Dovie Watson, MD, MSCE, and Katharine (Katie) Dalke, MD, MBE, grew up more than 1,000 miles apart-Watson in Oklahoma City and Dalke in Pittsburgh-but they shared a common experience: not always feeling like the medical establishment saw and respected them.
"I've had providers who make a lot of assumptions about what I'm getting up to, and it's never flattering," said Watson, of her experiences as a patient who is both Black and bisexual. "And I would stop going to those doctors. It feels terrible to be judged in that space where you want to be open and honest. You want to get the care that you need."
For Dalke, likewise, having an intersex condition shaped her perception of medicine from a young age.
"I, like a lot of people, was drawn to medicine because it is a helping and healing profession. However, I had also experienced it as a profession that could harm," Dalke said. "And it took a while for me to be able to reconcile that tension. The way I understand it now is that my health care providers were doing the best they could, but there were so many unanswered questions and uncertainties that they had to make decisions off of assumptions and their best guesses."
Both physicians will assume new leadership roles with the Penn Medicine Program for LGBTQ+ Health in July. Watson, an infectious disease physician and researcher who specializes in HIV prevention and health equity in the LGBTQ+ population, will serve as director of research and evaluation. Dalke, a psychiatrist with a focus on LGBTQ+ health equity who is engaged in health policy work on the state and national levels, will serve as the director of strategy and alignment.
The new roles complement the continuing work of Kevin Kline, MD, who started as the program's inaugural medical director in 2023.
Growing LGBTQ+ health at Penn Medicine
Since the Program for LGBTQ+ Health launched in 2013, it has evolved from a faculty-driven passion project into a system-wide initiative that meets the sometimes-unseen needs of LGBTQ+ patients. The program offers navigation services and access to physicians across a wide range of specialties, from primary care to behavioral health to dermatology, who are trained in LGBTQ+ inclusive care. The program served nearly 400 patients this past fiscal year and received nearly 2,000 patient requests since 2022.
"This work is often seen as something unique, but it's also just part of what quality care should look like for every patient," said Rose Thomas, MPH, the program's director of operations. "We're fortunate to have a diverse group of faculty and staff who are deeply committed to carrying it forward."
Dalke and Watson bring their skills and expertise to their new roles at a moment when the program is adopting a new strategic plan, developed with input from across the health system, that focuses on clinical care, the work environment, and community engagement. A key initiative will be creating a community advisory board, an effort supported through a gift from the late Bob Schoenberg, founding director of the Penn LGBTQ Center.
In her new role, Watson, an assistant professor of Medicine in Infectious Diseases, will be a resource for the many Penn researchers who are studying different aspects of LGBTQ+ health. She hopes to ensure that Penn's research in the field is truly community-engaged and taps into the wisdom and needs of Philadelphia's vibrant LGBTQ+ community, and "to figure out how to do that in a sustainable way that's not extractive of the community."
Dalke, the Benjamin Rush Associate Professor and vice chair for clinical operations in Psychiatry, will be the program's liaison with the health system and university.
"My role is oriented to helping the program be successful in achieving its strategic goals and priorities," she said. "Penn has led academic health care organizations in this area for a long time, and while we have a lot of internal support, there are many external headwinds to navigate."
