June 28, 2021
By Lisa Ryan

Drexel University community members are invited to attend Drexel University College of Medicine and Tower Health’s LGBTQ+ Symposium, an all-day virtual event on Wednesday, June 30. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., presenters from the Philadelphia region and across the U.S. will share their perspectives as patients or as health care professionals, educating attendees about providing quality, equitable health care for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Featured Presenters:

Katelyn Regan, LSW, MEd (they/them)

At 9:15 a.m., Katelyn Regan, LSW, MEd, will provide an introduction to LGBTQ+ health care, with historical context. In their presentation they will cover gender identity, medical gatekeeping, and narrative medicine, which encourages patients to share their stories with providers to help guide their care.

Regan is a clinical social worker serving gender variant, gender expansive, and transgender youth and their families with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Gender and Sexuality Development Clinic. They also provide training and education on gender identity for health care providers and educators who want to become more inclusive in their work. They are currently a doctoral candidate at Widener University studying nonbinary and genderqueer patients’ experiences navigating medical systems and accessing gender-affirming care.

Shannon McCool, PT, DPT, WCS, CLT (she/her)

At 10:15 a.m., Shannon McCool, PT, DPT, WCS, CLT, will present on providing comfortable, quality pelvic floor physical therapy to LGBTQ+ patients.

McCool helped shape the transgender health program at Penn Therapy & Fitness, where she provides pelvic health and lymphedema physical therapy. McCool also helps educate Philadelphia-area health care providers to better meet transgender patients’ physical therapy needs.

She is an alumna of Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions’ Doctor of Physical Therapy program.

Michelle Caster, MD, MPH (she/her)

Michelle Caster, MD, MPH, will present at 10:15 a.m. on preventative care for members of the LGBTQ+ community, including PrEP, a daily medicine to help prevent HIV acquisition.

Caster is a family medicine physician and assistant professor at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Although she treats patients with varying sexualities and gender identities, she is especially passionate about providing care for gender, romantic and sexual minorities (GRSM) and for people with HIV. Caster is a lead faculty member for University Hospitals’ LGBTQ and Gender Care team, which aims to address health disparities for GRSM patients and provide quality consultations and continuing care to patients seeking gender affirming services in Northeastern Ohio.

Elliot Goodenough, MD, PhD (they/he)

Elliot Goodenough, MD, PhD, will speak at 11:20 a.m. about gender affirming clinical care, including best practices for routine conversations like taking a patient’s medical history.

Goodenough is a faculty member in the Division of Infectious Diseases & HIV Medicine. They are board certified in family medicine and practice at Drexel Medicine’s Partnership Comprehensive Care Practice. They have a clinical interest in the compassionate care of people living with HIV and/or hepatitis C, LGBQ and transgender people, and people with substance use disorder.

Terri Griffith, PsyD (she/her)

At 1:25 p.m., Terri Griffith, PsyD, will present on eating disorders in the LGBTQ+ community.

Griffith is the clinical coordinator of the intensive outpatient program at Sheppard Pratt’s Center for Eating Disorders in Baltimore, MD. In addition to treating eating disorders, Griffith has experience providing education and training to health care staff. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the coming-out experiences of Black gay men, and she has worked with patients on LGBTQ+ issues throughout her career. She is passionate about reducing mental illness stigma among underserved communities.

Ayden Scheim, PhD (he/him)

Ayden Scheim, PhD, will speak at 2:30 p.m. on health disparities and social determinants of health for transgender people.

Scheim is an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics for Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health. He has worked in the field of transgender health for more than 15 years and is currently leading community-based studies with transgender people internationally.

K. Ashley Brandt, DO (she/her)

K. Ashley Brandt, DO, will present at 2:30 p.m. on the history of discrimination toward LGBTQ+ people seeking health care, and on performing gender-inclusive pelvic exams.

Brandt is a board-certified OB/GYN, a fellowship-trained gender affirming surgeon, the director of gender affirming services at Tower Health – Reading Hospital, and a professor of plastic surgery and obstetrics and gynecology. Brandt has experience providing routine care, hormone therapy and gender affirming surgery for patients, and has presented locally and nationally to educate medical students and physicians about transgender health care. She also serves on Reading Hospital and Tower Health - Phoenixville Hospital’s diversity, equity and inclusion committees and on the board of director’s for Philadelphia’s Mazzoni Center.

Brandt completed an OB/GYN residency at Hahnemann University Hospital and completed one of the hospital’s first fellowships in gender affirming surgery.

Community panelists

At 3:35 p.m., members of Philadelphia’s LGBTQ+ community will share their perspectives and experiences navigating the health care system.

 
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