Award Announcement: Sara Golidy, Inaugural BIPOC Researcher Spotlight Award
by Harris Qureshi, Director for Research & Analytics
The Research and Analytics Team is happy to announce Sara Golidy (she/her/hers) as the inaugural winner of the MSPA BIPOC Researcher Spotlight Award. This award is valued at $100.00 and highlights BIPOC 2SLGBTQ+ medical student contributions to research. Awardees are selected amongst medical students with accepted abstracts to the 2024 MSPA National Conference.
At this year’s Conference Sara contributed a poster presentation of her literature review titled: Evaluation of psychological distress among transmasculine adolescents who receive gender affirming hormonal therapy compared to chest reconstruction surgery.
An overview - “My research project aims to assess mental health outcomes for transmasculine adolescents who receive gender affirming hormonal therapy in comparison to chest reconstructive gender affirming surgery. Overall, evidence suggests that both hormone therapy and chest surgery can help transmasculine teens feel better emotionally. Hormone therapy seems to lower the risk of suicide attempts and depression, while chest surgery improves quality of life and reduces distress about chest appearance. More studies will provide greater insight to transgender experiences in hopes to improve health outcomes for transgender adolescent patients. Gender affirming care saves lives and is important for us to continue to research.”
Sara is a medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine interested in pursuing General Surgery. Her passion for medicine includes improving health equity, advocating for minority populations and serving underserved communities. As a member of MSPA, Sara has been able to mentor LGBTQ+ pre-med students which has been a rewarding experience for her. She hopes to continue work in increasing diversity in medicine and advocating for LGBTQ+ patients. In her spare time, Sara enjoys spending time with family and friends, trying new foods and exploring new places.
The BIPOC Researcher Spotlight Award is an initiative of MSPA's Research & Analytics Team. The R&A Team is interested in building relationships with multiply-marginalized BIPOC & URIM LGBTQ+ medical students. We believe part of building relationships involves leveraging our resources to support the capacity development and advancement of BIPOC LGBTQ+ researchers in the pursuit of intersectional queer health improvements. If you are interested in connecting and or sharing how the R&A Team can better support intersectional BIPOC LGBTQ+ research, you're welcome to contact us at research@medpride.org.
Poster coming soon.