LGBTQ+ Members

Dr Jayne Kavanagh (Staff)

I’m an Associate Professor (Teaching) at UCLMS and a specialty doctor in sexual and reproductive health at Homerton Hospital in East London. I was academic lead for Ethics and Law programmes at UCLMS from 2008 until 2020, when I took up a two-year secondment with the RCOG, working on their global Making Abortion Safe programme. I co-chair UCLMS’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee and set up Target Medicine in 2008 and Education for Choice in 2017. I run a Year 2 SSC on sexual and reproductive rights called Viva la Vulva. 

Away from UCL, I co-chair Doctors for Choice UK (a campaigning organisation for the decriminalisation and destigmatisation of abortion) and am co-director of the charity Abortion Talk.

Throughout my career I've been lucky enough to work on projects that help to promote the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people, such as setting up specialised sexual health clinics, setting up a mentoring scheme for LGBTQ+ medical students, introducing sessions on LGBTQ+ health and being inclusive doctors into the MBBS curriculum, supporting the UCLMS Medics Network and working with students and staff to develop an LGBTQ+ inclusivity toolkit for medical educators.

Luke Muschialli

I am a third-year medical student at UCL, intercalating in Mathematics, Computer Science and Medicine. My primary interest in is global health and reproductive health, and I hope to pursue a career in this field. A large part of this interest is in LGBTQIA+ healthcare inequalities, and I have been involved in many projects in this area over the last two years. In addition to this, last year I co-founded and co-lead a student-led project, Trans Healthcare Now, which focuses on educating clinicians and medical students on trans healthcare inequalities.

This year, I will be leading the student LGBTQIA+ EDI sub-committee, and I am looking forward to working on projects to make the medical school a more inclusive and accepting space. 

Lucas Heeringa

I am a fourth-year student based at the Royal Free, and I am one of the co-coordinators for the student LGBTQ+ EDI committee. I have been a part of the team for three years now and have always found it a super supportive and kind group of people who will help you make the changes you want to see. I am particularly interested in keeping the curriculum updated and pushing for LGBTQ+ inclusive education throughout the years that students will spend at the medical school. I am now leading a team to implement and create a roadmap for LGBTQ+ teaching at UCL from first to final-year. I believe students and their ideas are the key to keeping UCL at the forefront of LGBTQ+ medicine, and hope to inspire younger cohorts to get involved.

Jess Salkind

Jess Salkind is a paediatric trainee in London. She is particularly interested in adolescent medicine, safeguarding and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people when accessing healthcare. She helped to introduce LGBTQ+ health education into the UCLMS curriculum and has researched experiences of discrimination by medical students. She was part of a small group who updated the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health curriculum to make it LGBTQ+ inclusive.

Jess is excited to work with the LGBTQ+ EDI sub-group to make UCLMS the best and safest place for LGBTQ+ medical students and staff to be able to bring their whole selves to work, and for LGBTQ+ patients to receive the best possible care.  

Leyla Turkoglu (Honorary (UCLH)

Leyla Turkoglu is a core anaesthetics trainee and honorary teaching fellow at UCL.   She joined the LGBTQ+ EDI sub-group to try to ensure that the undergraduate medical curriculum enables the next generation of clinicians provide compassionate, inclusive care to patients.

Outside of the committee, she has developed LGBTQ+ centred teaching for multiple year groups at UCL medical school. Her other interests include health inequality, improving access to the medical profession and pain management.