Clinical Care Working Group Members

Cayetana joined the Department of Medicine's Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEIM) in June of 2021 as the inaugural program manager. In this role, she helps guide existing projects and support the development and implementation of new ones that foster a diverse and inclusive department. The ODEIM and her role are unique within the School of Medicine and are a testament to the department's commitment to actively working toward a diverse, equitable, and more inclusive environment for students, trainees, faculty, and staff. In addition to this formal role within the School of Medicine, Cayetana is the program manager for the Deans' Advisory Council on LGBTQI+ Affairs (DAC), a co-founder of the Indigenous Leaders at Yale group, and a member of the Yale Latino Networking Group and the Yale LGBTQ Affinity Group. As one of the DAC Clinical Care Working Group Co-leads, Cayetana is helping lead an effort to create and build the first ever system-wide Yale LGBTQ Healthcare Program. This project, begun in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic, has brought together stakeholders from across the Yale health system (YNHHS, YSM, YSPH, YSN, Yale Health, and NEMG). While much work remains to be done, tremendous progress has been made since she first started drafting a proposal in the late winter of 2020. Cayetana originally joined Yale as the web project manager in the YSM Office of Communications in July 2011, in charge of the website editing and building service, and then concluded her time as Operations Deputy Director, engaging with departments, programs, and centers on special projects.

Dr. Virata earned his medical degree from the University of the Philippines School of Medicine. He did his residency in Internal Medicine at the Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD. The continued training for two fellowships at the Yale School of Medicine for Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology. After completing his post-doctoral training, he started working for the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center in New Haven, CT as the Director of HIV Services, then transitioned to the medical staff at the Hospital of Saint Raphael, Section of Infectious Diseases also in New Haven, before formally entering Yale School of Medicine as faculty in the Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases. Aside from a faculty role, currently a Medical Director for the Yale Center for Infectious Diseases (HIV services) and Program Director for the HIV Care and Prevention Program at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

A native of Connecticut, Dr. Michael Alperovich is a Board Certified plastic surgeon, full-time faculty member, and Director of the Craniofacial Fellowship at Yale University. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, attended the University of Oxford for graduate school receiving Distinction honors, and graduated Alpha Omega Alpha from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Alperovich completed a plastic surgery residency and a craniofacial fellowship at New York University's Department of Plastic Surgery. He has clinical expertise in facial, breast and body aesthetic surgery. Notably, Dr. Alperovich is a national leader in gender affirming facial surgery and previously taught one of the first courses in the United States on this topic. Watch a video with Dr. Michael Alperovich>> Dr. Alperovich has been named to Connecticut Magazine's "Top Doctors" list for consecutive years and to New York Magazine's New York Metro "Top Doctors" list. He has been invited nationally and internationally as a visiting professor and guest faculty to speak about craniofacial, gender affirming and aesthetic surgery. Dr. Alperovich has authored over 200 publications and multiple plastic surgery book chapters. He serves on the Editorial Board of plastic surgery journals as well as contributes as an ad hoc reviewer for several other journals.

Dr. Boulware has an interest in disorders of growth and development having published several papers looking at the metabolic actions of IGF-1, a hormone critical to childhood growth.  She provides care to children with general disorders of the endocrine system (pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, testes or ovaries).  She is the pediatric endocrinologist in the interdisciplinary Yale Clinic for Children with Differences in Sex Development and she is the Medical Director of the Interdisciplinary Yale Gender Program offering care to gender-expansive youth.

