This Pride Month, we’re highlighting LGBTQ+ faculty and staff and the work they do to affirm the University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. #UChicagoPride
“We need to make sure that queer and trans people are understood as underrepresented in science and medicine. We do that by continuing to have conversations about what does it mean to be a queer person, to be a trans person, and that's important for health care. That's important for science. That's also important for med students.”
Tobias Spears serves as the Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion for the University’s Biological Sciences Division. Formerly the Director of LGBTQ Student Life at UChicago, Spears designs programming that enhances diversity and inclusion. He considers himself a voice for the voiceless, and a champion for expanding access to resources and care for those who need it most:
“Pride represents an 'otherwise' world—a world that could potentially be that is not always there. And so for a month, we see the colors, we see the vibrancy, we see the possibility of a world where queer and trans people are included in absolute ways … where people just feel a sense of like, 'I am included, I belong.'”
Check back later this month for additional Pride profiles!