Navigating the Workforce as an LGBTQIA Professional: Challenges and Triumphs

As a change management expert, Bill Kirst leads organizations through change with compassion and care. He has worked across a breadth of industries and has helped dozens of clients achieve transformational goals.

Bill’s passion for creativity and innovation runs over into his podcast, Coffee & Change, where his guests share insights on managing change in their daily lives. He’s a creative writer, a storyteller, and a polyglot, having studied six languages during his international travels. He currently resides in Seattle and alongside his work focuses on wellness and mindfulness in his daily life. Bill currently works at Adobe. He is a U.S. Army veteran having served 10 years as a reserve officer in the United States Army. Bill is actively involved in numerous veterans’ programs working with minority veterans and those dealing with PTS. He has a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree from Georgetown.

Bill values giving back and to investing in the next generation of leaders and diverse voices. He sits on the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Council & Board and is also a member of the Association of Change Management Professionals.

Phuong Tran (A&S 2004, Engr 2021 and Alumni Council member) has been an activist for transgender healthcare since he began his gender transition journey in 2016 after facing many obstacles to obtaining quality care. From 2017-2019, he was a facilitator for the Baltimore Transmasculine Alliance peer support group where he helped others navigate the complexities of the healthcare system and health insurance. In 2017, as an employee of the University of Maryland Medical System, Phuong called to the attention of system’s leadership the lack of coverage for transgender healthcare in the employee health insurance plan, which led to expansion of care throughout the system and policies to assist employees with transitioning in the workplace.  As a healthcare IT professional, he has advocated for implementation of tools in electronic medical record systems for proper documentation of health information unique to and necessary for quality transgender care. Phuong was also a member of the research team at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine that published two articles on gender affirming care and has been involved in the workgroup for the development of the Quick Guide for Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy by his primary care physician at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Phuong left his 15-year career in healthcare IT in 2022 and is currently a PhD student at Drexel University studying computational neuroscience with the goal of developing AI and machine learning tools to advance scientific and medical research. He is frequently invited to speak as a patient educator on transgender healthcare needs at both the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

Paula M. Neira, JD, MSN, RN, CEN, FAAN is the Program Director of LGBTQ+ Equity and Education at the Johns Hopkins Medicine. Ms. Neira graduated with distinction from the United States Naval Academy in 1985. A surface warfare officer, she served as a regular and reserve officer, including serving in mine warfare combat during Operation Desert Storm. In 2015, she made naval history by becoming the first transgender Navy veteran to have her discharge documentation updated to reflect her correct name by order of the Navy. In 2016, the secretary of the Navy named her to be the co-sponsor of the USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206) which launched November 6, 2021.

After leaving the Navy, Paula began her career as a registered nurse. She earned a master’s degree of science in nursing from Thomas Edison State College. Paula is certified in emergency nursing and focused her career on adult emergency care and trauma resuscitation. From 2008 to 2016, she served as the nurse educator in emergency medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the co-chair of the Johns Hopkins Transgender Medicine Executive Taskforce. Between November 2016 to March 2022, she was the clinical program director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health and as of March 2022, Paula started a new role as program director of LGBTQ+ Equity and Education, Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity. In this position, Paula provides educational, policy, and programmatic support throughout Johns Hopkins Medicine to address staff sexual and gender minority (SGM) cultural and clinical competency, to improve the workplace environment for our LGBTQ+ staff members, and address health inequities facing the LGBTQ+ population. Paula will also provide information about the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender and Gender Expansive Health

An attorney and member of the Maryland bar since 2001, Paula was a leader in the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. For more than a decade, she has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on transgender military service. As part of her role at Johns Hopkins, she lectures nationally on the need for improved transgender cultural competence in health care. Paula and her partner reside in Bowie, Maryland.