2021 LGBTIQA+ Advocacy Awards Recipients

The LGBTIQA+ Advocacy Awards recognize staff, faculty, and postdoctoral contributions, graduate and professional student contributions, and undergraduate contributions or advocacy on behalf of the LGBTIQA+ communities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Individuals who have advocated on behalf of LGBTIQA+ individuals, conducted educational programming or research regarding LGBTIQA+ communities, helped to improve campus or community policies affecting LGBTIQA+ people, or enhanced visibility and awareness of LGBTIQA+ issues, all from an intersectional framework, were eligible for consideration.

Learn more about these awardees and their contributions to Carolina at this year's Lavender Graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 9th, 2021 at 4:00 PM. Full descriptions of their accomplishments will be posted here after the ceremony.

The winner of this year’s faculty, staff, and postdoctoral scholar award is Dr. Sharon P. Holland, who is the Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professor in American Studies here at Carolina. She is the author of Raising the Dead: Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivities, and the co-author of Crossing Waters/Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country. She also authored The Erotic Life of Racism, a project that explores the intersection of Critical Race, Feminist, and Queer Theory. In her time at Carolina, she has served as the co-chair of the Provost’s Committee on LGBTQ Life, as well as the Chair of Sexuality Studies. Currently she is the Chair of the Department of American Studies, as well as the convener of the Critical Ethnic Studies Collective. 

The individual who nominated Dr. Holland noted the work that she has done to highlight intersectionality in American studies, always “pushing for more complex and nuanced approaches that center marginalized peoples.” They also note the work that Dr. Holland has done to advocate for LGBTIQA+ people across campus. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the nomination is Dr. Holland’s work co-founding the COVID-19 QTIPOC Survival Fund, a partnership with community organizers to redistribute wealth and foster self-determination among the most vulnerable members of the community. The fund has given over 80K to QTIPOC people, and has been recognized for its excellence by the Orange County Rape Crisis Center with the 2021 Teal Ribbon Award.  

The nomination letter concluded by stating the following: “Without Dr. Holland, there would be no Critical Ethnic Studies Collective, likely no QTIPOC Survival Fund, and significantly less support for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ undergraduate and graduate students on campus. Her work as a mentor and advocate has already begun to transform Carolina into a radically different place from where it was.” 

The winner of this year’s graduate and professional student award is L.B. Klein. LB has been working to prevent interpersonal violence, support survivors, and advance LGBTQ+ equity for over 16 years. She recently received her PhD in social work after defending her dissertation, "Campus sexual and relationship violence and LGBTQ+ students: Implications for prevention." Her dissertation work was funded by the National LGBTQ Institute on IPV and the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center. LB has also served as the chair of the UNC Gender-Based Violence Prevention Advisory Group; taught undergraduate and graduate social work courses, and was actively involved in the UNC Gender-Based Violence Research Group. 

The individual who nominated L.B. noted the work she has done as a member of UNC’s Gender-Based Violence Prevention Advisory group. L.B. has worked to ensure that the group focuses on centering marginalized students, including LGBTIQA+ students, BIPOC students, and students with disabilities. The nomination letter specifically noted the way that L.B “engages closely with student activists and holds space for them” in her work. She has advocated for and included LGBTIQA+ people in their framing of an issue that has typically focused on cisgender heterosexual women. Further, L.B. has insured that LGBTIQA+ people are integral to prevention planning and are a focus of the new Senior Prevention Strategy Officer. Overall, the nominator noted that the work L.B. has done at Carolina “has been what has kept the momentum going on gender-based violence and has ensured it is rooted in intersectionality and social change.”  

This summer, LB, her spouse, and their identical twin toddlers will relocate to Madison, Wisconsin. After having the 2021-22 school year as an Anna Julia Cooper Post-Doctoral Fellow to focus on her research, LB will be an assistant professor in the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in August 2022. 

he winner of this year’s Undergraduate LGBTIQA+ Advocacy Award is Brady Hanshaw. Brady is a Research Assistant in the Behavior and Technology Lab at UNC School of Medicine. He is the study and patient coordinator for ePrEP, a clinical trial evaluating a telehealth intervention aimed at improving access to HIV prevention medication for men who have sex with men (MSM) and transwomen in rural areas. Additionally, Brady, as first-author, has recently completed a qualitative study that evaluated the facilitators and barriers to HIV serostatus disclosure for Black and Latinx MSM. Study findings focused on the role of heterosexism and HIV stigma in HIV disclosure behavior.  

Beyond this, Brady has recently had two propective pieces accepted for publication in peer-reviewed health journals, the American Journal of Public Health and the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. “A Patient’s Perspective on Privilege as a Prerequisite for PrEP” highlights how PrEP care can become more inclusive for sexual minority youth to improve PrEP uptake; “Reimagining Inclusion within Health Care to End the HIV Epidemic” discusses how healthcare and HIV care must become “oppression informed” for sexual minorities and how anti-heterosexism efforts must be viewed as HIV prevention interventions. Brady has additionally advocated for the LGBTIQA+ communities by serving on Harvard Medical School’s (HMS) LGBTIQA+ Youth Advisory Board.  

Overall, Brady has furthered the mission of UNC's Behavior and Technology Lab on campus which is to improve health outcomes for sexual and gender minority groups. Further, Brady established a cohort of UNC students within Railcare Health, a medical nonprofit, to further LGBTIQA+ health initiatives. This work has created one of the only outlets on campus for UNC students interested in LGBTIQA+ health equity to create community health events for the LGBTIQA+ communities. Lastly, on campus, he spearheaded rapid HIV testing events with a focus on UNC's LGBTIQA+ and racial minority communities. 

When told that he was selected for this award, Brady asked us to give a special thanks to his mentor, Dr. Lina Rosengren.

2021 Advocacy Awards Committee

• Dani Puccio
• Jhon Cimmino
• Kristin Richards
• Hannah Skjellum
• Zachary Kerr
• Rachel Maguire
• Hillary Hecht
• Katelyn Campbell