Diane Bruessow divides her time between academia, clinical practice, and service. She has graduate and post-graduate teaching experience, over 30 years of clinical practice experience, and extensive leadership experience in mid-size non-profit corporations within the healthcare sector with annual operating budgets of $25m+. She is experienced in best practices of governance and oversight, and moving culture toward inclusion and belonging by reducing systemic bias. Bruessow has received honors, awards, and legislative proclamations for academic, clinical, humanitarian, and leadership excellence - including the New York State Society of PAs as the PA of the Year (2019), New Jersey State Society of PAs as the outstanding Humanitarian of the Year (2017), as well as the designation of Distinguished Fellow, a recognition of exceptional professional achievement, leadership, professional interaction, learning, and community service by the American Academy of PAs (AAPA). Less than two percent of PAs earn this designation. She is nationally certified by the NCCPA with excellence awarded in Primary Care (reflecting scores within the top 5th percentile). Her professional interests include healthcare disparities, workforce, policy, and leadership. Bruessow has been an invited speaker and has authored original research and other published articles and medical textbook chapters. She has held elected and appointed positions on multiple national boards, councils, and commissions. She formerly served as a board officer for GLMA (formerly the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association) and is a past president of the LBGT PA Caucus. In 2020, after serving in the roles of Director at Large and Secretary-Treasurer, she was elected President-elect of the American Academy of PAs. She has served on the editorial advisory board of the Transgender Health Journal since its inception and is serving a 3-year term on the board of directors of the US Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH). Bruessow graduated from the LIU Brooklyn PA program in 1993. In 2023, she was inducted into Pi Alpha, the national PA honor society, as a distinguished alumnus. She has been practicing clinically for over 30 years and has over 20 years of experience in transgender medicine across the lifespan. She is licensed to practice autonomously in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts and independently in Wyoming. Bruessow joined the Yale University PA Online Program in 2018 and gave the keynote address for the inaugural class White Coat ceremony. She currently serves as the director of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion and an assistant professor adjunct in the Department of General Internal Medicine. She regularly participates in committees at the program and institutional levels, including academic affairs and the YSM Diversity Champions Advisory Council. She previously served on the PA Online program mission committee and the joint diversity, equity, and inclusion mission committee. She has served as a core member of the YSM Dean's Advisory Council (DAC) on LGBTQI+ Affairs and has chaired the DAC's LGBT health policy working group. Her faculty responsibilities include serving as course director of Preparing Future PAs 1, co-course director for Clinical Medicine and Capstone, an academic advisor, and facilitator for Problem-Based Learning 1-3, which includes small group work 3 days each week. She has been a lecturer in pulmonary, musculoskeletal, psychiatry, geriatric, and sexual history, taking lectures within Patient Assessments 1 and 2. She developed a virtual clinical elective in Sexual and Gender Minority Health that launched in 2020 and ran for 3 years during COVID. During the program's intensive residencies, Bruessow also teaches hands-on skill development in patient assessment and clinical procedures. She developed standardized patient case scenarios involving transgender patients which was implemented in 2021, and supported the development of a Virtual Inter-Professional Education (VIPE) scenario that included a transgender patient.

My contributions to education and research during my career have focused on organizing and delivering health-related services for vulnerable populations and training health professionals. With a PhD in Sociology of Medicine, I initially worked on national and international evaluations of HIV/AIDS programs and mental health services. More recently, I've applied my skills to medical education, primarily assisting faculty in assessing trainees and training programs and designing curriculum in health professional education. At Yale School of Medicine, I serve as the Executive Director of Evaluation & Assessment at the Center for Medical Education. My expertise includes evaluating health professional education curricula; training faculty, staff, and students in feedback methods; improving assessment systems for educators; and consulting on program and curriculum evaluation approaches for scholarly work. I teach curriculum development and evaluation in the Masters of Health Science/Medical Education program and other educational programs. I am chairperson of the School of Medicine's Learning Environment Subcommittee of the Education Policy and Curriculum Committee. Additionally, I integrate LGBTQI-health topics into the curriculum and serve on the Dean's Council for LGBTQI Affairs. In select graduate medical education programs, including my academic department, Psychiatry, I gather and analyze qualitative data for internal reviews of training programs.

