Archive Year

We are delighted to announce that Erique Zhang has been named the recipient of the 2020 Graduate Fellow Research Award!

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students considering a career in medicine can now consult the LGBTQ+ Pre-Med guide for information about finding a good fit, answers to common application questions, and connections to additional resources.

In August 2020, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released Healthy People 2030, its set of national public health objectives for the next decade.

A new study from researchers at Northwestern University’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) finds that reducing substance use is associated with decreases in symptoms of depression among sexual minority men and transgender women.

Researchers at Northwestern University’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing are thrilled to announce the stable release of Network Canvas, a powerful network data collection tool developed specifically to simplify network data capture. The release today marks the culmination of NIH Grant R01DA0422711.

A team of Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) faculty, staff, and interns from the institute’s EDIT Program recently authored the paper “Evidence of social and structural COVID-19 disparities by sexual orientation, gender identity, and race/ethnicity in an urban environment” in the Journal of Urban Health.

Researchers at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) are examining COVID-19 testing and prevention behaviors among racial/ethnic minority and sexual and gender minority (SGM) young people with funding from a new National Institutes of Health initiative.

Ricky Hill, Ph.D., has been promoted to Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine effective October 2020. Hill is a faculty member at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH), where they direct the 2GETHER Project, an HIV prevention and relationship education program for young male couples.

The Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing’s (ISGMH) new cohort of postdoctoral fellows Ji-Young Lee, Ph.D.; Christopher Owens, Ph.D., M.P.H.; and Joshua Schrock, Ph.D., M.P.H., presented at the Current Issues in LGBTQ Health lecture series event hosted on October 15, 2020.

Dr. Kenneth Mayer, the medical research director and co-chair of the Fenway Institute and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, presented at the Leaders in LGBTQ Health lecture series hosted by Northwestern University's Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) on September 30, 2020.

Northwestern University researchers are examining the impact of COVID-19 on young adult sexual and gender minority communities with an innovative antibody testing study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The new paper “Sensitive Sharing on Social Media: Exploring Willingness to Disclose PrEP Usage Among Adolescent Males Who Have Sex With Males” explores how adolescent men who have sex with men (AMSM) make decisions about sharing sensitive personal information on social media.

After an individual is diagnosed with HIV or other STI, can an interactive digital tool improve the accuracy of identifying who else may have been exposed and the speed of testing and linking those people to care?

After an individual is diagnosed with HIV or other STI, can an interactive digital tool improve the accuracy of identifying who else may have been exposed and the speed of testing and linking those people to care?

A team of researchers from the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) at Northwestern University, Howard Brown Health, and the Bisexual Queer Alliance Chicago received a grant to examine the barriers bisexual people face when accessing healthcare.

A new R01 grant from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) was awarded to Lauren Beach, Ph.D., J.D., faculty member at Northwestern University's Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) and in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Feinberg School of Medicine.

Brian Mustanski, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH), was featured in a researcher spotlight by NIH’s Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office.

Kathryn Macapagal, Ph.D., has been named the interim associate director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) at Northwestern University, effective August 2020.

Michael Newcomb, Ph.D., has been promoted to tenured Associate Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine effective September 1, 2020.

Kathryn Macapagal, Ph.D., has been promoted to Research Associate Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine effective September 1, 2020.

ISGMH faculty member Steven W. Thrasher, assistant professor and Daniel H. Renberg Chair of social justice reporting at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, has been awarded a $75,000 grant from the Ford Foundation.

ISGMH Director Brian Mustanski, Ph.D., presented the inaugural Scientific Webinar Series session hosted by the NIH's Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO) on June 30.

Northwestern University researchers have received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to generate scientific insights into the determinants of SARS-CoV-2 exposure with a minimally invasive approach to community-based serological testing.

The Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) at Northwestern University is outraged by the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor and by police violence that causes the deaths of Black people year after year.

The Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISMGH) at Northwestern University celebrates the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of workplace protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) employees.

Last month, ISGMH faculty member and assistant professor Dennis Li, Ph.D., led a webinar on implementation strategies with Patrick Sullivan, M.D., of Emory University as part of the Implementation Science Consultation, Coordination and Collaboration Initiative (ISC3I).

David Moskowitz, Ph.D., an Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) faculty member and director of the SMART Project, recently co-authored the paper “What If My Dad Finds Out!?: Assessing Adolescent Men Who Have Sex with Men’s Perceptions About Parents as Barriers to PrEP Uptake.” 

A new R01 grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) was awarded to Michelle Birkett, Ph.D., of Northwestern University.

As antibody testing ramps up across the country, Northwestern University researchers have developed a new method for testing for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) antibodies.

The RADAR study at Northwestern’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) was recently awarded a $13.7 million, five-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the NIH.

Brian Feinstein, Ph.D., is a research assistant professor at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH).

Christina Dyar, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH).

Liz McConnell, Ph.D., who completed a research fellowship with ISGMH in 2018, was awarded the Emory L. Cowen Dissertation Award for the Promotion of Wellness by the Society for Community Research and Action, a division of the American Psychological Association.

Researchers at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) started 2020 with a notable array of publications in top journals.

Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) faculty member Lauren Beach, Ph.D., J.D., was featured prominently on a Times Square billboard promoting bisexual and pansexual health during February and March 2020.

Michael Newcomb, PhD, an Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) faculty member, co-edited the latest special section of the Archives of Sexual Behavior with Jonathan Rendina of Hunter College.

The majority of teenage boys most at risk for developing HIV are not being tested for the disease, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. This lack of testing feeds the growing epidemic of undiagnosed HIV infections in the United States.

Ethan Morgan, PhD, completed a postdoctoral fellowship with ISGMH and started a new position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University in January 2020.

HIV affects black men who have sex with men, which includes gay and bisexual men, more than any other population in the United States.

Director of ISGMH's Evaluation, Data Integration and Technical Assistance (EDIT) research program, Dr. Gregory Phillips II, has published the paper “The Role of Messaging and Prevention Advocacy in PrEP Attitudes, Perceptions, and Uptake Among YMSM and Transgender Women” in The Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS).

Frank J. Palella Jr., Ph.D., affiliate faculty member at ISGMH and professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University, presented on his work on January 21 as part of ISGMH’s annual Affiliate Showcase.

Nanette Benbow, affiliate faculty member at ISGMH and research assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern, presented on her work on January 21 as part of ISGMH’s annual Affiliate Showcase.

The Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) is dedicated to fostering innovative, multidisciplinary research to improve sexual and gender minority (SGM) health.