Our fellows are engaged with our team in advocacy and community engagement with opportunities to:
- Participate in state and national legislative advocacy
- Engage in leadership and advocacy training programs
- Lead in-service trainings to school nurses, administrators, and staff about adolescent health topics
- Promote health information at school and community events
- Create blogs, podcasts, and social media for parents and adolescents about relevant health topics
- Provide content expertise to community programs that serve teens
- Prepare guidelines for schools on health topics (for example, adolescent sleep, transgender care, vaping)
- Support youth involved in the Youth Research Advisory Board (YRAB) or the Children’s Hospital Advisory Network for Guidance and Empowerment (CHANGE) transition services program
- Collaborate with over 450 community partners and organizations in the Western Pennsylvania region
Dr. Collins honed her advocacy skills through Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH)'s Leadership Training Academy fellowship, which "prepares physicians to become lifelong leaders in reproductive health care advocacy by helping them develop and internalize the skills they need to be powerful, effective advocates for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care". She has used these skills to advocate for patients by writing to and speaking with local news outlets, educating students and peers, and lobbying legislators in Harrisburg, PA, and Washington, DC.
Dr. Sequeira has worked tirelessly to educate our medical community on gender sensitivity and to enhance the UPMC EMR system for preferred name and pronouns. Her incredible efforts in this area garnered her the prestigious UPMC award for Champions of Dignity and Respect; one of 18 recipients across the entire UPMC system.
Dr. Kidd's clinical and research interests focus on supporting gender diverse youth in our city as well as throughout the United States and this passion is also reflected in her community engagement. She has led an online educational workshop for the Society for Adolescent Health & Medicine focused on elevating the experiences of gender diverse youth and their parents and engages in numerous local and regional projects with our community advisory board of gender diverse youth and their parents. She is also actively involved with the Tri-State Gender Collaborative, a group of community members as well as medical and mental health providers focused on supporting gender diverse people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Dr. Rankine is working with the Pennsylvania Association of School Nurses and Practitioners to organize continuing education sessions for school nurses on adolescent health topics.