Gzesh, Ari S. | MSW | PhD
Assistant Professor
Phone: (212) 396-7861
Office:
Email: ari.gzesh@hunter.cuny.edu
Phone: (212) 396-7861
Office:
Email: ari.gzesh@hunter.cuny.edu
Office: 455
Areas of Expertise:
Transgender Health, LGBTQ+ Health Disparities, HIV Prevention Substance Use, Harm Reduction, Mutual Aid, Intersectionality, Critical Health Literacy, Medical Mistrust, Structural Stigma, Queer Kinship, Social Support, Gender-Affirming Care, Moral Distress, Health Communication, Qualitative Methods, Community Engagement.
Education:
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
M.S.W., Columbia University
B.A., Bryn Mawr College
Courses:
Human Behavior in the Social Environment I & II
Download CV (PDF)
Areas of Expertise:
Transgender Health, LGBTQ+ Health Disparities, HIV Prevention Substance Use, Harm Reduction, Mutual Aid, Intersectionality, Critical Health Literacy, Medical Mistrust, Structural Stigma, Queer Kinship, Social Support, Gender-Affirming Care, Moral Distress, Health Communication, Qualitative Methods, Community Engagement.
Education:
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
M.S.W., Columbia University
B.A., Bryn Mawr College
Courses:
Human Behavior in the Social Environment I & II
Download CV (PDF)
Scholarship
Rider-Longmaid, E., Lett, E., Gzesh, A. S., Jelinek, S. K., & Dowshen, N. (2025). Learning in the Shadow of Legislation: The Impact of Anti-Transgender Legislation on Adolescent Medicine Fellows' Training and Future Practice. The Journal of Adolescent Health. S1054-139X(25)00499-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2025.10.018
Gzesh, A., Truel, J. S., Adams, D. R., Zabotka, L., Malone, S., & Nolan, N. S. (2025). Understanding the role of street medicine in harm reduction: A case study of Street Medicine St. Louis. Harm Reduction Journal, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-025-01313-w.
Gzesh, A. S., Prince, D., Jelinek, S. K., Hillier, A., Kattari, S. K., Shelton, J., & Paceley, M. S. (2024). “Death threats and despair”: A conceptual model delineating moral distress experienced by pediatric gender-affirming care providers. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 9, 100867. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100867.
Gzesh, A. S., Jelinek, S. K., & Arrington Sanders, R. (2024). Rainbow resilience: Addressing the mental health needs of sexual- and gender-diverse youth. Contemporary Pediatrics, 40(02).
DelFerro, J., Whelihan, J., Min, J., Powell, M., DiFiore, G., Gzesh, A., Jelinek, S., Schwartz, K. T. G., Davis, M., Jones, J. D., Fiks, A. G., Jenssen, B. P., & Wood, S. (2024). The role of family support in moderating mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth in primary care. JAMA Pediatrics, 178(9), 914-922. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.1956
Gzesh, A., Truel, J. S., Adams, D. R., Zabotka, L., Malone, S., & Nolan, N. S. (2025). Understanding the role of street medicine in harm reduction: A case study of Street Medicine St. Louis. Harm Reduction Journal, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-025-01313-w.
Gzesh, A. S., Prince, D., Jelinek, S. K., Hillier, A., Kattari, S. K., Shelton, J., & Paceley, M. S. (2024). “Death threats and despair”: A conceptual model delineating moral distress experienced by pediatric gender-affirming care providers. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 9, 100867. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100867.
Gzesh, A. S., Jelinek, S. K., & Arrington Sanders, R. (2024). Rainbow resilience: Addressing the mental health needs of sexual- and gender-diverse youth. Contemporary Pediatrics, 40(02).
DelFerro, J., Whelihan, J., Min, J., Powell, M., DiFiore, G., Gzesh, A., Jelinek, S., Schwartz, K. T. G., Davis, M., Jones, J. D., Fiks, A. G., Jenssen, B. P., & Wood, S. (2024). The role of family support in moderating mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth in primary care. JAMA Pediatrics, 178(9), 914-922. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.1956
Research
Dr. Ari S. Gzesh’s research examines social and structural determinants of health and wellbeing among sexual and gender diverse communities, with a particular focus on transmasculine people. Their work explores how intersectional stigma, medical mistrust, and health communication shape risk-taking behaviors, engagement with health systems, and access to gender-affirming and HIV prevention services, while also identifying community-based protective factors such as queer kinship (trans elders and chosen family); these networks of mutual aid function as parallel health infrastructure to attenuate service scarcity.
Dr. Gzesh has received research support and training from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, and the Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Research Initiative, and the University of Pennsylvania Center for Mental Health and AIDS Research (P50 NIMH), including funding for their mixed-methods dissertation, ““Let’s care for our bodies, let’s care for each other”: Transmasculine strategies for navigating stigma, health communication, and collective care.”
In addition to lived experience, their research agenda is informed by over a decade of direct practice. After earning a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, they worked as a community-based clinician in the Bay Area of California supporting systems-involved youth experiencing sexual exploitation, substance use, and housing instability. Prior to pursuing their MSW, Gzesh taught for eight years in traditional and alternative classrooms, spanning from secondary schools to San Quentin Prison to domestic violence shelters.
Gzesh’s scholarship is guided by intersectionality, critical theory, understandings of stigma, epistemic violence, and community-based participatory modalities. They are committed to the pursuit of partnering with policed and vulnerable communities, using their research to attenuate the gap between rhetoric and reality, between policy and practice.
Dr. Gzesh has received research support and training from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, and the Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Research Initiative, and the University of Pennsylvania Center for Mental Health and AIDS Research (P50 NIMH), including funding for their mixed-methods dissertation, ““Let’s care for our bodies, let’s care for each other”: Transmasculine strategies for navigating stigma, health communication, and collective care.”
In addition to lived experience, their research agenda is informed by over a decade of direct practice. After earning a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, they worked as a community-based clinician in the Bay Area of California supporting systems-involved youth experiencing sexual exploitation, substance use, and housing instability. Prior to pursuing their MSW, Gzesh taught for eight years in traditional and alternative classrooms, spanning from secondary schools to San Quentin Prison to domestic violence shelters.
Gzesh’s scholarship is guided by intersectionality, critical theory, understandings of stigma, epistemic violence, and community-based participatory modalities. They are committed to the pursuit of partnering with policed and vulnerable communities, using their research to attenuate the gap between rhetoric and reality, between policy and practice.