Headshot, Sophia Kalomeris

Staff

  • Elizabeth (Lizzie) Chadbourne, MPH

    • Project Manager
    Lizzie Chadbourne, MPH

  • Faith Wood

    • Intern

    Research areas of focus: Queer identity development, physiological and mental health implications of minority stress, protective factors that promote well-being among sexual and gender minority populations

    Image of Faith Wood

Former 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

    • 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, MSN, RN

    • 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

  • Sarah Leonard, PhD, MSN, RN

    • Former Predoctoral Fellow

    Research Area of Focus: Intersectional discrimination as an underlying cause of SGM mental health disparities

    Current position: T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Population Health Science Scholars Program, NYU Grossman School of Medicine