NIH Sexual and Gender Minority Research Investigator Awards Program 2022

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Research Investigator Awards Program was developed to recognize investigators who have made substantial and outstanding research contributions in areas related to SGM health. Each year, the SGMRO honors one distinguished investigator (selected internally by NIH staff) and two early-stage investigators (ESI) for their exemplary work and invites them to present a lecture at the annual SGM Research Investigator Awards.

This year's ceremony was hosted on September 15, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET via Webex Events. A video recording of the event can be found below:

2022 Investigator Awardees

Life course perspectives of LGBTQ+ health inequities

Jessica Fish, PhD, 2022 Early-Stage Investigator Award Recipient
Assistant Professor, Department of Family Science, University of Maryland, College Park; Deputy Director Research and Evaluation, University of Maryland Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park

Dr. Jessica Fish (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Family Science and Deputy Director for Research and Evaluation of the CDC-funded University of Maryland Prevention Research Center at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Her research and scholarship are in service to understanding and addressing the health and well-being of sexual and gender minority people and their families. As a human development and family science scholar, Dr. Fish seeks to understand how developmental and familial processes are implicated in the health of sexual and gender minority people, with a particular focus on sexual and gender minority youth and young adults. The primary goal of her scholarship is to inform developmentally sensitive policies, programs, and practices that promote the health of sexual and gender minority people across the life course.

A Costly Haven: An Intersectionality-informed Exploration of Resilience and the Quest for Wellbeing among Latina Immigrant Transgender Women in the DC Metropolitan Area

Ana María del Río-González, PhD, MA, MS, 2022 Early-Stage Investigator Award Recipient
Associate Professor, Department of Prevention and Community Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University

Ana María del Río-González is an associate professor at the Department of Prevention and Community Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University (GWU). She earned her PhD in Applied Social Psychology in 2015 from GWU. Before coming to the US, she completed a master’s in Methodology of the Behavioral and Health Sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) and a master’s in Psychology and Health at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dr. del Río-González is particularly interested in advancing an intersectional understanding of how multiple and interlocking identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender identity, and immigrant status) and the social processes associated with them (e.g., white supremacy, transphobia, and xenophobia) can shape health inequities, with a particular focus on sexual and gender minority populations of Latin-American origin or descent. Using intersectionality and other critical and socioecological frameworks, Dr. del Río-González’s research has focused primarily on mental (e.g., depression, suicide), and sexual (e.g., HIV prevention) health outcomes among diverse marginalized populations in the US and Colombia. Her work on HIV prevention among Latina transgender women in the Washington DC metropolitan area has been recognized for its innovation and promise. It has been funded by the Emory/DC CFAR Adelante program, the DC CFAR pilot awards, and CDC’s Minority AIDS/HIV Research Initiative (MARI). In 2021, Dr. del Río-González received the Trans-Latinx DMV “Committed Ally Award”, recognizing her work with the Latina transgender community.

Minority stress theory: Legal and public policy implications
Ilan H. Meyer, PhD, 2022 Distinguished Investigator Award Recipient
Distinguished Senior Scholar for Public Policy at the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA’s School of Law; Adjunct Professor in Community Health Sciences at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health; Professor Emeritus of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University

Ilan H. Meyer, PhD is the Distinguished Senior Scholar for Public Policy at the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA’s School of Law, Adjunct Professor in Community Health Sciences at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and Professor Emeritus of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University. Dr. Meyer studies public health issues related to minority health, in particular, the relationship of minority status, minority identity, prejudice and discrimination, and mental health outcomes in sexual and gender minorities and the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender. In several highly cited papers, Dr. Meyer has developed a theory of minority stress that describes the relationship of social stressors and mental disorders and helps to explain LGBT health disparities. The model has guided his and other investigators’ population research on LGBT health disparities by identifying the mechanisms by which social stressors impact health and describing the harm to LGBT people from prejudice and stigma.