AGLP NEWS
AGLP 2025 Awards
The Distinguished Service Award, AGLP’s first designated award, is given to an individual for outstanding contributions to the LGBTQ community. Over the years it has been awarded to AGLP members whose work extends past the reach of the organization, to supportive APA officials, and to public figures. The 2025 Distinguished Service Award is being presented toGreg Louganis.
Greg Louganis is a five-time Olympic medalist in the three-meter and 10-meter diving events, and he is the first man in Olympic history to sweep the Diving events in consecutive Olympic Games. Born in San Diego, Louganis won a record 47 national titles and 13 world championships throughout his Diving career. He captured his first Olympic medal at the Olympic Games Montreal 1976, placing second in the tower event. Louganis won two titles at the 1982 world championships and was the first person to receive a perfect score of 10 from all seven judges in an international event. He proceeded to win gold medals in both the three-meter and 10-meter events at the Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984, both with record scores and leads over his opponents. However, at the Seoul 1988 Games, a concussion Louganis sustained during the preliminary rounds of the three-meter event almost dashed his medal hopes. But Louganis competed despite the injury, claiming two gold medals and becoming the first man in Olympic history to sweep the Diving events in consecutive Olympic Games. After his competitive Diving career, Louganis became a LGBTQ+ activist and worked frequently with the Human Rights Campaign to defend the civil liberties of the LGBTQ+ community and those diagnosed with HIV.
The AGLP James Paulsen Award, created in 1986 and presented to an AGLP member who has made significant contributions to the ongoing life of the organization, is conferred this year on Sarah Noble, D.O., a long-standing member of AGLP.
Sarah Noble, DO currently works at Albert Einstein Medical Center where she is the Medical Director of Outpatient Behavioral Health. Sarah is interested in women's mental health, particularly postpartum depression. She is secretary for the AGLP: the organization of LGBTQ+ psychiatrists. Sarah also teaches about the social determinants of health and the effects of implicit bias on patient care.
The Barbara Gittings Award for 2025 is being presented to Vickie Mays, PhD and Susan Cochran, PhD. The AGLP Barbara Gittings Award is presented to a woman who demonstrates exceptional leadership and advocacy for lesbian Issues. It was named after one of the founders of the gay rights movement and one of the activists instrumental in moving APA to consider depathologizing homosexuality. We note the importance of the joint efforts of Dr. Mays and Dr. Cochran.
Vickie Mays is a Professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Letters and Sciences, as well as a Professor in the Department of Health Services. Professor Mays is also the Director of the UCLA Center on Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities (www.MinorityHealthDisparities.org). She teaches courses on health status and health behaviors of racial and ethnic minority groups, research ethics in biomedical and behavioral research in racial/ethnic minority populations, research methods in minority research, as well as courses on social determinants of mental disorders and psychopathology. She holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and an M.S.P.H. in Health Services, with postdoctoral training in psychiatric epidemiology, survey research as it applies to ethnic minorities (University of Michigan) and health policy (RAND).Professor Mays' research primarily focuses on the mental and physical health disparities affecting racial and ethnic minority populations. She has a long history of research and policy development in the area of contextual factors that surrounding HIV/AIDS in racial and ethnic minorities. This work ranges from looking at barriers to education and services to understanding racial-based immunological differences that may contribute to health outcome disparities. Other areas of research include looking at the role of perceived and actual discrimination on mental and physical health outcomes, particularly as these factors impact downstream disease outcomes. Her mental health research examines availability, access and quality of mental health services for racial, ethnic and sexual minorities. She is the Co-PI of the California Quality of Life Survey, a population based study of over 2,200 Californians on the prevalence of mental health disorders and the contextual factors associated with those disorders.
Dr. Mays has provided testimony to a number of Congressional committees on her HIV, mental health and health disparities research findings. She recently completed a term as the Chair of the Subcommittee on Populations of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. There she helped develop a report on the role of data collection in the reducing health disparities associated with race, ethnicity, and primary language. She has received a number of awards including one for her lifetime research on women and HIV from AMFAR, a Women and Leadership Award from the American Psychological Association and several Distinguished Contributions for Research awards.
Prof. Susan D. Cochran is, by training, a clinical psychologist and an epidemiologist. Her research program seeks to elucidate the mechanisms that moderate relationships among marginalizing social factors, behavior, and disease. This work has centered on three broad areas: a) illuminating disparities that affect the health of sexual/gender and racial/ethnic minority populations, b) destigmatizing homosexuality and gender expression both domestically and internationally, and c) identifying key policy changes that may reduce the harmful effects of social marginalization.
