Building Community Immunity: A Live Q&A with Trans Healthcare Providers on COVID Vaccines

Gender Justice League and TRACTION are proud to co-create this space for trans community members to ask questions and receive informed answers around what we need to know about the COVID vaccines. Experienced trans healthcare providers Dr. Linda Gromko and Dr. Patric Schine will be tuning in to answer questions from participants such as:

• How were the vaccines produced so quickly?
• How are vaccines tested and approved?
• Will the vaccines interact with my hormone replacement therapy medications?
• What else do I need to know about the COVID vaccines as a trans person?

Bring your questions, and prepare to learn!

 

Guests:

Dr. Linda Gromko, MD

Linda Gromko MD is a board-certified family physician and founder of Seattle’s Queen Anne Medical Associates. Initially focusing on women’s health and obstetrics, the practice added its transgender focus in 1998. When a prospective client asked if she treated transgender women, Dr. Gromko answered, “not yet.” She now treats transgender people from ages five through eighty-five. In addition to hormone management and peri-operative trans care, Dr. Gromko is a frequent speaker for professional groups.

She wrote ‘Where’s MY Book?’ A Guide for Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Youth, Their Parents, and Everyone Else, as well as “A Practical Guide for Transgender & Gender Non-Conforming Adults.”

Dr. Patric Schine, DNP, FNP

Patric Schine, DNP, FNP is the Medical Director of the Department of Transgender Medicine at Borrego Health, California’s largest Federally Qualified Health Cebter. Dr. Schine has been working with the LGBTQ+ community for more than 20 years, with a focus on transgender medicine for the last 14 years. While in private practice in Phoenix, he served the largest transgender patient population in the state, with services including a free, monthly clinic for those patients who couldn’t afford office visits.

Among his many scholarly activities, Dr. Schine developed “Trans 101 for Providers: A Lecture on Medical Transgender Care” as an introduction to medical care for those who identify as transgender. He has lectured around the country, providing trans-competent recommendations to staff at major organizations that include VIIV Healthcare.

Patric earned his Masters of Nursing/Family Nurse Practitioner degree from the University of Phoenix in 2002 and completed his Doctor of Nursing Practice at Arizona State University in 2010, focusing on education about, and treatment of, sexually transmitted infections.

He has been faculty with Brandman University in Irvine for 6 years, most recently serving as Director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program in the Marybelle and S. Paul Musco School of Nursing and Health Professions.

When not providing medical care or teaching, Patric enjoys spending time with his husband and young twin daughters, as they help their children develop into a new generation of people who will love and live without the need to label others

Hosted by:

C. Michael Woodward, MPH

C. Michael Woodward, MPH (he/him) is cofounder and Vice President of TRACTION. He serves as Borrego Health’s Transgender Community Health Manager. In this role, he is responsible for developing collaborative relationships with outside service providers relating to LGBTQ+ services and specialty care; creating cooperative referral and care networks; and championing the overall patient experience regarding service navigation and support.

Michael is the former director of the internationally renowned Gender Odyssey Conference and adjunct instructor at Tacoma Community College. Michael served on the City of Tucson Commission on GLBT Issues for five years and is a founding member of The University of Arizona President’s LGBT Advisory Council, where he helped to develop the nation’s first trans-inclusive public university restroom access policy.

Michael has published myriad books, articles, and blogs, most notably contributing the title essay to the anthology, “Manning Up: Transsexual Men on Finding Brotherhood, Family, and Themselves” (Transgress Press, 2014). He holds a BS in Public and Corporate Communications from Butler University and earned both a Master of Public Health Policy and Management degree and a Graduate Certificate in Collaborative Governance from the University of Arizona.