Abtin is an Iranian-American undergraduate student at the University of California, Riverside majoring in Bioengineering. He has an affinity for the trans community, advocating for trans concerns through various leadership positions in queer student organizations. Additionally, he collaborates with UCR School of Medicine students, staff, and faculty to help ensure the medical needs of his community are met. Abtin recently co-led a research study focused on the impact that QTPoC-serving student organizations have in combating food insecurity and mental health disparities. He aspires to continue serving his community through a career that integrates his engineering skillset to improve quality of healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community.

Alexis is an undergraduate LGBTQ+ Studies major at San Diego State University, minoring in Psychology, as well as Counseling and Social Change. She intends to pursue a graduate degree in Licensed Clinical Counseling or Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy that will serve to aid the queer community and everyone in need of behavioral health services for better quality of life. As a Latin American trans woman, she is passionate about mitigating redlining in the healthcare field that would discourage BIPOC, trans, nonbinary, two-spirit, and queer people from accessing the gender affirming medical care that they need. She is mindful of the way intersectionality creates privilege and disadvantage, which is why she grounds her research and fieldwork with empathy towards the lived experience. Her goal is to achieve better quality of care for underserved populations through self-empowered interventions that prioritize a healthy mind, body, and soul.

Ansharan Akbar is a student at the University of Maryland, majoring in Public Health Science. As a first-generation Pakistani-American, she is dedicated to promoting health equity for marginalized communities, with a focus on mental health, epidemiology, and HIV prevention. As a SHINE Strong Scholar, she is passionate about advocating for transgender and non-binary communities, striving to learn and gain the necessary skills to make a difference by reducing health disparities and discrimination faced by these communities. Ansharan aspires to earn her Master's in Public Health and then become a public health physician, focusing on creating inclusive health policies and interventions that ensure equitable access to healthcare for all individuals.

Eileen Yu is a student at UCI majoring in Political Science with a minor in Biology. They are a leader of Queer and Asian at UCI and Model United Nations at UCI. As a Queer person of color, they are passionate about solving inequality in healthcare, especially the disparities in healthcare for transgender individuals and women of color. As an aspiring doctor, they would like to work towards supporting and uplifting the trans and nonbinary community.

Oyku is an undergraduate student studying biochemistry at UCLA with a minor in Public Health. As a first generation immigrant, born and raised in Turkey before moving to the U.S., Oyku was raised with an emphasis of cherishing community and collectivism. Therefore, she hopes to continue to explore the role of culture and social stigma in gender identities and sexual orientation to better serve and uplift the queer community. As a SHINE Scholar, Oyku is excited to learn about making accessible and gender-affirming care for transgender and non-binary communities. In the future, she aims to address health disparities amongst the multicultural sexual and gender minorities and hopes to spread awareness and improve health education whilst learning and excelling with the community that surrounds her.

Riley is a Trans and Nonbinary returning undergraduate student, studying Psychology at the University of San Francisco. After some time from their first degree, they decided to return to study for a second bachelor’s in Psychology in pursuit of their dream to become an advocate, researcher and healthcare provider in the LGBTQIA+ community. They are currently working as a volunteer crisis counselor with the TrevorProject, serving Queer youth in crisis. They also are an Robert Holgate Pride Fellowship scholar, working to advocate for greater resources and support for Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) students on campus. Lastly, they devote themself to TGNC research in hopes of providing new findings in addition to developing themselves as a resource for bettering the standards of care and support for all TGNC people. They are particularly interested in TGNC research with special attention to GNC and Nonbinary populations in hopes of bringing greater representation and attention to those people.

Leo is an undergraduate researcher studying biochemistry at UC Berkeley. A Brazilian American born and raised in Miami, FL, Leo was brought up in multicultural Latino spaces that she continues to cherish and take interest in today. As a transgender woman hoping to enrich and uplift the queer community, Leo aims for a career that couples her keenness for molecular & cell biology to an impactful practice in transgender medicine. With research background in cancer proteomics and nanodrug cancer therapeutics, she plans on utilizing her biomedical foundations to improve queer healthcare in an intersectional manner.

Mentored Research Project: An intersectional analysis of the lived experiences of Latina trans women.

