Ivan Hsiao
MPH Candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Researcher in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ivan Hsiao (he/they) recognized the limits of personalized solutions to structural and systemic problems in the biopharmaceutical industry, and made a mid-career shift into public health to focus on health equity for the transgender and gender diverse (TGD) population.
Ivan is currently conducting research on sexual and gender fluidity and mental health among transgender and non binary youth with Dr. Sabra Katz-Wise in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Ivan’s research interests center around how to address systemic factors affecting the TGD population, and include evaluating how virtual continuing medical education resources around TGD health shift perceptions of self-efficacy and self-confidence in treating the TGD population across specialties, and articluating TGD population-specific gender transformative approaches to cultivating healthy gender identities and sexualities among TGD individuals of all genders.
Ivan brings 7 years of research and analysis experience in the life sciences and healthcare space as a management consultant. They specialized in rare disease and oncology, and has helped biopharmaceutical companies design their clinical trials, facilitate market access, and launch in the US and EU. He was also the former Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, overseeing corporate strategy around DEI and leading the Pride Employee Resource Group for LGBT+ employees, and Women & Gender Minorities Initiative.
They are also a social entrepreneur, and has worked at a venture studio as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence to build a DEI diagnostic and monitoring tool. Most recently, they founded Trans Health HQ, a social enterprise that aims to increase the quality and volume of gender-affirming care practiced in the US; it seeks to become clinicians’ one source of truth around how to provide quality gender-affirming care and safely advocate for transgender patients.
Ivan has a B.A. from Columbia University and holds certificates from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, HEC Paris, and other universities in France.
In their non-academic time, Ivan is a long-course triathlete who most recently represented Taiwan at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Nice, France. Ivan also enjoys food and lifestyle photography, and you can find their work at @theirnameisivan on Instagram. Ivan is a polyglot that is fluent or research-proficient in Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Taiwanese), French, Russian, Spanish, and Italian.