November 5, 2013
Last month, the Spectrum Center co-sponsored an event with the Center for the Education of Women and the School of Social Work’s TBLG Matters Dean’s Initiative called Out at Work: Navigating Multiple Identities and [*]. The panel event was focused on various intersections of identities, lived experiences of panelists in their workplaces and respective fields, and students’ questions about managing disclosure, among other questions. The panelists each told their stories for 10 minutes, followed by about an hour of questions.
Our panelists represented a wide variety of experiences, identities, and industries (in speaking order):
● Jonah Thompson is the Studio Manager and Riot Youth Advisor for the Neutral Zone in Ann Arbor. Jonah grew up in East Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti in religious household and being a person of faith has been an important part of his journey as a transgender person. Recently Jonah established the RR Collective which is dedicated to raising funds for community organizations that support the transgender community.
●Stephanie Boltrick is a Medical Service Corps Officer in the Michigan Army National Guard with over 10 years of service in the United States Army. Stephanie received her commission in the Army from Michigan State University's Army Reserve Officer Training Corps upon completion of her undergraduate degree in Psychology in 2008. She obtained her Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from Western Michigan University in June 2013. Stephanie currently serves as the coordinator of the Suicide Prevention and Resiliency Risk Reduction programs for the Michigan Army National Guard.
●Marvo Dolor is is an Environmental Chemist by training and is an environmentalist at heart. She currently works as a Program Coordinator at small environmental non-profit, an Environmental Policy Consultant to a federal agency and a Chemistry Lab Instructor at Eastern Michigan University. Marvo is the relatively rare scientist who places a high value on social interactions and actively pursues opportunities to discuss non-technical issues. She is currently collaborating with colleagues to improve the social and emotional intelligence of her fellow-scientists.
●Leigh Robertson has been a Field Educator / LEO Lecturer IV for the University of Michigan School of Social Work Office of Field Instruction since 2006. Previously, she worked as a clinical social worker in the medical/surgical service at the U-M Health Systems. She has also been a medical social worker, case manager, director of the Lesbian and Gay Community Center in Cleveland, Ohio, social worker in five domestic violence shelters, and more. Her research interests include: domestic Violence, health and mental health with older adults, medical social work and micro and macro practice within the TBLGQIA (Transgender, bisexual, lesbian,gay, queer, questioning, intersex and Ally) communities.
●Kevin Goodman is is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Joint Psychology and Women’s Studies program at the University of Michigan, with a department area focus in Personality & Social Contexts Psychology. Kevin’s research and community investments generally cluster around intersecting issues of coalition building, social justice education, and the lived experiences and out-group perceptions of racial and sexual minority youth. His involvement and leadership in various nonprofit campus and community organizations integrates Kevin's graduate training in qualitative and survey methodology and intergroup relations with years of formal education and professional experience in public speaking, dialogic facilitation, consulting, and conflict resolution.
●Lynn Conway is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Emerita, at the University of Michigan. Although born and raised as a boy, she felt a deep need to be a girl from early childhood. It was nearly impossible to transition in the 1950s, but with great luck she finally found medical help and underwent reassignment surgery in 1968. At the time, she had begun working for IBM as a research engineer, but was fired when the company learned of her plans to transition. Although Lynn had to start all over again in a covert new identity, and at the bottom of the ladder as a contract programmer, she went on to become a pioneer of the microelectronics chip design revolution in Silicon Valley the 1980’s. Lynn joined UM in 1985 as Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Associate Dean of Engineering. In 1999, she faced ‘outing’ as stories circulated about her early work at IBM. Feeling growing pride in her accomplishments, she overcame her fears and quietly came out after three decades in stealth. During the 2000’s, Lynn created www.lynnconway.com, a major transadvocacy website. Along the way, Lynn has become a ‘grand-mom’ to many young transgender women, giving them love and support as they reach for their dreams.
Over 50 students and community members attended the event on October 9 in the School of Social Work building, and based on evaluations of attendees, it was well-received. We will likely hold some sort of follow-up event in the Spring in order to keep connecting students with professionals in multiple fields.
This event was just one part of National Coming Out Week on our campus. The rest of the week included a public Ally Development Training, Information tables hosted by OutBreak and Out for Business, and an event about anti-LGBTQ Policy in Russia hosted by the Queer Social Work Alliance, among other great events. For a comprehensive list of all the events that happened during NCOW and the rest of October, see our program of events.
To close OUTober, we were lucky enough to have to opportunity to host a discussion and dinner with Prof. Deirdre McCloskey. Prof. McCloskey teaches Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. A well-known economist and historian and rhetorician, she transitioned from male to female in 1995, at the age of 53, writing about her experience in "Crossing: A Memoir" (1999). She describes herself as a "literary, quantitative, postmodern, free-market, progressive Episcopalian, Midwestern woman from Boston who was once a man." Deirdre shared with us about how her lived experience as a transgender woman intersects with many of her other identities, such as her professional identities, socio-economic class, and religion. This event was co-hosted by the UM Department of Economics.