Announcements & Events

Sabrina R. Cluesman (she/they) is a Ph.D. Candidate at the NYU Silver School of Social Work and a licensed clinical social worker with two decades of direct clinical practice with queer and trans youth populations. Sabrina's program of research adopts an intersectional approach, focusing on intersectional minority stress—a combination of sexual, gender, and racial minority stress—within Black and Latinx transgender and gender-expansive youth and emerging adult populations. She aims to investigate how these populations navigate the interplay of intersectional minority stress, shedding light on how heterosexism, cisgenderism, and racism compound and contribute to critical health inequities within these communities. They use mixed methods to understand multi-level drivers of health inequities in domains such as mental health, substance use, and HIV. 

Notably, Sabrina secured an F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to support her mixed methods dissertation research, which focuses on facilitators of and barriers to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use among Black and Latinx transgender and gender-expansive youth and emerging adults. The first set of findings from this research will be presented at the 2024 Society for Social Work Research Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

SSWR 2024 Presentation:

Understanding Gender Minority Stress and Resilience Among Transgender and Gender-Expansive Youth and Emerging Adults and Their Relationship to PrEP Intentions with Charles Cleland and Marya Gwadz

Aaron Kemmerer (he/him) is a PhD Candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2020, he completed training to earn a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University. His doctoral research focuses on marginalized communities and housing instability in the U.S. South. He is specifically interested in researching systemic economic barriers disproportionately affecting LGBTQ+ (particularly transgender) populations. Since 2010, Aaron has been involved with local and regional organizing, focusing on issues of housing instability, mass incarceration, gender-based violence, and substance use in Central Virginia. 

In 2012, Aaron earned a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. Since 2016, he has served as a crisis response worker with survivors and unhoused community members at YWCA Richmond. Aaron has collaborated on community-based prevention efforts to end gender-based violence and housing instability. 

Aaron combines a theoretical grounding in harm reduction and queer liberation with everyday practice in social work. Aaron’s work strives to honor individual desires for dignity, freedom, and stability while also valuing a sense of collective responsibility. He believes in the power of intergenerational and multiracial organizing. Aaron dreams of building accessible community spaces where people can actively live, learn, and thrive. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar, hiking, and hanging out with family and friends. He is also a proud dad to his beloved cat, Beow.

SSWR 2024 Presentation:

Transgender and Gender Expansive People of Color, Healthcare Stereotype Threat, and Self-Rated Health with Seon Kim

Tayon R. Swafford is an adjunct professor of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an adjunct professor of Social Work at Indiana University, and an adjunct professor of Religion at the University of Indianapolis. At these universities, Tayon offers undergraduate and graduate courses on Diversity and Social Justice, Social Policy and Programs, Spirituality and Clinical Social Work, Evidence-Based Practice for Groups, Individual Therapy for Adults, Research Methods, Statistical Reasoning for Social Workers, Introduction to Christianity, and World Religions. Tayon’s scholarly interests are in the following areas: Gender, sexual, and religious identity development over the life course, the integration of minoritized and underrepresented identities with religion and spirituality, and the use of self-awareness and community integration to overcome the impact of identity-based trauma. Currently, Tayon is a Leadership Education and Adolescent Health (LEAH) Fellow at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a fourth year Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Candidate at the Indiana University School of Social Work. Tayon is working on his dissertation titled “Spilling the Beans”: Uncovering the Realities of Fathering while Black and Gay, which examines how Black gay fathers negotiate race, sexuality, and parenthood. Tayon holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree and a Graduate Certificate in e-Social Work Practice (GCESWP) from the Indiana University School of Social Work. Tayon also holds a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) degree from Vanderbilt University and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Religious Studies from Albright College.

Jax (they/them) is a doctoral student at Michigan State University of Social Work. After receiving an MA in gender studies from Central European University in 2013 and their MSW from Rutgers University in 2015, they worked in research, policy analysis, and program evaluation work. Jax’s current work focuses on the juvenile legal and child welfare systems as sites of institutional betrayal, namely for queer and trans crossover youth. Their background in macro social work informs their research’s aim to interrogate systems oppression as it manifests through inter-institutional practices and policies to promote social change, liberation, and equity.