Karm is a dedicated fourth-year student at UC Berkeley, studying Public Health and Data Science. With a passion for medicine and epidemiology, she aims to make a significant impact as a future HIV doctor. Through this opportunity, she seeks to deepen her understanding of HIV transmission within the transgender community and contribute to evidence-based interventions.

Mentored Research Project: Recent incarceration and health care accessibility among trans women in San Francisco.

Aiden Chan is a student at UCLA majoring in General Biology with a minor in Music Industry. As a SHINE Strong scholar, he is excited to learn more about population health and how to better serve transgender and nonbinary communities. He is also currently an intern at the Mavila lab at Cedars-Sinai studying liver diseases. Aiden identifies as a a cisgender bisexual second-generation Chinese and Taiwanese-American, and enjoys giving back to LGBTQ+ and Mandarin and Cantonese speaking populations through forming personal connections in teaching and medical settings. In the future, he hopes to continue to support underserved communities, be it through clinical research or healthcare.

Mentored Research Project: Unmet gender affirmative care needs among trans women in San Francisco.

Mayor Manlapid is a Psychology undergraduate student at UC Santa Cruz with a strong devotion to serving their community. Much of their passion lies in mental health advocacy and promotion; after founding and leading a mental health awareness club in high school, they have since moved on to promoting mental well-being at a local and national level. At a local level, Mayor works alongside UCSC’s Student Health Center as their lead Mental Health Coordinator, shaping and leading their school’s mental health programming with a public health-minded approach. At a national level, Mayor’s work with the National Alliance on Mental Illness as a member of their youth advisory council (NAMI Next Gen) allows them to further their efforts in destigmatizing mental illness. As someone who identifies as nonbinary, Mayor is personally passionate about the utilization of research to uplift trans experiences and promote trans well-being. They aspire to further study Public Health with a mental health/behavioral science focus.

Mentored Research Project: Identity congruence and mental health outcomes among trans women: the significance of self-reflection and self-expression as protective factors.

Paavani is a first-generation student at the University of San Francisco majoring in Biology and Theology & Religious Studies with minors in Gender & Sexualities Studies and Public Service & Community Engagement. She is interested in the intersections between spirituality, health, and identity, and is passionate about making affirming and culturally sensitive care accessible to underserved communities. Paavani is especially passionate about addressing health disparities among racial, gender, and sexual minorities. In the future Paavani hopes to empower and uplift marginalized communities as a Physician-Scientist Activist, and continue advocating for and learning from those around her.

Mentored Research Project: Injection drug use among trans women.

Tayo Fasan is a student at Vanderbilt University majoring in Medicine, Health, and Society with a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies. She supports queer people of color on campus as a programming intern at Vanderbilt’s Women’s Center and a student research assistant for a project on re-entry resources for queer folk in Nashville. As a fierce advocate for health justice, Tayo seeks to uplift trans and nonbinary communities of color as a Black nonbinary lesbian themself. Tayo’s future career goals are to earn a medical degree and MPH to become a primary care physician specializing in LGBTQ+ health.

Mentored Research Project: Sexual risk Behavior and STI testing at the intersection of gender and sexual orientation.

My name is Araya McNeal, and I was born in Florence, South Carolina. I currently live in Richmond, VA and attend Virginia Commonwealth University. I am majoring in Biology and minoring in Gender, Sexual, and Women’s Studies. As a Black nonbinary woman, I am passionate about challenging oppressive systems that actively work against marginalized populations, specifically the Black and LGBTQ+ community. As a SHINE Strong Scholar, I hope to grow professionally and personally while also gaining to the tools to better serve the nonbinary and trans community. In the future, I wish to dedicate my focus towards eliminating health disparities affecting marginalized bodies.

Mentored Research Project: Prevalence and correlates of intimate partner violence (IPV) and economic precarity, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among transgender women.

Vinita Saxena is attending UCLA, majoring in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology and minoring in Disability Studies. They are a leader of Trans UCLA Pride, an organization dedicated to providing community and advocacy to trans students at UCLA. As a queer, trans, nonbinary person of color, they are passionate about supporting queer and trans communities in a medical setting. In the future, they aspire to become a doctor to work to decrease the stigma associated with disability and support LGBTQ+ patients.

Mentored Research Project: Experiences of stigma and discrimination against transgender men in Bhutan.