Allister Hirschman PA-C is a physician assistant (PA) and a member of the Yale New Haven Hospital Surgical Float team, where he provides care for patients across surgical subspecialties. Allister's full-time employment with YNHH started in 2008 in the Adult Emergency Department, where he was named Employee of the Month (two times). During the Covid19 response, he provided coverage for ED and Hospitalist colleagues and was recognized with APPlause and Great Catch awards.A member of the Management Team of the Dean's Advisory Council on LGBTQI+ Affairs at the Yale School of Medicine, Allister also serves on the DAC's Clinical Care Working Group. He is a core member of the Women's and Gender Health Resident Education Program at Yale Medicine and has provided LGBTQ health education to students, residents, faculty, and staff throughout YNHHS. His clinical interests include addressing healthcare disparities, gender-affirming surgery, considerations of the patient experience, and healthcare provider wellness.In his free time, Allister hangs out in Westville with his dog, Batman

Nathan is the Director of LGBTQ and Gender Justice Learning at Yale School of Nursing. He has been teaching LGBTQ healthcare to nursing and medical schools around the country for over 20 years. Nathan’s clinical practice includes working as a clinician at Folx Health, a digital healthcare service provider providing customized medical plans for the LGBTQ community. He has worked as a Nurse Practitioner in the gender affirming surgery program at NYU Langone Health where he provided education, preoperative, and postoperative care for transgender patients seeking gender affirmation surgery, as well as providing hormone therapy. Nathan was in the first New York State Family Nurse Practitioner Fellowship program and became the Director of Transgender Care at Community Healthcare Network (CHN). He has worked as a Transgender Health consultant to NY State and NY City Department of Health. He worked for 8 years at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center providing care for LGBTQ patients, building transgender health programs, and creating and facilitating curriculum on transgender health. He has worked as a community organizer, program coordinator, researcher, consultant, trainer, and health educator with international and national organizations for over 15 years. Nathan trains community health centers, health professional schools, hospitals, and community-based organizations, and has been published widely, on transgender health. Nathan holds a Masters of Science in Nursing from SUNY Downstate College of Nursing, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from NYU College of Nursing, a Masters of Arts in Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons College, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Women’s Studies from Emory University. He is a recipient of the Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation Fellowship and the Spirit of Hillman Award, as well as a scholarship recipient from Oncology Nursing Society, and the Nurse Education Fund.

As a predoctoral candidate, my dissertation research focused on the functional neural circuitry underlying dual-diagnosis substance use disorders (SUD) with other psychiatric disorders – primarily depression and PTSD. I used resting-state and task fMRI to identify altered functional connectivity in the brains of individuals with dual-diagnoses compared to individuals with either disorder type alone. Elaborating on those findings, I studied the relationship between childhood trauma and the uniquely altered functional connectivity in individuals with dual-diagnoses. I then used machine learning to classify the resting-state fMRI of individuals with psychiatric disorders vs. individuals without psychopathology.I am currently working with Ben Kelmendi, MD to study the neurobiology underlying the therapeutic effect of psilocybin on OCD by applying my skill set in neuroimaging and machine learning to brain scans pre and post psilocybin administration. I plan to apply similar techniques to study the potential therapeutic effect of psychedelics on substance use disorders (SUD). Clinically I am interested in addiction and community psychiatry, and working to develop community-based models for the prevention and maintenance of SUD. In pursuit of this goal, I am additionally studying how psychedelics can be developed in an equitable manner, so that as they become available to the general public, they will be accessible and affordable for all people. I am involved in both science and mental health advocacy and have experience advocating at both the local and national level through organizations like the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the Society for Neuroscience. In my free time I like to paint, hike, kayak, cook, and read/ watch all things sci-fi.

I am the Director and co-founder of the Yale Pediatric Gender Program (YPGP), an interdisciplinary team that provides services for transgender and gender expansive (TGE) youth and families in Connecticut. The team includes professionals in the fields of psychology, endocrinology, psychiatry, gynecology, reproductive medicine, medical ethics and law. Our mission is to provide comprehensive, interdisciplinary, family-centered care for children, adolescents and young adults questioning their assigned gender and/or seeking gender-affirming consultation and care in a compassionate, respectful and supportive environment. This program is regionally well-regarded, serving clients from all 8 counties in the state, as well as 4 states outside of Connecticut. My contribution to the educational mission of Yale’s School of Medicine focuses on teaching trainees in clinical and research training programs about (a) trauma-informed care, (b) psychosexual development, and (c) gender development. Teaching occurs through the delivery of clinical services, mentoring of clinical and research trainees, clinical supervision, and lectures offered in graduate courses and topical seminars coordinated by other faculty members. I have been lucky to mentor and supervise many students in the departments of Psychiatry, the Child Study Center, the School of Public Health and the Divinity School during my tenure at Yale.

