CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, AND PEDAGOGY article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1573811

This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Teaching and Learning in Health Education and PromotionView all 33 articles

Developing a Community-Informed Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research Training Program in the Deep South

Provisionally accepted
Emma Sophia KayEmma Sophia Kay1*Gabe H MillerGabe H Miller1Frank PugaFrank Puga1Josh BruceJosh Bruce2Bridge Hill KennedyBridge Hill Kennedy1Gregory M PavelaGregory M Pavela1Erin DensleyErin Densley3Trevis SmithTrevis Smith4Mallie FroehlichMallie Froehlich1Sarah MacCarthySarah MacCarthy1
  • 1University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States
  • 2Birmingham AIDS Outreach, Birmingham, United States
  • 3Five Horizons Health Services, Tuscaloosa, United States
  • 4AIDS Alabama, Birmingham, United States

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The largest sexual (e.g., lesbian, gay and bisexual) and gender (e.g., transgender, nonbinary, gender diverse) minority (SGM) population in the United States resides in the Deep South; however, this area has no legal protections for SGM individuals, who experience substantial health inequities. Researchers from the Deep South are consistently overlooked in national dialogues on SGM health, with few SGM health training programs located in this area of the country. In response to these health and sociopolitical disparities and the dearth of regional SGM health training programs, we developed GenderS (Education on Gender and Sex), an innovative research education program led by a community-academic partnership that provides experiential and didactic training in SGM health in the Deep South via an online asynchronous curriculum; a one-week in-person residency in Birmingham, Alabama; and monthly virtual networking salons. In this paper, we describe the theoretical underpinnings of GenderS, the process for developing the curriculum and other program components, our evaluation plan, and lessons learned to date. Through dissemination of a national toolkit that includes templates and examples from GenderS, we can help other organizations adapt our program to their local contexts to train the next generation of SGM health researchers. Although we met challenges in developing recruitment materials for the program due to the enactment of an anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion law in Alabama, enthusiasm for our program remained high, illustrated by receipt of applications from 20 applicants across the United States and Africa.

Keywords: sexual and gender minorities (SGM), LGBTQ, Curriculum, training, Education

Received: 09 Feb 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Kay, Miller, Puga, Bruce, Kennedy, Pavela, Densley, Smith, Froehlich and MacCarthy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Emma Sophia Kay, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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