Terry Alexander Award in WGSS: Zarya Shaikh

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This award is in honor of Terry Alexander, the mother of Courtney Alexander, a Women’s Studies major who graduated from Stony Brook in 2006. Terry Alexander worked in the New York City public schools, she was an active member of the Brownsville Community Baptist Church, and she was a community activist with the Bed Stuy Park Lions Club in Brooklyn. Terry was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1982 and, from that point forward, she and her family were regular participants in the annual MS walk to raise awareness about the disease and money to further the research. Terry attended the WGSS graduation in May 2016 to watch her daughter graduate. Sadly, shortly thereafter, she became very ill from MS-related complications, and she died on December 7, 2006.

The WGSS Department is grateful for the Alexander family’s continued support, and we are honored to give the Terry Alexander Award each year to students planning to pursue a career in health care or health advocacy. Our hope is that this award will generate interest among our students in examining the complexities of caring for people with chronic illnesses while also providing us with the chance to acknowledge the importance of a parent’s love, encouragement, and commitment to education and community work. Terry Alexander is a shining example of all these things.

Photo on the left is Terry Alexander and on the right is Zarya Shaikh with Courtney Alexander at the WGSS graduation 2022.

Professor Lisa Diedrich presents the 2022 Terry Alexander Award in WGSS to Zarya Shaikh:

Zarya is graduating with a BS in Biochemistry and a BA in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS). Zarya is the rarest of students. She combines keen intellect, curiosity about the world near and far, and real empathy for others who suffer and struggle daily to make their lives better. I have had the pleasure of working with her this year on an initiative that is truly transformative.

In January 2021, after trying to find information for a research project about Muslim LGBTQ+ physicians, and finding nothing, Zarya had the idea of creating a podcast to fill a much-needed gap in resources and advance social justice in medicine and healthcare. This idea would become Queer Diagnosis: The LGBTQ+ Health Podcast. Zarya is the host for the podcast which interviews LGBTQ+ folx involved in the medical decision-making process including patients, medical students, healthcare providers, and everyone in between. As the QD podcast mission statement explains, the “goal is to sustain visibility and a sense of community in healthcare across the spectrum that is gender and sexuality. We’re here to learn not only how to take care of patients but also each other on our journey to provide high-quality, culturally sensitive care.” The QD podcast has been an immediate hit and in less than a year the podcast team has produced ten episodes, which are both incredibly informative on a wide range of social issues and deeply moving.

In fall 2021, WGSS teamed up with the QD podcast to create an internship for students wanting to learn about podcasting and work on producing the content for the podcasts, including transcripts of all the interviews, as well as artwork, web content, and social media to promote the project. In its first semester, the QD podcast internship was a huge success.

Zarya is right now applying to medical schools, and I know her hope is to continue the Queer Diagnosis podcast as a medical student and beyond in her work as a physician. She is already a remarkable young woman, and I have no doubt she will become a truly extraordinary doctor.

Congratulations, Zarya!