Rethinking Youth Gender Medicine Speakers

Alex Byrne, PhD

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy, MIT

Alex Byrne is a Laurence S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at MIT. He specializes in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and the philosophy of sex and gender. He recently authored the 2024 book Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions, which examines the philosophical and conceptual distinctions between sex and gender. He is also a co-author of the 2025 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report, Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices.

Alice Sullivan, D.Phil

Professor of Sociology, University College London

Alice Sullivan is Professor of Sociology at the UCL Social Research Institute. Her background is in quantitative analysis of social and educational inequalities, and she was Director of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) between 2010-2020. She has published extensively on educational, social and health inequalities. She is an expert on sex and gender, data collection and academic freedom. She led the government-commissioned Sullivan Review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender. She is a founder of the London Universities’ Council for Academic Freedom. She is the editor (with Selina Todd) of Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader, Routledge (2023) and the author of Sex, Lies and Statistics: Why we need evidence-based policy on sex and gender (forthcoming November 2026).

Alison Clayton, MBBS, PhD

Consultant Psychiatrist & Specialist Psychotherapist

Alison Clayton is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and a historian of psychiatry. She has just completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne’s department of History and Philosophy of Science, researching the historical treatment of malaria therapy for neurosyphilis. Dr. Clayton is the author of several academic publications that focus on paediatric gender medicine. These include considering the gender-affirmative treatment model in the context of historical psychiatric treatments, and an exploration of placebo and nocebo effects in this field of medicine.

Anastassis Spiliadis, MsC

Family & Systemic Psychotherapist; PhD(c), University of Essex

Anastassis Spiliadis is a psychotherapist (MSc, PGCert), a psychologist (MSc, Doctoral C.) and an organisational consultant (MSc) based in London & Athens. He works with individuals, couples, families, and teams, and has held senior clinical and training roles in leading UK institutions, including the Maudsley Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital. From 2015 to 2019, he served as a psychotherapist, supervisor, and trainer at the Tavistock GIDS, where he founded the first Family Therapy & Consultation Service and raised concerns about clinical practices. He introduced the concept of Gender Exploratory Therapy in 2018 and continues to work clinically, publish, and train on gender-related distress and co-occurring difficulties through a systemic and developmental lens.

Anna Hutchinson, DClinPsych

Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Director

Anna Hutchinson is a clinical psychologist with 25 years of frontline experience, specialising in adolescent mental health and physical health. She serves as the Clinical Director at the Integrated Psychology Clinic in London. From 2013 to 2017, Anna worked at the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at The Tavistock Clinic, where she observed significant changes in patient demographics, referral numbers, and an evolving evidence base that challenged practice at the time. Since leaving GIDS, Anna has been working to raise awareness of the complex needs faced by young people experiencing gender-related distress. She continues to educate and write on the subject, having recently co-led the induction training for the new NHS Children and Young People Gender Hubs in collaboration with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in the UK. She is currently co-authoring a book Exploring gender: context, development and psychotherapy.

Barrett Bowdre, JD

Solicitor General, Alabama Office of the Attorney General

Barrett Bowdre serves as solicitor general in the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, where he oversees the state’s appellate docket and helps defend the state’s interests in courts throughout the country. He previously served as principal deputy solicitor general and, before that, deputy solicitor general. He is a former law clerk to Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, then-Chief Judge W. Keith Watkins of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, and then-Chief Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He holds a J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Alabama School of Law and a B.A., cum laude, from Furman University. Before attending law school, he worked as a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, where he researched civic education initiatives and helped compile literary anthologies exploring the American character.

Chan Moruzi, PhD

Independent Researcher, Adolescent Mental Health

Chan Kulatunga Moruzi is an independent scholar and researcher whose work focuses on adolescent mental health, particularly gender dysphoria. Her work includes primary research, systematic evidence reviews, knowledge translation, and policy development. She has contributed to systematic reviews of pediatric gender medicine and has published peer-reviewed work examining the evidence base and clinical guidance for the care of gender-distressed youth.

Erica Anderson, PhD

Clinical Psychologist & Transgender Health Specialist

Erica Anderson is the Former President of USPATH, past board member of WPATH, and served as a clinical psychologist at the Child and Adolescent Gender Center at the University of California–San Francisco. Dr. Anderson was one of the first gender clinicians to publicly speak out about inadequate evaluation of gender-dysphoric adolescents and young adults in the US.

