Hadrian Kinnear has a guiding principle: to bring visibility to those who exist on the margins. A third-year M.D./ Ph.D. student in the Medical Scientist Training Program, Kinnear co-founded the U-M LGBTQ Health Network in 2016 — less than a year after publicly coming out as a transgender man. The network, and the people involved, champion LGBTQ issues within the health system and the medical community at large; already, over 200 students, faculty, staff, and community members have joined. 

Though Kinnear considers himself an introvert, he is undaunted in his advocacy and strives to impact as many areas as possible — all with the support of his partner, Chelsea (a doctoral student at Michigan State University), and their cat, Thomas. Beyond outreach, Kinnear's research seeks to understand reproduction options for transgender men, and he is actively working to better the LGBTQ patient experience through various projects. 

"Something beautiful and complicated about a large system is that people working toward similar goals may be operating in their individual microenvironments and not connecting with each other. Our hope [with the network] was to find a low-commitment way to bring more voices to the table. 

"With each new person that joins the network, I have been humbled to learn about the work people are currently doing and their hopes for LGBTQ health care at Michigan Medicine. There may be times when advocacy can feel isolated or lonely, but know that there are many within our community who care and who are supporting this work." 

— Hadrian Kinnear (third-year M.D./Ph.D. student)