June 2025 – Intersectional Joy: A New Strengths-Based Way to Conceptualize Intersectionality

Elle Lett, MD, PhD, MA, MBiostat is a Black, transgender woman, statistician-epidemiologist and physician-in training. Through her work, she applies the theories and principles of Black Feminism to understanding the health impacts of systemic racism, transphobia, and other forms of discrimination on oppressed groups in the United States. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania, master’s degrees in Statistics and Biostatistics from The Wharton School and Duke University, respectively, and a bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard College. To date, her work has focused on intersectional approaches to transgender health and the health impacts of state-sanctioned violence and other forms of systemic racism. Now, she is turning her focus to algorithmic fairness in clinical prediction models and mitigating systems of inequity in health services provision. She is engaging in this new arm of research through a postdoctoral fellowship at the Boston Children’s Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program (CHIP), before returning to finish her clinical training.

Marie-Fatima Hyacinthe is a PhD candidate in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Program at the Yale School of Public Health. She also holds a Certificate from Yale’s Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Marie-Fatima’s research focuses on the impact that carceral systems have on public health. Her published work spans reproductive justice, the public health impact of policing, and public health work in Black queer and trans communities. She is also co-leading a participatory action research project with people engaged in the sex trades, and working on another project dedicated to understanding the potential health impact of racial reparations. Marie-Fatima enjoys teaching and mentoring, with experience teaching courses related to health advocacy, social justice, and reproductive justice. Prior to graduate school, Marie-Fatima worked in HIV advocacy and education, as well as immigrant rights. She was raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she still lives, and received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University.