Florian Zepf, MD

Chair & Clinical Director, Jena University Hospital

Florian D. Zepf is the Chair and Clinical Director of the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy at Jena University Hospital, which is one of the six competitively selected locations of the German Centre for Mental Health. He has an extensive track record in clinical research, and he is the recipient of prestigious awards, such as the Young Minds in Psychiatry Award (American Psychiatric Association), the Donald J. Cohen Fellowship Award (IACAPAP), and the Raine Visiting Professorship (UWA). From mid-2020 until November 2022, he was a member of the guideline group for the recently published 2025 German language S2k Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Gender Incongruence and Gender Dysphoria of Childhood and Adolescence, and left this guideline group due to his profound clinical and ethical concerns.

Hon. Elspeth B. Cypher

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice (ret.)

Hon. Elspeth B. Cypher is a retired Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice. She has extensive teaching experience as an adjunct legal professor and as an instructor in numerous continuing legal education programs for judges. She is the author of the three-volume Massachusetts Criminal Practice and Procedure. She is the Board President of the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) dedicated to restoring, protecting, and advancing the rights of women and girls through legal argument, policy advocacy, and public education. Justice Cypher is also a founding member of the Gender Critical Law Society (GCLS).

Ivan Florez, MD, PhD

Professor of Pediatrics, University of Antioquia

Ivan Florez is a pediatrician and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Antioquia, with a part-time faculty appointment at McMaster University. He is a leader of the AGREE Collaboration, Deputy Director of Cochrane Colombia, and an expert in clinical practice guidelines, systematic reviews, and evidence synthesis. His research includes evaluating the evidence base for interventions in youth gender medicine.

Joe Burgo, PhD

Clinical Psychologist & Psychoanalyst

Joseph Burgo is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with more than 40 years of experience in private practice. He is the author of several books on psychology, including Shame, The Narcissist You Know, and Why Do I Do That? His recent work has focused on psychotherapy for gender-distressed youth and detransitioners, with particular attention to identity development, shame, and the psychological factors that may contribute to gender-related distress.

Kathleen McDeavitt, MD

Psychiatrist; Associate Professor, Baylor College of Medicine

Kathleen McDeavitt is a board-certified psychiatrist. She graduated from Duke University, attended medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and completed her psychiatry residency at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. McDeavitt’s clinical practice includes outpatient and emergency psychiatry. She is an associate professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. McDeaviett co-authored the 2025 HHS Evidence Review of pediatric gender medicine.

Kathryn Webb, DClinPsych

Clinical Psychologist; Senior Researcher, University of Oxford

Kathryn Webb is a clinical psychologist and Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford, where she co-leads the Oxford Gender and Wellbeing Research Group. Her research focuses on gender-related distress and how it can best be understood and supported, using approaches including systematic evidence reviews, qualitative research, and psychological formulation. Her doctoral research examined concepts of choice and wellbeing, including regret and quality of life following gender-related surgery. She Co-Authored the UK Review of Sex & Gender Data.

Ken Zucker, PhD, C.Psych.

University of Toronto

Ken Zucker is the outgoing Editor-in-Chief of the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Dr. Zucker served as the chair of the DSM-5 Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders. A clinical psychologist with 50+ years of experience working with gender-dysphoric youth, Dr. Zucker formerly led the Gender Identity Service for children and adolescents at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. His most recent publication, “Is ‘rapid-onset’ gender dysphoria in adolescence a new clinical phenomenon?” appeared in the European Journal of Developmental Psychology (2026).

Kris Kaliebe, MD

Professor of Psychiatry, University of South Florida

Kristopher Kaliebe, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry at University of South Florida, in Tampa Florida. He is Board Certified in Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). His clinical work has been primarily in University clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers and juvenile corrections. At USF Dr. Kaliebe instructs medical students, psychiatry residents and child and adolescent psychiatry fellows and forensic psychiatry fellows. From 2013-2021 he served as co-chair of AACAP’s Media Committee. From 2016 to 2022 he was the liaison between the AACAP and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Kaliebe is concerned about naïve interventionalism in medicine. Dr. Kaliebe co-authored the 2025 HHS Evidence Review of pediatric gender medicine.

Laura Edwards-Leeper, PhD

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Laura Edwards-Leeper is a licensed clinical psychologist in full-time private practice. She has previously worked at Pacific University, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where she was the founding psychologist of the Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS). In that role, she developed the psychological assessment protocol for transgender adolescents seeking medical interventions. Dr. Edwards-Leeper is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 54: Pediatric Psychology) and served as Chair of the Child and Adolescent Committee for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). She has authored numerous scholarly publications and is internationally recognized for her expertise. In recent years, she has spoken publicly about concerns and complexities within this rapidly evolving field.

