How it started

My career in Gender Expression Care began when I worked as a M.A.C. make-up artist at Nordstrom in the mid-’00s. I recognized my clients' coded language when they asked for beauty and fashion tips “for their girlfriends.” Unlike many of my colleagues at the time, I happily styled my male-presenting clients. Before long, clients would seek me out by name, and I developed a loyal client base.

How it evolved

I was passionate about helping my clients and searched for ways to meet their needs. There were “image consultants”; however, they often relied on caricatures of femininity that were hypersexualized and without nuance. I knew my clients well and recognized that the existing resources were ill-fit to help them find the genuine authenticity and self-definition they sought.

How it grew

In 2008, I launched Nouveau She, a 1:1 coaching service to help individuals develop self-acceptance and empowerment. In 2010 I moved to San Francisco and joined Dr. Ousterhout, a world-renowned pioneer in facial harmonization surgery. There I learned the anatomical differences in bone structure between male and female faces, which allowed me to apply a scientific underpinning to my aesthetic approach. With these insights, I developed the first-ever Gender Expression Care program.

In 2013 I moved to New York City and opened my GEC practice in the West Village. There I worked 1:1 with clients worldwide on every aspect of their social gender expression. I was invited to speak at transgender conferences nationally and internationally. By doing so, I gained recognition for my contributions to the transgender community. I was fortunate enough to garner attention from international media outlets, giving me a platform to be a speaker on Gender Expression Care and its critical role in holistic transgender healthcare.

Where I am today

In 2019 I joined Kaiser Permanente to test the Gender Expression Group Workshops concept. When the pandemic hit, we shifted the workshops to a virtual platform, which enabled us to welcome KP members from all over Northern CA. At that moment, the demand grew exponentially. The group environment gave patients a source of support when isolation and mental health issues were at an all-time high. 

From there, we collected feedback and built a measurement tool to assess the efficacy of the model and recognized it as an essential component of overall health for our TGNB clients. We were privileged to be invited to speak about our work at USPATH, WPATH and EPATH and to have our paper “Gender Expression Care: The Next Horizon in Transgender Health” published in NEJM Catalyst.

My private practice is still active, but my primary focus is on growing the Gender Expression Care workshop program and providing education and consultation to healthcare companies who want to add GEC to their comprehensive transgender healthcare suite.