SUSAN FILA SANTA MONICA COLLEGE HOW TO

Health Promotion Services enhances student well-being through programs such as The Zone, where students can learn yoga, biofeedback, cooking skills and more.įila is also partnering with UC San Diego Health and campus groups to bring equity, diversity and inclusion training to SHW staff. “I want UC San Diego to be known as the place that provides cutting-edge practices in regards to gender-affirming care.”

“We’re the first UC to hire two gender-affirming care coordinators there is a huge need on our campus for our trans and nonbinary students students to access this care,” Fila said.

SUSAN FILA SANTA MONICA COLLEGE HOW TO

Training for the SHW team and campus community about how to make a gender-affirming care environment and how to support students wanting to access gender-affirming care.

Connecting students with gender-affirming campus resources.

Encouraging exploration of gender identity.

Education for students interested in pursuing gender transition.

Ultimately, campus gender-affirming care services will include: SHW has recently partnered with the Pronouns Project to create a more gender-affirming environment at Student Health Services (SHS) and offer more gender-affirming care options for transgender, nonbinary and genderqueer Tritons.Īlong with two newly-hired gender-affirming care coordinators and in partnership with the campus’s LGBT Resource Center, Fila’s team is hard at work coordinating and improving efforts both within the cluster and eventually across the campus community. “Creating something that would last beyond our graduation was really important to us,” Black added. “Our goal is to not only make it more visible, but educate the campus about how to be respectful towards those whose gender identities may not fit into a binary categorization.” “Gender diversity has been around for much longer than it’s been widely talked about,” Lopez said. Kyra Black and Angelina Lopez, two of the founding members of the Pronouns Project who both use they/them pronouns, explained that they wanted to help foster accountability that created a more gender-affirming environment on campus. Some of that advocacy has come from the UC San Diego Pronouns Project, a student organization created to raise awareness around issues of gender inclusivity. Plus, she added, student voices and advocacy on campus push SHW to be the best that it can be. She explained that working in higher education leaves open the door for innovation and new ideas or ways of doing things.

Now, Fila wants to go directly to the students to find out what they need-not just what she thinks they might need. “I get those struggles well-being can’t always be the priority but there is a balance.” Like many other parenting students, she didn’t always have the time or energy to access resources.

“During my undergraduate, graduate, and PhD studies, my well-being wasn’t always first because I was a single parent with a toddler, and I was often up until 3 a.m. “We especially need to understand the unique needs of our students of color and how they might have experienced the healthcare system, knowing these past experiences may not have always been favorable,” said Fila.

For Fila, one of the most exciting and impactful aspects of her role as executive director has been brainstorming how best to address the diverse needs of the student population and how to make resources easily and readily available through a health equity lens, especially to students who may not have the ability to always put themselves and their well-being first.

Susan fila santa monica college