Emmy is a student at Vanderbilt University studying Medicine, Health & Society and Psychology. As a SHINE Strong Scholar, she is excited to gain experience in the field of public health, especially in historically marginalized groups. On campus, she is passionate about her roles in Kesem, a national nonprofit that provides free summer camps to children of cancer patients, and Partners in Health Engage, which raises funds and meets with policymakers to advance the right to health in the third world. In her community, Emmy works with the Nashville Prison Project to work toward the abolition of the prison-industrial complex. She hopes to continue advancing social justice through her education and work in public health by centering underserved communities.

Mentored Research Project: Relationship stigma negatively impacts trans women’s relationship quality.

Pilar is a student at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee pursuing a B.S. degree in Public Health with a certificate in Cultures and Communities. Pilar has done extensive research documenting and archiving social justice movements like the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the city of Milwaukee, working with community organizations and local activists to create a digital community archive of historic events. Her interest in Public Health and community-based research started from a young age volunteering and organizing with Black and Brown communities like the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. As a SHINE Strong Scholar, Pilar hopes to gain the skills and knowledge to be an important stakeholder in the future of HIV prevention and transgender and nonbinary population health.

Mentored Research Project: Relationship stigma, relationship acceptance, and substance use associations among partners of trans women in San Francisco.

Audrey Xu is a Human Biology major at Stanford University, concentrating on the development of equitable treatments for chronic diseases. Audrey is a first-generation, low-income, immigrant of color who is passionate about advocating for underserved populations, particularly those in the Bay Area, where Audrey has lived for the past ten years. Audrey is actively taking leadership in clinical and non-clinical settings and is determined to help optimize the healthcare system with an interdisciplinary background. Audrey is extremely excited to be a SHINE Strong Scholar to learn more about trans and nonbinary communities and develop technical skills for quantitative research.

Mentored Research Project: Is HIV prevention reaching trans masculine people in Bhutan? Results of a cross-sectional survey.

Tae Young is a queer and nonbinary trans individual seeking to create change in their communities and in the enclosing society through a lens of anti-oppression and intersectionality. They are a rising senior at UCSD, in the process of attaining a bachelor of science degree in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience. They aim to use their technical knowledge and research experience to seek justice and equity for marginalized communities with a focus on Queer and Trans populations as well as for the various Asian Diasporas. Tae places a particular emphasis on substance abuse and addiction as well as on HIV healthcare. Through the program and mentorship of SHINE Strong, they aim to create a foundation for their work in healthcare equity, anti-racism and oppression, using research as a tool for justice.

Mentored Research Project: When stigma strikes: Lack of social and peer support and substance use behaviors among transgender women in San Francisco.

Damiana is a trans Chicana, born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. As a trans woman of her experience, she is passionate about the empowerment of trans people of color. A major aspiration of hers is to establish a queer and trans community center in the San Fernando Valley where people can have access to community and an abundance of resources. She is also a community organizer. In collaboration with her community, she organized a fundraiser and art show for the Central American immigrant community, and she also organized free community dance sessions for the queer and trans community in the San Fernando Valley. She earned her bachelors in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley.

Mentored Research Project: The effects of HIV-related structural discrimination on mental health outcomes for trans women, San Francisco.

Izzy Chiu graduated from UC Berkeley majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology with a minor in Chinese. Izzy is committed to the ideal of community well-being. They have a demonstrated history supporting queer and trans students on the Berkeley campus, through Queer Alliance Resource Center (QARC) and Queer Cal Pals. In their future career, Izzy hopes to promote the wellness and resiliency of trans and gender-nonconforming communities within healthcare, and to improve health equity and access to underserved communities.

Mentored Research Project: 90-90-90 targets for engagement in HIV care have been met for trans women in San Francisco, yet challenges remain.

Future Plans: Izzy is a Master’s of Public Health student in Epidemiology at UCLA, and was a LGBTQ Health Intern at Vanderbilt University.

Matisse was born in Heinzburg, Germany and later moved to Sacramento, California. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a major in Ethnic Studies where she worked for the Gender Equity Resource Center, organizing events/programs for Black LGBTQ+ students and also curating the center's website.

Mentored Research Project: Trans women, HIV and the carceral system: A profile of trans women in San Francisco.