Key Note Speakers

Ilan H. Meyer, Ph.D. is Distinguished Senior Scholar for Public Policy at the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA’s School of Law Adjunct Professor in Community Health Sciences at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and Professor Emeritus of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University. Dr. Meyer studies public health issues related to minority health, in particular, the relationship of identity, prejudice and discrimination, and mental health outcomes in sexual and gender minority populations.  In several highly cited papers, Dr. Meyer has developed a theory of minority stress that describes the relationship of social stressors and mental disorders and helps to explain LGBT health disparities.  The model has guided his and other investigators’ population research on LGBT health disparities by identifying the mechanisms by which social stressors impact health and describing the harm to LGBT people from prejudice and stigma.   

Dr Aideen Quilty is Associate Professor in Gender Studies and Social Justice at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice UCD, Ireland. Her research and publications draw on intersecting feminist, queer and gender theories. She was appointed to the prestigious Royal Irish Academy Social Sciences multidisciplinary committee in 2022 and has been Principal Investigator (PI) on a number of LGBTQI+ transnational European research projects. She carried out the first qualitative study on LGBTQI+ youth homelessness in Ireland and is currently PI on the first quantitative study on Gender-Affirming Care in Ireland for Trans and Non-binary People (2023). She served as Associate Dean of Social Sciences (2020-2023) and is currently Director of Gender Studies at UCD including programmes at undergraduate, graduate and the nationally recognised Community University Gender Studies Outreach Programme.  She is a recognized pedagogue and has won multiple awards including a student-led University Teaching Excellence Award in 2022, an Outstanding Achievement award 2017, a UCD Values in Action Award 2020 and a competitive Teaching and Learning Fellowship (2019-21) to advance research and scholarship in intercultural education.