Advances in Research on Pediatric Gender Affirming Healthcare

Danielle N. Moyer is the Director of Psychology for an interdisciplinary pediatric gender clinic, which serves the medical, social, and mental health needs of transgender and gender diverse youth and their families. Dr. Moyer has served over 800 families in her past 4 years in this role and continues to conduct research and educate others on pediatric gender affirming healthcare. As the co-investigator on a multi-institution, grant-funded research study on sleep health and trans youth, as well as several additional unfunded research projects, she regularly presents research in this area at international conferences, publishes in peer reviewed journals, and works closely with prominent researchers throughout the world for collaboration and staying up to date on the latest research. Dr. Moyer is committed to equity, justice, and ensuring responsible dissemination of advances in gender affirming healthcare research.

Jess Guerriero has graduate degrees in both Social Work and Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons College. Their thesis focused on the expansion of transgender health coverage and the movement toward therapists as partners, rather than gatekeepers, in the transition process. Jess worked at Fenway Health, a community health center geared towards LGBTQI-identified individuals, where they carried a caseload of children, adolescents, and adults, some navigating medical transitions. Jess also ran a support group for parents of trans youth and established an independent consulting business to assist schools, businesses, and providers implement more trans-inclusive policies. Jess previously worked in Quality Management at LifeWorksNW, served as an internal trainer on LGBTQI-related topics, and was the chair of the Transgender Care Workgroup. Currently Jess works for OHSU’s Transgender Health Program, is highly involved with patients seeking care from Pediatric Endocrinology and pursuing phalloplasty, and regularly participates in patient and workforce education sessions.

Dr. Connelly provides care for patients with a wide variety of endocrinology disorders. She is medical director for the Doernbecher Gender Clinic, which provides comprehensive medical care for transgender and gender diverse children/adolescents, under the umbrella of the OHSU Transgender Health Program. She is also interested in caring for children with differences in sexual development and is a co-founder of the Doernbecher Sex Development Program. She cares for children and adolescents with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus at the Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center. Her research interests include congenital hypothyroidism and newborn screening methods for detection as well as improving medical care for transgender youth. Dr. Connelly is also active in teaching and education and serves as the rotation director for students and pediatric residents on the pediatric endocrinology rotation. She is also a college lead for the Urban Medical Subspecialties College of the School of Medicine.