John Pachankis, Ph.D. is the David R. Kessler Professor of Public Health and, secondarily, of Psychiatry and Psychology. As Director of Yale’s LGBTQ Mental Health Initiative, his goals are to: (1) identify the complex reasons that LGBTQ populations experience one of the highest risks for mental health morbidity across all of psychiatric epidemiology and (2) bring effective mental health treatments to LGBTQ people in the US and around the world. His NIH-funded studies span population-based cohorts, clinical trials, and community implementation research. This research first seeks to identify the developmental precursors and biopsychosocial mechanisms of LGBTQ people’s disproportionate mental health burden. These studies then also engage these mechanisms as treatment targets. These treatments have shown efficacy for reducing the co-occurring mental health risks commonly affecting LGBTQ people (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use disorders) across several randomized controlled trials. He has published 180+ scientific papers on LGBTQ people’s mental health and co-edited the Handbook of Evidence-Based Mental Health Practice with Sexual and Gender Minorities (Oxford University Press). His research has received several awards, has influenced policy, and appears in international media. You can learn more about his research at https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqmentalhealth/

Dr. Angie Paik is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. She is fellowship-trained in hand and microsurgery with a clinical focus on upper and lower extremity reconstruction and gender affirmation surgery. Her additional interests include aesthetic surgery and body contouring. Dr. Paik attended Cornell University for her undergraduate degree, majoring in biological sciences. She attained her medical degree from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School where she also served as a Research Fellow with their Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. She completed her Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery training at Brown University – a program offering a robust trauma experience and hands-on aesthetic training. Following residency, she pursued a Hand and Microsurgery fellowship at The Buncke Clinic in San Francisco, California, one of the leading microsurgery centers in the country. During fellowship, she gained experience in a wide array of complex reconstruction following burn, trauma, and malignancy as well as training in the phalloplasty procedure from leaders in the field. Dr. Paik has a commitment to providing quality surgical care to her patients. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, has contributed book chapters, and has presented nationally. In addition to her clinical practice, she also remains dedicated to teaching and mentorship.

Chris Pittenger earned his MD and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, where his graduate work was done with Nobel Prize recipient Eric Kandel. He returned to Yale University, his undergraduate alma mater, for residency and research training in psychiatry in 2003. He joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2007 and is now Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Psychology and in the Child Study Center, and Deputy Chair for Translational Research in the Department of Psychiatry .Chris has always been fascinated by the question of how the brain, a complex but ultimately a physical structure, creates thought, feeling, consciousness, and other aspects of the mind.  As a psychiatrist he is additionally focused on how these processes go wrong - how brain dysregulation leads to dysregulated cognition, emotion, and behavior and to mental suffering, and how advancing our understanding of these relationships can guide us to new strategies to alleviate that suffering.  Much of his work has focused on obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome and on the cortico-basal ganglia circuitry that is implicated in their pathophysiology.  More recently he has co-founded the Yale Program for Psychedelic Science, focused on understanding how molecules like psilocybin and LSD can teach us about brain and behavior and may lead to new treatments for a range of neuropsychiatric pathology.  He is also one of the founding Directors of the Yale Center for Brain and Mind Health, which seeks to bridge disciplines and levels of analysis to bring new therapeutics to individuals suffering from disorders of the mind and brain.Dr. Pittenger's research and clinical work have been acknowledged by a number of prestigious awards, including grant funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke, NARSAD, the Tourette Syndrome of America, the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, and other organizations.  He has won a number of awards, including from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Society for Neuroscience, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American College of Psychiatrists. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International OCD Foundation and Chair of both their Grant Review Committee and their Annual Research Symposium Planning Committee.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Neurological Association.