Mia Edwards
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Kira Lingala
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Miriam David, M.D.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Dr. Betti Schleyer, Clinical Psychologist
Pronouns: they/she/he
HVTF Workshop Session 4 on Friday, November 20th | 4:30-5:45pm
Addressing Health & Mental Health Needs and Barriers for TGNCNB Competent Care
 Mia Edwards
|
 Kira Lingala |
 Miriam David, M.D. |
 Dr. Betti Schleyer |
Workshop Description: The LOFT’s PROUDWST Me team will lead a discussion with medical professionals about the barriers TGNCNB folks face to accessing care, how those barriers impact the community, and what we can do to foster a safer, healthier community.
Workshop Format: Slides and informal conversation with the audience.
Bios:
Mia Edwards has been a participant and eventual co-facilitator of the Trans-Peer Support group since 2016. Her spirit of caring and compassion has led to her becoming the Case Manager of the PROUDWST Me program at The LOFT.
Prior to that, Mia worked for fifteen plus years in the luxury goods arena as a senior finance professional leveraging best practices, operational excellence, and tactical acumen to deliver optimum bottom line results.
She completed her bachelor’s in accounting at York College, CUNY and her MBA at Monroe College, New Rochelle.
In her free time, she loves vegetarian/vegan cooking as well as honing her baking skills. She also enjoys long drives into the countryside and golden sunsets anywhere on Cape Cod.
Kira Lingala began participating in groups at The LOFT in 2019 and joined the team in May 2020 as a Peer Navigator for The LOFT’s PROUDWST Me program
Prior to that, Kira graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she concentrated in Political Science and African-American studies. While in school, Kira investigated wrongful convictions as an intern for the Invisible Institute before going on to write and edit for New America’s weekly newsletter as an intern.
Kira is passionate about prison abolition, LGBTQ+ rights, and destigmatizing mental health. She writes creatively, reads science fiction and philosophy, avidly follows film, practices yoga, and escapes to nature anytime she needs a break.
Dr. Miriam David is a radiologist at Westchester Medical Center, who specializes in breast and body imaging. She has conducted research featured in the Journal of Breast Imaging and graduated from medical school at New York Medical College.
Dr. Betti Schleyer is a clinical psychologist who has worked with many transgender and gender nonconforming clients over the past 20 years. They have received specialized training in treating transgender clients from GLAP (now ICP) and WPATH, and give talks on treating this population to other clinicians. They are a WPATH member. They have also run a support group at the LOFT for 14 years for bisexual, non-binary, and trans people.