Alumnus Nicholas Grant, PhD, Elected First Psychologist President of GLMA

  Nicholas Grant, PhD, was recently elected President of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality. The organization, previously known as the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association, is a national nonprofit working to ensure health equity for LGBTQ+ individuals. Dr. Grant is a 2015 alumnus of the PhD in Clinical Psychology program and a 2011 alumnus of the MS in Clinical Psychology program.   Dr. Grant joined the GLMA board of directors the year he earned his PhD from PAU and has served in several leadership roles since. He has co-chaired the Health Professionals in Training Committee and chaired the Board Development Committee. In 2017, he was elected a member-at-large to the board and served as the Vice President for External Affairs.    In his leadership roles with GLMA, he focused on Board processes and efficiency, as well as “building up the behavioral health professional membership which resulted in the establishment of GLMA's Behavioral Health Task Force,” he said.   “One of the things that makes GLMA so unique,” Dr. Grant said, “is it is an interdisciplinary organization that truly focuses on using the expertise of its membership to advance its mission of fighting for LGBTQ health equity.”    As incoming President of the Board of Directors, he is also the first psychologist to serve in the role historically held by physicians. “Psychology is a core component of holistic health, and it is the basis for how we look at the impacts of stress, discrimination, and prejudice on the health of all minority people and communities,” Dr. Grant said. “Having a psychologist lead GLMA demonstrates the value the organization sees in psychology in the larger field of LGBTQ health.”    As he steps into the presidency, Dr. Grant is excited to continue supporting GLMA projects and initiatives. One such project is the Lesbian Health Fund, which was established to define, study, and educate lesbians and sexual minority women, along with their health providers, about the unique health challenges facing those communities. “The LHF is the only US research fund dedicated solely to the unique health needs of sexual minority women,” he added.   Dr. Grant is also excited to bring GLMA’s 40th Annual Conference on LGBTQ Health back to the Bay Area, where the organization was founded, in 2022. Until then, he is based in Honolulu, Hawaii, and serves as a clinical psychologist in the US Navy.