Kelly Ducheny has spent many years advocating for the LGBT community as an ally in all aspects of her life. She currently serves as Howard Brown Health's director of behavioral health and previously worked in a variety of capacities at Howard Brown and as an associate professor and department chair at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
This year, Ducheny received the Evelyn Hooker Award for Distinguished Contribution by an Ally from the Society for the Psychological Study of LGBT Issues, Division 44 of the American Psychological Association for the work she does at Howard Brown, the Special Project of National Significance ( SPNS ) transgender HIV positive women of color study at Howard Brown and contributions to the writing and publication of the 2015 "Guidelines for the Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People."
"This award has been one of my proudest accomplishments; [the work it's based on] will have such a reverberating impact on psychologists' cultural competence and how they interact with transgender and gender non-conforming people," said Ducheny. "It's such a huge complement to be recognized for doing work that's so important and foundationally correct. To be recognized by colleagues that I respect so much means the world to me."
Ducheny grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati with degree in psychology with departmental honors. She got her doctorate degree in clinical psychology with an emphasis in multicultural psychology in 1993 from the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. In 2011, Wright State University gave her their Alumni of the Year award.
"I went into grad school with desire to work with the LGBT community and it's been amazing," said Ducheny. "It's dramatically improved my life."
Ducheny noted the time she spent at the 281-CARE suicide hotline in Cincinnati between undergrad and graduate school cemented her desire to work on behalf of the LGBT community.
"The callers I spoke to who were struggling so much because of the homophobia, hate speech and hate crimes they were encountering," said Ducheny. "I found that I had so much opportunity to offer support and assistance. I realized I needed to be an important force in moving these issues forward. That was my first real interaction/understanding of LGBT people and the issues they face."
When Ducheny arrived at Wright State, she found there were several gay and lesbian faculty members. She worked with the faculty to create an independent study program working with LGB people that included coursework and clinical training.
Ducheny completed her internship at the University of Cincinnati focusing on multicultural issues where 50 percent of her caseload was LGBT students while the rest consisted of international students, people of color and first generation students.
"I had to do a lot of self-reflection because people around me were saying 'you're straight why are you doing this work, are you coming out?' I came to the conclusion that I'm straight but this work was too meaningful for me to stop. I had to think about what I could offer, when should I offer it and when do I need to step up or step back."
Following her internship, Ducheny returned to Wright State as a post-doctoral resident faculty member. She taught a class in LGBT psychology and worked with LGBT clients.
"I was looking for something different so when I got hired by the Chicago School of Professional Psychology as their Associate Director of Clinical Training in 1995 I moved to the city," said Ducheny. "When I got to Chicago, I asked around about who was doing really good work with the LGBT community and what I kept hearing was Howard Brown. Years before I started working at Howard Brown, I was a volunteer with their Women's Research Committee."
While volunteering at Howard Brown, Ducheny took continuing education classes including one on transgender health and gender identity issues.
"I heard things in that class I never heard before," said Ducheny. "The fact that I had a place to teach me about gender identity was amazing and gave me the opportunity to work with the Chicago School to develop gender identity classes, make connections with community organizations and bring in panels of transgender and gender nonconforming folks to talk to the students."
Ducheny explained that it's been an honor to work at Howard Brown for the past nine years. She noted that Howard Brown was the next natural step for her because she wanted to return to the clinical work she loves.
"Howard Brown's been a lovely home for me," said Ducheny. "One of the things I did was oversee a research study specifically focused on trans women of color. We were awarded a Special Project of National Significance from the Health Resources and Services Administration to do this five year, 1.75 million dollar grant study and it's been such a rewarding experience. I've been so fortunate to work with such an innovative, generous, and thoughtful staff on this grant. Howard Brown has gotten better and better at providing trans affirmative care and the better we are with that,the better we are able to provide affirmative care for everyone."
Among her many writings, Ducheny has published an article on family creation options for transgender and gender nonconforming people and a book chapter on interdisciplinary collaborative care for transgender people.
In her free time Ducheny loves spending time with her family and friends. She also loves eating cake, participating on a sailing team, photography and going to street festivals.
"I've been so fortunate to have colleagues who've welcomed, supported, valued and helped me understand and expand my knowledge" said Ducheny. "We're entering a new age where transgender and gender nonconforming people will have a larger visibility and voice. We have such a rich LGBTQ community here in Chicago, so I'm really looking forward to the next decade. I've seen many agencies working hard to improve their competency on all areas concerning the LGBTQ community and that's encouraging. The violence in Chicago is creating trauma, stress and pain that is rippling through all sorts of communities, but I'm seeing innovations and improvements that weren't there five years ago so I'm optimistic about the future."
