CIRA's Community Capacity and Economics Core Presents: "Transforming Research and Public Health through the Leadership of Black Trans Women in the South: TAC-SAGES"

SPEAKERS

Joelle Espeut, BA, Advocacy Director, The Normal Anomaly Initiative, Inc.

Joelle Bayaa-Uzuri Espeut (she/her/hers) currently serves as Advocacy Director for The Normal Anomaly Initiative, Inc, and has worked with NASTAD, Yale, AIDS United, GLAAD, Gilead/Compass Initiative, Transgender Law Center, SUSTAIN, and CDC, and has appeared in Houston Chronicle, Time Magazine, Pink News, and Fox26 Houston’s “Isiah Factor Uncensored”. She currently serves on the Yale CIRA community advisory board. In 2023, she became a graduate of the American Express Leadership Academy, as well as a graduate of the Victory Empowerment Fellowship program of the LGBT Victory Fund. She has been awarded the ‘Carrying The Torch’ Award at 2022’s Houston Trans Pride and the 2022 Monica Roberts Award from The Houston LGBTQ Political Caucus. She currently serves on the Board for allgoPOC. In 2024, she became the first Black Trans Woman to be voted female-identifying Grand Marshal for Pride Houston. In January 2026, she was voted onto the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus board as Vice President.

Bec Sokha Keo, PhD, MSW, SUSTAIN Wellbeing COMPASS Coordinating Center, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work

Bec Sokha is a Research Associate at the SUSTAIN Center, a funding, training and coaching center that partners with Community Based and HIV/AIDS Service Organizations in the US South to enhance trauma informed, harm reduction, mental health, and community wellness services in the context of HIV. Their focus areas are Community-Based Participatory Action Research, Public Impact Scholarship and Language Justice. They currently work on two research projects: as a co-lead (TAC-SAGES) and research team member (Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV (MIPA) Legacy Project). Their research goal is to achieve BIPOC TNB health equity and wellness through community lead research and public impact.