Each month, we profile someone connected to CBRC, featuring them in The Update, our monthly newsletter. Check out the Oct 2025 newsletter here.
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Katie O’Brien (they/them) is a research coordinator at CBRC. With experience in community-based, nonprofit, and academic settings focusing on 2S/LGBTQIA+ advocacy, Katie is currently finishing a Master of Social Work degree at the University of Victoria.
They completed their Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at the University of Calgary, then shifted to the social work field, completing a diploma of Social Work at Mount Royal University. Katie then worked in frontline 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth housing, connecting Calgary’s queer and trans youth to social services. When the pandemic hit, they went back to school, this time for a Bachelor of Social Work through the University of Manitoba, during which they did a student placement at CBRC. “I’ve been in university for a long time!” Katie laughs.
Reflecting on their field of study, Katie says that when people hear ‘social work,’ they often think of therapy or taking kids away from their families. “I’m not interested in participating in either of those things—I’m much more interested in broad, community-based and policy-level social interventions,” Katie explains. “Deconstructing rigid understandings of health, wellness, and care is the overarching theme of my research interests.”
For their Master’s thesis, Katie is creating an autoethnography on their experiences as a trans person with a complicated relationship to food and eating. The project—cleverly called Trans Fats—touches on the medical industrial complex and focuses on Katie’s experiences adjacent to it. “Autoethnography means combing through your personal narratives to learn about social experiences, and communicating those learnings through story,” they explain. Katie is currently working on developing Trans Fats into a podcast.
One of the projects Katie is currently supporting through CBRC is the Intergenerational Connection Study, which explores the importance of intergenerational social connections between 2S/GBTQQIA+ men and masc folks. “We’re matching up younger queer folks with older queer folks to see what the impacts of those intergenerational connections are, which is really exciting” Katie explains. “It’s also exciting to work with community members who provide feedback on making our studies more accessible and inclusive.”
Outside of work, Katie enjoys gardening with their wife (“I love pulling weeds!”), listening to podcasts, and writing poetry. They are particularly interested in concrete poetry—layering words, concepts, and ideas in order to create something new. They are currently working through Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, layering the score atop itself as an exploration of grief.
Photo: Katie O'Brien
"There are so many things younger folks can teach older folks, and so much that older folks can teach younger folks. Getting to be part of this knowledge production feels incredibly meaningful.”
