2020 LGBT Center Advocate Awards

Every day, the LGBT Center works to create a welcoming and inclusive campus community for LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff. However, we cannot achieve this goal on our own. We need the help of others to bring this goal into fruition. Therefore, every year, we ask the students, faculty, and staff served by the LGBT Center to submit their nominations for UofL LGBT Center Advocate Award. This award—presented annually—seeks to honor faculty and/or staff who work alongside us every day to build a more inclusive and welcoming campus community. These individuals make a positive impact on our campus through their advocacy for LGBTQ+ people campus-wide. Please join us in celebrating our 2020 LGBT Center Advocate Award winners. You can view each award winners’ acceptance speech at our YouTube Channel

Belknap Campus

Dr. Emma Sterrett-Hong has been a long-time advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in various ways. During her tenure at UofL, she has conducted multiple studies related to the role of social networks in the mental and sexual health of young sexual minority men of color, including a recent photovoice-based needs and strengths assessment conducted through a partnership with members of the LGBT people of color performance communities (e.g., Drag and House-Ball scenes) in Louisville. Dr. Sterrett-Hong has employed LGBTQ+ students as research assistants as a way to mentor students, provide them with compensated roles and expose them to the many ways research can benefit their communities. Additionally, Dr. Sterrett-Hong was a pivotal stakeholder and advisor to the Shades RSO. She assisted the founding members in developing the framework, providing ample support to students and staff, as well as offered students informal mentoring opportunities. In her service work, Dr. Sterrett-Hong is a founding board member of Sweet Evening Breeze, Inc. Sweet Evening Breeze is committed to Louisville’s LGBTQ+ youth and young adults experiencing homelessness by going beyond the expectations of shelter, hope, and healing. Dr. Sterrett-Hong has been an instrumental community partner in developing this organization. Recently, Dr. Sterrett-Hong accepted the role of Associate Dean of Equity and Inclusion in the Kent School of Social Work. Her commitment to social justice and supporting students is evident in all aspects of her work and service. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Emma Sterrett-Hong on receiving this year’s LGBT Center Advocate Award for the Belknap Campus.

HSC

Sharon Gordon serves as the Student Success Coordinator in the University of Louisville School of Medicine Student Affairs department. Amongst her students, Sharon is known for creating a warm and welcoming environment where students feel seen, heard, and valued. They noted that being inclusive does not have to be a grand gesture. Rather, it is the small things that matter most. Overwhelmingly, students expressed that Sharon always made time for them, actively listened, and promptly followed up with them in a few days. Please join us in congratulating Sharon Gordon on receiving this year’s LGBT Center Advocate Award for the Health Sciences Campus.

Jessica Petrey has been a steadfast advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in her role as a Clinical Librarian at Kornhauser Library on the Health Sciences Campus. Since 2016, she has been a familiar face at almost every major Pride event in Louisville, sharing health information and resources specific to the LGBTQ+ community with attendees. In 2018, Jessica arranged for the bathrooms in the Kornhauser Library to be gender inclusive, regardless of gender expression or identification. In 2019, Jessica authored a paper entitled ‘Development and implementation of an LGBT initiative at a Health Sciences Library: the first 18 months’ that will be published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association that documents her outreach efforts to the LGBT+ community on behalf of the Kornhauser Health Sciences Library. Additionally, she is a founding member and co-chair of the University Libraries' Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group that devised a short- and long-term plan to make library spaces at UofL an environment where all feel welcomed, safe, and included. In this role, Jessica has enthusiastically co-led the group with sensitivity and respect, not just for LGBTQ+ issues, but for issues relating to race, ethnicity, disability, and religion. Please join us in congratulating Jessica Petrey on receiving this year’s LGBT Center Advocate Award for the Health Sciences Campus.