JPSM MPSDS Seminar Series

Onsite and via Zoom

Institute for Social Research (ISR), Room 1070
The Zoom session will be locked 10 minutes after the start of the presentation.

Advancing Equity through Robust Sexual and Gender Minority Representation through Data Collection

2022 was a critical year in advancing data collection for sexual and gender minority populations. In March, the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) published their consensus report, Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation, funded and requested by the National Institutes of Health. Only three months later, President Biden issued Executive Order "Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals" (EO 14075) recognizing that advancing equity and full inclusion requires improvements in data collection and evidence use. The EO called for three major federal initiatives to help drive and shape the advancing data collection; a Federal Evidence Agenda on LGBTQI+ Equity, federal agency SOGI Data Action Plans, and Best Practices for the Collection of SOGI Data for Federal Statistical Surveys published from the Office of the Chief Statistician of the United States. While not all advances on collecting sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristic data is happening in the federal realm, the work of many federal agencies like Census Bureau, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the National Institutes for Health has significant impact on advancing and directing work in other spheres.

Christina N. Dragon (she|her) serves as the Measurement and Data Lead in the NIH Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office and part time supporting the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health as the SOGI Data Implementation Specialist. Previously she served as the Sexual and Gender Minority Data Lead in Medicare’s Office of Minority Health and as the data analyst for the Health People 2020 LGBT Health topic area at the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC. She serves on the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Sex Characteristics Subcommittee of the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) and in 2022 led the subgroup on SOGI data for administrative forms for the interagency working group on the Federal Evidence Agenda on LGBTQI+ Equity, published in January 2023. Besides SGM data Christina also worked on two public health emergencies, the Ebola Response 2015 with the CDC and the COVID-19 pandemic response (2020-2021) while working to protect worker safety and health with OSHA. Christina holds a Masters’ Degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a double major from Smith College in Neuroscience and Woman and Gender Studies. Outside of work, Christina rows with the LGBTQ rowing team, the DC Strokes, trains for the next marathon, and gardens.