"Over the years," she writes, "I have been fortunate to receive several awards for my research, mentorship efforts, and contributions to the University including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Contribution to Research in Public Policy Award, the UCLA Chancellor’s Award for Special Contributions to a Fair and Open Academic Environment, and most recently the 2022 Impact Award from the UCLA Williams Institute for “groundbreaking foundational research showcasing health disparities among LGBT people.”
Besides serving on various professional boards and committees, she was a member of the World Health Organization International Classification of Disease Working Group on the Classification of Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health (2011-2014) charged with developing the scientific rationale to remove from the ICD residual diagnoses linked to homosexuality.
The 2025 Stuart Nichols Award is being conferred on The Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center
Transgender and non-binary individuals comprise two of the most marginalized groups in our society. The Center provides much-needed services in one convenient, safe, and welcoming place.
Named after Connie Norman, known as the ‘AIDS Diva,’ a fearless Transgender and AIDS activist who died in 1996, this center acts as a home to raise up and empower the next generation of activists and members of our community. We are home to several Trans-led organizations including FLUX powered by AHF, TransCanWork, the Unique Woman’s Coalition (UWC), and many others.
The Connie Norman Empowerment Center is a creation from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) whose mission is to provide cutting-edge medicine and advocacy regardless of ability to pay. The new center will help advance AHF’s mission by providing high-quality HIV care and functioning as a sort of ‘WeWork’ space for Trans-led organizations to have a place to do their work, advocate for the community, and be affirmed. AHF will open an outpatient clinic at Linn House, focusing on the medical needs of transgender individuals which will help provide HIV medical care and advocacy to those in need.
The Stuart Nichols Award is presented to a community service organization in the Annual Meeting city that supports LGBTQ Mental Health. It was named after Stuart Nichols, MD, a community psychiatrist who did addictions and HIV work and was a mentor to many AGLP members. The award includes a cash stipend.
This year, the 2025 AGLP Awards will be presented in a ceremony at The Queensbury; 819 S. Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017, on Monday, May 19, 2025. The reception begins at 7:00pm with the Awards Ceremony following at 8:00pm.
AGLP Announces our New Slate of Officers for 2025-2026
The AGLP Executive Committee has approved the following slate of officers for the 2023-2024 term. Early voting is now available for those not able to attend the meeting.
CLICK HERE to cast your vote. Your username and password will be required to access the ballot – only AGLP members may vote in this election.
President: Pratik Bahekar, M.B.B.S.
Dr. Pratik Bahekar is an assistant professor in psychiatry at Yale University and a diversity leadership fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He was a delegate from the Medical Society of the State of New York to the American Medical Association -RFS Interim meeting. He was on various local and national committees working toward advancing LGBTQ+ mental health and participated in advocacy and policy development with the same goal. He serves as the vice president of the Association of LGBTQ+ Psychiatrists. Dr. Bahekar's research focuses on the legal aspects of LGBTQ+ mental health. He has produced scholarship works with his expertise in LGBTQ+ mental health and his vision to remove healthcare barriers for LGBTQ+ individuals. Dr. Bahekar completed the General Psychiatry Residency Training Program at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, and Yale University, and a forensic psychiatry fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Vice-President: Eric Rafla-Yuan, M.D.
Eric Rafla-Yuan, M.D. is a San Diego psychiatrist and a voluntary assistant clinical professor at UC San Diego, where he founded and led the psychiatry residency diversity committee. He graduated medical school and completed additional training in bioethics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed residency training at the UC San Diego Community Psychiatry Program. He currently sits on the APA Council of Advocacy and Government Relations, and previously held leadership roles with the San Diego Psychiatric Society and California State Association of Psychiatrists. His research focuses on policy and structural drivers of health outcomes and his work on 988 and clinical crisis services has been published in popular media as well as the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs. He is the chair of APA's Caucus on the Social Determinants of Health, a delegate in the American Medical Association's House of Delegates, and formerly served as Health Counsel in the United States House of Representatives during the 117th session of Congress.
Secretary: Sarah Noble, D.O.
Sarah Noble, DO currently works at Albert Einstein Medical Center where she is the Medical Director of Outpatient Behavioral Health. Sarah is interested in women's mental health, particularly postpartum depression. She is secretary for the AGLP: the organization of LGBTQ+ psychiatrists. Sarah also teaches about the social determinants of health and the effects of implicit bias on patient care.
Treasurer: Sarah Kaufmann, M.D.
Dr. Sarah Kaufman earned her Masters in Pharmacology from Tulane University and her MD from LSU Health Shreveport. She is currently a PGY-4 and serving as one of the Administrative Chief Residents in the Psychiatry Residency Program at LSU Health Shreveport. She is matched to the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco for next academic year, after which she plans to pursue a career in Addiction, Emergency, and Street Psychiatry.
