About me
CAITLIN RYAN, PhD, ACSW, is a clinical social worker, educator and researcher who has worked on LGBTQ+ health and mental health for 50 years and whose work has shaped policy and practice for LGBTQ+ children, youth and families. Dr. Ryan was an organizer in the LGBTQ+ health movement in the 1970s. She helped to develop the first AIDS program in the South at the beginning of the pandemic, developed AIDS policy during the 1980s and 1990s, including as Dr. Tony Fauci’s special assistant at the NIH, conducted the first national lesbian health survey that identified lesbian health needs and launched the field of family support for LGBTQ+ children and youth over the past 25 years. Dr. Ryan and her team conducted the first research on LGBTQ+ youth and families and developed the first evidence-based family support model to help diverse families and caregivers to prevent health risks and to promote well-being for LGBTQ+ children and youth in the context of their families, cultures and faith traditions. Dr. Ryan is implementing FAP’s trauma-informed family support model across systems of care and has trained more than 130,000 families, providers, religious leaders and youth on FAP’s family support approach across the U.S. and in other countries. She works with organizations, faith communities, families and providers to integrate FAP’s family-based support model to build healthy futures for LGBTQ+ children, youth and young adults across disciplines, services and systems. Her work has been recognized by national professional groups in the fields of counseling, medicine, nursing, psychiatry, psychology and social work, and by civic, LGBTQ+, advocacy, arts and faith-based groups.
