Empowering LGBTQIA+ Communities: Psychology and Individualized Major in Intersectional Health Studies Turned Experiential Learning into a PhD Pathway

March 26, 2025 

By Stephanie Godward, Communications and Marketing Director, College of Arts & Sciences 

Sav Quach’s prolific community-engaged work with LGBTQIA+ communities in Louisville and across the globe as an undergraduate psychology student laid the foundation towards an accelerated trajectory into PhD work.  

With degrees in psychology and intersectional health studies (individualized major) and minors in LGBTQIA+ studies and Chinese, Quach pursued and participated in several internships that supported their current work as a PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of Nevada. 

Quach’s current research focuses on queer and gender affirming care and resilience in the LGBTQIA+ community with personal research studies on gender euphoria among transgender and gender diverse individuals. Community-engaged work has always been at the center of their own personal mission. 

“I think with my research, ultimately the goal is to help my community, so I can't do that if I don't have their input and if I don't collaborate with them,” Quach said. “I think of them as partners, not participants.” 

As an undergraduate student at UofL, Quach was a James Graham Brown Fellow and used their summer enrichment funding to intern at LGBTQIA+ nonprofits worldwide. Their first internship at the LGBT Center of Raleigh, NC focused on Pride programming, but their experience at OUTMemphis, working with LGBTQIA+ homeless youth, deeply influenced their career trajectory. Inspired by the hands-on work of providing housing and life skills to young people, they sought to bring similar efforts to Louisville.  

With faculty mentor Dr. Cara Snyder, a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty member, they explored ways to continue this work through research and community partnerships. This led to a collaboration with Louisville’s Sweet Evening Breeze nonprofit serving LGBTQIA+ youth experiencing homelessness, where they helped develop a project that addressed community needs while contributing to undergraduate academic research.  

"In Memphis, where I got that intersection of work around youth homelessness and LGBTQIA+ identities, that really spurred on the Sweet Evening Breeze collaboration and my work with them. That's the reason I'm in this PhD program, to be quite honest,” Quach said. “I think getting into a PhD program right out of your undergrad is very difficult, and with this opportunity with Sweet Evening Breeze and with Dr. Snyder, this experience and this kind of research is what made me a competitive applicant.”  

While at UofL, Quach also interned at Mario Mieli, the LGBTQIA+ center in Rome, where they helped with Pride planning and observed key differences between Italian and American Pride events. Quach was particularly struck by Rome’s emphasis on featuring local queer and trans businesses rather than corporate sponsorships, which often dominate U.S. Pride parades. In addition, Pride in Rome also involved 12 days of intersectional education for the community. Upon returning, they shared these insights through their scholarship program’s symposium, advocating for a more community-focused Pride model in the U.S.  

Quach's current research focuses on understanding gender euphoria to develop an intervention catered towards transgender and gender diverse individuals. Their experiences have deeply shaped their clinical practice, where they primarily work with queer clients and apply insights from diverse identities and perspectives. This background has been invaluable in helping them provide personalized, affirming care to each client. 

The work Quach completed with Sweet Evening Breeze has shaped their approach to clinical practice and their research interests.  

“I want to take that intersectionality component and be really intersectional with my research,” Quach said. “I just did my pre-doc project, where I ran focus groups with trans and gender diverse folks, and it was really important to me to get a good breadth of different identities.” 

Quach spoke to individuals from ages 18 to 50 from different backgrounds, including participants who were Native American and identifying as Two Spirit, among other diverse identities of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, neurodivergence, and socioeconomic status. 

“Just hearing all of those different experiences and being able to see where they might connect and have similar experiences, but also diverging experiences, is really going to inform my research,” they said.   

Quach also worked as an undergraduate research intern for three years in UofL’s Kid Lab under Dr. Nick Noles and Dr. Judith Danovitch, Psychological and Brain Sciences professors, where Quach built a strong foundation in research practices. Initially unsure about research as an undergraduate, they later developed and connected their passion through projects like their work with Sweet Evening Breeze. Quach’s experiences in the psychology lab—ranging from data entry to running participants and presenting at a national conference—were instrumental in shaping their research skills and confidence.  

“That was kind of my first step into the research world and absolutely laid a great foundation. I genuinely would be so lost in research if I did not work in that lab for three years,” Quach said.  

Community-engaged work will continue to be the core of their career moving forward.  

“I will be working on building up resilience. How does resilience show up in queer individuals?  I'm really excited to do that in my university and within my own program where we have a clinic. My faculty mentor is the supervisor for the Pride Clinic. This is a clinical practicum team where we serve LGBTQIA+ individuals, and this community-engaged work provides low-cost therapy services to community members and UNR students, and we're able to help low-income LGBTQIA+ folks in that way.”