Leor Sapir, PhD

Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute

Leor Sapir is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston College and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. Since joining MI, he has become a recognized thought leader on pediatric gender medicine. Sapir has offered incisive analysis of American medical groups, the weak incentives for evidence-based practices, and the widening policy gap between the U.S. and other countries. Leor co-authored the 2025 HHS Evidence Review of pediatric gender medicine.

Lisa Littman, MD, MPH

Physician-Scientist; President, Gender Dysphoria Institute

Lisa Littman is a physician and researcher who studies gender dysphoria, desistance, and detransition. She is the President and Director of the Gender Dysphoria Institute and is an Investigator for the Adolescent and Young Adult Gender Dysphoria Outcomes Study (AYAGDOS). Previously, she held academic positions at the Brown University School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Littman’s groundbreaking research into the social factors contributing to the adolescent-onset of gender dysphoria initiated a worldwide debate about how to best care for this novel patient cohort.

Lisa Selin Davis

Writer and Journalist, BROADview

Lisa Selin Davis is the author of two novels, Belly and Lost Stars, and two nonfiction books, Tomboy and Housewife. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Free Press, and many other publications, and is finishing a book on the culture war over trans kids and gender identity.

Michael Biggs, PhD

Professor of Sociology, Oxford University

Michael Biggs is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Oxford. He exposed the suppression of results from the Tavistock GIDS’ study of puberty blockers, and is researching the Dutch protocol for treating children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. He authored The Dutch Protocol for Juvenile Transsexuals: Origins and Evidence. Dr. Biggs is concerned about the lack of evidence justifying endocrinological interventions on children and young people who identify as transgender. He has published on this subject in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, the Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, and the Journal of Sexual Medicine. He has also acted as an expert witness in the case of Keira Bell and Mrs. A. versus Tavistock NHS Trust (2020) at the High Court of England and Wales and for a case in the Australian Family Court.

Moti Gorin, PhD, MBE

Associate Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University

Moti Gorin, PhD, MBE is a philosopher and bioethicist. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University. After completing his Ph.D., Gorin spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Advanced Biomedical Ethics in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, where he earned a Master's in Bioethics. He specializes in bioethics and in moral and political philosophy. Gorin has published articles in American Philosophical Quarterly, JAMA, The Hastings Center Report, JAMA Pediatrics, The American Journal of Bioethics, Philosophia, and Public Health Ethics. He co-authored the 2025 HHS Evidence Review of pediatric gender medicine.

Paul Salkovskis, PhD

Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford

Paul Salkovskis is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Institute of Clinical Psychology Training and Research. A leading expert in cognitive behavioral therapy, his research and clinical work focus on the understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders, particularly obsessive-compulsive disorder and health anxiety. He has published extensively on cognitive and behavioral approaches to psychological disorders and has played a major role in the development and evaluation of evidence-based psychological treatments.

Ray Yuan Zhang, PhD

Evidence Bridge

Ray Yuan Zhang is the founder and researcher at Evidence Bridge, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing evidence-based medicine. He earned his PhD in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University and a Master’s degree in Epidemiology from Peking University. His research focuses on evidence-based medicine, guideline development, patient values and preferences, health economics, and health technology assessment. His work aims to strengthen public trust in healthcare by promoting transparent decision-making and integrating the perspectives of patients and communities.

Riittakerttu Kaltiala, MD, PhD

Professor of Adolescent Psychiatry, Tampere University

Riittakerttu Kaltiala, MD, PhD, BSc, is professor of adolescent psychiatry in Tampere University and chief psychiatrist in the Department of Adolescent Psychiatry in Tampere University Hospital. She is the leader of one of the two nationally centralized gender identity services for minors in Finland since 2011 when these services were first opened. In addition to working clinically in the service she has since its opening been actively involved in legislative and service development, continuous education and scientific writing related to gender identity issues in minors nationally and internationally. In addition to topics related to gender dysphoria, she has published extensively on adolescent mental health epidemiology, health services research and clinical adolescent psychiatry.

Roberto D’Angelo, PsyD

Psychiatrist & Psychoanalyst; President, SEGM

Roberto D'Angelo is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Byron Bay, Australia. Dr. D’Angelo works with adolescents and young adults with gender dysphoria, using a contemporary psychoanalytic approach. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles. His publications explore clinical and ethical issues in the treatment of gender dysphoria. Roberto D’Angelo serves as the President of SEGM.

