Anna Kirkland to Step Down as IRWG Director in August

April 2022

Anna Kirkland will step down in August after a five-year term as executive director of IRWG. Anna joined the institute in 2014 as the associate director, and then was named director in 2017. Under her leadership, IRWG has catalyzed feminist research projects on transgender health, gender-based violence and sexual harassment, feminist data science, and more than 50 cutting edge projects guided by IRWG’s seed grant investments in faculty ideas. She developed our affiliated faculty network, which now includes over 220 faculty from more than 80 different departments, as well as mentored early-career researchers, hosted visiting scholars, resident artists, and guest speakers from around the world. Anna developed networks with feminist scholars and thought leaders from across the U-M campuses and North America, including building a collaborative of peer gender research institute directors.

Anna’s commitment to relationship-building and collaboration resulted in IRWG’s five-year, $1.2 million grant, “Pipeline to Graduate Education and Careers in Behavioral and Social Science Research for URM Undergraduates: Addressing HIV in Sexual and Gender Minority Communities,” funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR). This NIH R25 training grant with co-PI, Professor Gary Harper links OVPR, LSA, Medicine, Public Health, and Social Work and creates a pipeline to research careers for under-represented students to work to end HIV/AIDS. 

In her announcement to the IRWG community, Anna noted, “Since IRWG’s founding in 1995, it has been a resource and a catalyst for transformative, interdisciplinary research on women, gender, and sexuality in all their dimensions. It has been an honor to serve our research community for these tremendously rewarding five years.”

IRWG and OVPR will launch a search for the next Director.