Hanh Nguyen was born and raised in San Jose, California. As the daughter of refugee parents, she experienced disparities in health and privilege which motivate her to pursue a career at the intersection of medicine, public health, and social justice. She attended the University of California Davis where she graduated with a BS in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. She returned to San Jose to work in education, health engagement, and outreach among the community she grew up in. She is now gaining clinical experience while working as a scribe at a hospital and health center. In her free time, she practices yoga, reads, eats, and helps facilitate a community for queer Christians.

Branden Barger is the program coordinator for the UCSF Office of Diversity & Outreach LGBT and Multicultural Resource Centers where he provides program, curriculum, and graphic design assistance in the centers’ efforts to increase visibility and inclusion of marginalized and underrepresented students, staff, and faculty throughout the UCSF health system and its various health professions training programs. Branden holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Clinical Research from the UCSF School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Public Health. Branden partnered with The PRIDE Study as part of his graduate program to examine substance use health disparities and resiliencies among sexual and gender minorities and he continues to support these efforts as a volunteer research assistant with the Sexual and Gender Minority Health Equity Lab in the UCSF School of Nursing Department of Community Health Systems.

Pip Lipkin is a medical student at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University applying into OB/GYN. They came to medicine by way of studying English and Art History as an undergraduate and working in hospice, where they witnessed the power of care, attention, art and humanism in the practice of healing. In medical school they have focused efforts on making healthcare approachable and accessible through health education courses for incarcerated youth and folks experiencing chronic homelessness. Pip has also been dedicated to the advocacy and support of trans* and gender diverse (T/GD) medical students by founding a T/GD support group as well as creating a T/GD training for medical clerkship directors and coordinators to ensure T/GD medical students are supported in the clinical space. Their current research is at the intersection of family building, fertility preservation and the reproductive health needs of T/GD individuals. 

Ben Schwartz is a medical student at Stanford Medicine who is passionate about using research to support tangible, impactful reform for LGBTQ+ communities. As an undergraduate, he attended Stanford University, where he earned a BS in Biology and a BA in Religious Studies, graduated with honors, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. His previous research focused on using advances in health sciences to eradicate LGBTQ+ discrimination in religious communities. Mental health and its requisite destigmatization played pivotal roles in his work. Ben also served as the president of Jewish Queers, a Stanford student organization focused on creating space for those identifying as Jewish and queer. As a medical student, he was elected by his class to serve as one of two Recruitment Chairs, a position designed to facilitate student involvement in the admissions process, welcome prospective students to Stanford for their interviews, and recruit a diverse group of students to comprise the incoming class. Moreover, Ben currently serves as co-chair of LGBTQ+ Meds, the primary LGBTQ+ medical student organization at Stanford. He hopes to work closely with faculty to more explicitly integrate the care of LGBTQ+ patients into clinical training. 

Ben is eager to bring his personal experiences and academic/professional interests to the PRIDE Study team. He hopes to explore the healthcare dynamics of queer identity, the medical implications of sociocultural repression, and the dermatological care of LGBTQ+ patients.