Sallie Baxendale, PhD

Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, University College London

Sallie Baxendale is Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and the Lead Consultant Neuropsychologist for the epilepsy surgery program at the National Hospital for Neurology, Queen Square. She has over 200 academic publications in neuropsychology, including books, book chapters and original research studies and was awarded the International Neuropsychological Society Arthur Benton Prize in 2018 in recognition of her outstanding scientific contributions to the field of neuropsychology.and received the Distinguished Contribution Award from the British Psychological Society in 2023. She is a passionate advocate for the application of neuropsychological principles and knowledge in public policy and discourse. Her research and clinical interests focus on understanding the multifactorial nature of cognitive impairments in clinical populations. Her review of the impact of puberty blockers on neurodevelopment featured in the Cass Review

Sarah Jorgensen, PharmD, PhD

Assoc. Research Scientist, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute

Sarah Jorgensen is a pharmacoepidemiologist at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Population Health, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute. Her research focuses on the safety of drugs and vaccines using health administrative and electronic health record databases, as well as the application of new analytical techniques to address methodological challenges in pharmacoepidemiology. Her team is currently completing a project that uses datamining methods to detect safety signals associated with testosterone therapy in females.

Sarah Mittermaier, MSc

Researcher & Writer

Sarah Mittermaier is a researcher exploring the online spaces where young people encounter new ideas about gender and set expectations and intentions for transition. Her MSc. thesis–Questions and doubts in online trans communities–is available through McGill University. She is writing a book on gender medicine for Polity.

Scot Glasberg, MD

Past President, American Society of Plastic Surgeons

Scot Bradley Glasberg is a board-certified plastic surgeon and past president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and The Plastic Surgery Foundation. With more than 30 years of clinical experience, he has held numerous leadership positions in plastic surgery and organized medicine and currently serves as President of Plastic Surgery Practice Solutions. He has been closely involved in ASPS's evaluation of the evidence for surgical interventions for gender dysphoria in adolescents and has spoken publicly about the evidence, safety, and ethical considerations surrounding these procedures.

Stephanie Davies Arai, BEM

Founder & Director, Transgender Trend

Stephanie Davies Arai is the founder and director of Transgender Trend, a UK organisation advocating an evidence-based approach to children who are distressed about their sex. With a background in education and parenting, Stephanie was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to children in 2022.

Stephen Levine, MD

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University

Stephen B. Levine, a psychiatrist, started one of the first clinics for gender patients in 1974 and has continuously been active seeing patients and writing about his and his colleagues’ observations since. Most of his recent experience has been with transgender youth and their parents. Six of his recent co-authored or sole authored papers have been downloaded over 365,000 times. Long interested in psychotherapy as an investigative and therapeutic tool, he posits the hypothesis that a new trans identity is a creative unconscious solution to existential woes that must be understood in terms of the youthful sensibilities of the minor. His latest book is Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Sexual Problems.

Vernadette Ramirez Broyles

President and General Counsel at Child & Parental Rights Campaign

Vernadette Ramirez Broyles is the President and General Counsel of Child & Parental Rights Campaign, Inc., a not-for-profit public interest law firm that engages in litigation and advocacy across the country to protect children’s health, parental rights, and the privacy, safety and equal opportunities of women and girls against the impacts of transgender ideology. Vernadette received her law degree from Harvard Law School and her undergraduate degree from Yale University. Vernadette has practiced as a family law litigator, a Guardian ad Litem for children in court, and as a prosecutor with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office in Atlanta Georgia. Vernadette has served on the Board of the Georgia Department of Human Services, where she co-chaired the Department of Family and Children Services committee and on Advisory Boards to the U.S. Department of Justice Violence Against Women and Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention programs. Vernadette’s office is just north of Atlanta GA.

Will Malone, MD

Endocrinologist; Co-Founder, SEGM

William Malone is a board-certified endocrinologist, and founding board member of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, a nonprofit promoting safe, compassionate, ethical, and evidence-informed healthcare for children, adolescents, and young adults with gender dysphoria. He graduated from Stanford University and NYU Medical School, and trained at L.A. County/USC Medical Center. In practice since 2008, he also serves as Asst. Clinical Professor of Endocrinology at the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Zhenya Abbruzzese

Co-Founder, SEGM

Zhenya Abbruzzese is a healthcare researcher and co-founder of SEGM. She authored several widely-read peer-reviewed publications in pediatric gender medicine, including "Myth of 'Reliable Research' in Pediatric Gender Medicine: A critical evaluation of the Dutch Studies—and research that has followed. Zhenya was one of 9 co-authors of the HHS Evidence Review of pediatric gender medicine. Previously, Zhenya worked for a major US-based health insurer identifying low-value healthcare interventions and led a venture-backed startup focused on patients suffering with medically-unexplained symptoms.