Keynote Address ~ 9:00am
Finding Your Way Home
Jordan McWhite, CCHW, NCMA (he/him)
Jordan McWhite, CCHW, NCMA, is a community health professional with a strong focus on supporting transgender and gender-diverse individuals and BIPOC/ QTPOC individuals across Rhode Island. He currently works as a social worker at Hasbro Adolescent Medicine through Brown University Health, where he partners with youth and their families to provide thoughtful, patient-centered care. He also serves as co-chair of Brown Health’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance ERG. Jordan has built his career in trans health advocacy and peer navigation. He previously worked at Thundermist Health Center as a Trans Health Peer Navigator & Housing Specialist, helping patients access services like name changes, gender-affirming care, secure and sustain housing, and provide vital community resources. Simultaneously, he previously served as a Lead Case Manager at Youth Pride Inc., where he supported LGBTQ+ youth through case management and resource coordination. Across his work, Jordan is focused on empowering others to break down barriers to care, help people navigate their healthcare, understand and teach others the path to their gender affirming goals and maneuver social systems with more ease and confidence.
Session One ~ 10:00am
Embracing our Power through Trans History
Evan Jones (he/they)
Evan Jones is a trans identified individual working with victims of violence across various spectrums including gender based violence, domestic violence, and spiritual abuse. Growing up in a high-control fundamentalist group, Evan found a way to embrace his queer identity through his love of history. Studying LGBTQ+ history in the U.S. and around the world inspired a podcast, and later, educational sessions presented in community formats, city municipal trainings, academic settings, and more.
Explore Gender Affirming Voice Treatment
Anne Quirk, MA, MS, CCC-SLP (she/her)
Anne is a licensed and ASHA-certified Speech-Language Pathologist with specialized training in gender-affirming voice and communication therapy. She has worked with gender-diverse clients in-person at her Providence office and via telehealth throughout RI. Anne is committed to making evidence-based voice care accessible, understandable, and genuinely useful to the people seeking it — not just to the clinicians providing it.
Rikki Davis M.S., CF-SLP (they/them)
Embodying both the Trans Experience and Neurodivergence
Chandler Baillargeon (he/they)
Chandler Baillargeon is a 30 year old transmasculine autistic adult. Neurodivergence itself has become a hyperfixation of his. Having presented on a panel at RI Trans Health Conference 2024, he knows what a wonderful opportunity it is to gather community and platform voices. He’s been developing the idea for a panel of neuro and gender diverse people since that presentation!
Leo Spooner
Val Koch
Alice Jackson
Session Two ~ 11:15am
Business of One: Trans Liberation Through Diversifying Income
Caley Logsdon (she/they)
Honoring Trans Ancestors, Imagining Queer Futures
Jess Lynch (she/her)
Jess Lynch (she/they) is a queer, non-binary artist, art therapist, and educator. Their work integrates art, ritual, and trauma-informed care to support mental health and creative expression for youth and communities. They have facilitated groups and workshops across NYC, including at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, centered on creating affirming, participatory spaces.
Music for Community and Empowerment: A Therapeutic Group Songwriting Experiential
Kim Johnson, LMHC, MT-BC (she/they)
Kim is a licensed mental health counselor in MA and board certified music therapist. In partnership with local non-profit PVD House, she offers free and accessible LGBTQ+ focused community music therapy groups, such as Drumming and Wellness and, more recently, a Songwriting and Identity workshop grant funded by RISCA.
Session Three ~ 2:00pm
Play, Power, and Permission: A Workshop on Choice and Connection
Michelle Mooney, BA, MPA (she/they) and Lux Solaris Hawthorne (fae/faer+)
Michelle is a fat, chronically ill, queer, gender‑ambivalent program manager whose lived experience informs equity, inclusion, and bodily autonomy. They bring this lens to systems‑level work centered on people marginalized by health and social service systems. They serve as a Program Manager at the Care Transformation Collaborative of RI, advancing health equity through integrated care, including CHW integration and medical‑legal partnerships. They also served as Board President of SHIP, expanding LGBTQIA+‑inclusive sex education.
The Truth About Trans* Folx: Combatting the Lies of Fundamental Religions
Rev. DL Helfer, LICSW (they/them)
Rev. DL Helfer, LICSW is both a Unitarian Minister and a Social Worker. In DL’s private practice, Taproot Wellness, they largely work with LGBTQIA+ young adults/adults. One topic often encountered is helplessness or hopelessness, sometimes in the form of nihilism. This can impact individuals’ sense of what is possible. This internal criticism, combined with the cruelty of Christian Nationalism, has a substantial negative impact. This session will address some of the most negative assumptions, real (and imagined) fears, and offer some more hopeful reframing.
“We are all Genderfluid” – These and other myths about Non-Binary people
Lindsey Pasquale (she/they)
Lindsey is a non-binary trans-woman. They serve as Northeast Regional Director and Board Member for PFLAG National. She is also the PFLAG Hartford Co-President. Lindsey is the Creator of “Older and Non-Binary” on Facebook. She is parent to two adult children, and lives in northeastern CT with their spouse and dog Echo. [She works in the InsureTech industry, and enjoys attending WNBA CT Sun and New England Patriot games.]
Queer RI 