Program

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, along with the rest of the federal government, recently affirmed its commitment to improving the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) veterans. However, LGBTQ+ veterans are subject to an array of policies that differ depending on the state where they live—from laws protecting them from discrimination to restrictions on gender-affirming health care.

Join the RAND Epstein Family Veterans Policy Research Institute as experts discuss new RAND research on LGBTQ+ veterans’ health, the impact of anti-LGBTQ+ state policies, and how veterans and those who support them have been advocating for change.

Find more information and register here.

Presenter

Megan Schuler is a policy researcher at RAND. As an applied statistician, her work focuses on health and health services inequities, particularly those related to substance use and mental health among various populations. Her recent work examines substance use inequalities among sexual minorities. In this, she identified significant variations in substance use patterns among different groups and was able to pinpoint specific risk factors and pathways contributing to these variations. Schuler works as a co-investigator with the RAND-USC Schaeffer Opioid Policy Tools and Information Center (OPTIC). Prior to RAND, Schuler was a research fellow at Harvard University’s Health Care Policy Department and a postdoctoral researcher at the Pennsylvania State University’s Methodology Center. She received her Ph.D. in psychiatric epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Moderator

Kayla M. Williams is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her focus areas include optimizing policies and programs to support veterans and military personnel. She was most recently Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where she directed a team of nearly 80 employees who communicated VA policies and initiatives through diverse channels. She has served on the Department of Labor Advisory Committee on Veterans’ Employment, Training, and Employer Outreach and the VA Advisory Committee on Women Veterans, among others. Williams was an Arabic linguist in the U.S. Army and is the author of two memoirs about her experiences during and after deploying to Iraq. She has an M.A. in international affairs from American University.