The national Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is supporting a unique multistate project that builds on its previously funded work in Arkansas to address health care

discrimination for transgender/nonbinary individuals – those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

The two-year, $249,892 Engagement Award is co-led by Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., a TRI-supported community engagement leader, and Alex Marshall, Ph.D., M.P.H., at the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. Working together with co-investigators at the University of North Carolina and University of Georgia, they will lead development of a Regional Transgender Health Research and Education Collaborative with community collaborators.

“We’re very excited to receive this award and to have such distinguished research collaborators,” Stewart said. Tonia Poteat, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.M.Sc., at North Carolina, has focused her research, teaching and clinical practice on HIV and transgender health disparities. Anneliese Singh, Ph.D., M.S., at Georgia, is a psychotherapist and has research expertise in numerous areas of transgender health.

Key transgender community partners include the Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition, led by Krystopher Stephens, LaGender Inc. (Georgia), and Triangle Empowerment (North Carolina). The award will provide stipend support for transgender individuals who participate.

The collaborative’s work is in the South where transgender people are more likely to experience health care discrimination, such as being refused care.