Scholar Profile

Patrina Sexton Topper is interested in how embodied experience informs healthcare decision-making among people and families from historically marginalized populations. Her scholarship has focused primarily on the application of qualitative methods to explore clinically assisted family expansion among sexual minority women. At the same time, she has maintained and a massage therapy and bodywork practice, which centers embodied knowing, the innate capacity for healing and optimization of health (physical, emotional, and spiritual), and the value of presence. Bringing these two passions together, Patrina’s scholarship, practice, and contributions to healthcare innovation focuses on person-centered, community informed interventions that aim to effectively accompany people through embodied transitions (e.g. pregnancy and postpartum, gender affirmation). She is a currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in the Program on Sexuality Technology and Action Research (PSTAR) and a managing partner at the Teal Center for Therapeutic Bodywork in Arlington, VA.