Scientific Meeting: Gender Identity: What’s Sex Got to Do with It?

Jack Drescher, M.D. (moderator) is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and a Faculty Member at Columbia’s Division of Gender, Sexuality, and Health. He is Senior Psychoanalytic Consultant at Columbia’s Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Dr. Drescher is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute and he Co-Chairs the Committee on Public Information of the American Psychoanalytic Association, co-edits APsaA’s Psychoanalysis Unplugged blog on PsychologyToday.com, and he is a consultant to the Sexual & Gender Diversity Studies Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Dr. Drescher is Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Past President of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry and a Past President of APA’s New York County Psychiatric Society. He is Section Editor of the Gender Dysphoria Chapter in the DSM-5 Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) process (anticipated 2020 publication); he served on APA’s DSM-5 Workgroup on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders and on the World Health Organization’s Working Group on the Classification of Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health that revised sex and gender diagnoses in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Dr. Drescher is the author of Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man (Routledge) and Emeritus Editor of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health. He has edited and co-edited more than a score of books dealing with gender, sexuality, and the health and mental health of LGBT communities. He has authored and co-authored numerous professional articles and book chapters as well. His publications have been translated into Italian, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Finnish and German. He is an expert media spokesperson who appears on major cable and broadcasting networks and he is frequently sought out and quoted by the media for his views on gender and sexuality.

Rachel Levine, M.D. is currently the Secretary of Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine. Dr. Levine is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and the Academy for Eating Disorders. She is also the President-Elect of ASTHO, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Dr. Levine joined the Wolf administration in January 2015 as the Physician General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and served from 2015-2017. She was named Acting Secretary of Health in July 2017 and confirmed as Secretary of Health in March 2018. Her previous posts included: Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs for the Department of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Levine is also an accomplished regional and international speaker, and author on the opioid crisis, medical marijuana, adolescent medicine, eating disorders, and LGBT medicine. Dr. Levine graduated from Harvard College and the Tulane University School of Medicine. She completed her training in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Jack Pula, M.D. is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in private practice in New York City, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, and graduate of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. He was the first out transgender psychoanalytic candidate to complete training at Columbia and to train clinically at an American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA)-affiliated institute.

Rabbi Mike Moskowitz is the Scholar-in-Residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the world’s largest LGBT synagogue. He is a deeply traditional and radically progressive advocate for trans rights and a vocal ally for LGBTQ inclusivity. Rabbi Moskowitz received three Ultra-Orthodox ordinations while learning in the Mir in Jerusalem and in Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, NJ. He is a David Hartman Center Fellow and the author of Textual Activism. His writings can be found at www.rabbimikemoskowitz.com

Hilli Dagony-Clark, Psy.D. is a member and on the faculty of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, Chair of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute’s Academic and Professional Relations Committee, Chair of APsaA’s Committee on the Status of Women and Girls, Co-Chair of APsaA’s ongoing discussion group “The Psychodynamics and Psychological Impact of Misogyny,” Chair of APsaA’s ongoing discussion group, “On Being Supervised” and former President of APsaA’s Candidate’s Council. She is a clinical psychologist treating children, adolescents and adults in individual psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in NYC.