Tell us about your role.
I started at UCSF in 2019, and I’ve been here for more than four years now. My small team is one of many acting as the steward of APeX, UCSF’s electronic health record (EHR). We work closely with Radiology end-users to design their workflows and perform maintenance work. I coordinate projects, facilitate the APeX analysts’ day-to-day work, and help resolve roadblocks. My favorite part of the job is working with my team members on their professional development goals and finding opportunities to help them do their best work, like a matchmaker.
How did you get involved in the Gender Recognition/Lived Name (GRLN) policy work?
I've always been clued into social justice work. I was aware of the policy as part of the inclusion work I’ve been doing within IT and it has a particular interest to me as a trans person. I serve on the UCSF IT Anti-Racism Committee (ARC) and joined the UCSF LGBTQ committee this year. I decided to join the Gender Recognition and Lived Name Change Champion group to help socialize the policy and help folks understand what it means and what to do with it.
Why does this policy matter?
Previous places I've worked didn’t have a gender recognition lived name policy, and it hasn’t felt as safe or comfortable to be out as a trans person, bringing my full personality and life experiences. Knowing the organization has this policy and places value on it makes it feel more welcoming. I can be my full self. I'm welcome here and people respect my identity and pronouns. I don't have to show up at every meeting or every new team or person I interact with and explain what a pronoun is and why it's important to ask them, or why my experience is different than what they might assume based on how I look.
What’s one thing you want your colleagues to know?
I do topical diversity, equity and inclusion mini-lessons for my team, and I did one on pronouns before the policy came out. I explained the significance of using correct pronouns, including “they” pronouns, and I recognized that some of my team members may not have encountered it before. They didn’t think they had met a trans person. I told them, “Actually, you do know a trans person – me!” I think a lot of them had no idea. You probably do know more queer and trans people than you realize. There are different ways to look, appear and present. We're everywhere and we can look like anything.
