Leigh Ann van der Merwe

L. Leigh-Ann van der Merwe is a self-identified, South African coloured transgender woman. She is the founder and director of Social, Health and Empowerment Feminist Collective, an organisation working to bring the political voice of transgender women into research, praxis, and advocacy. She has worked extensively on research projects focussed on transgender people, including the first bio-behavioural survey to determine HIV prevalence among transgender women in South Africa. Leigh-Ann published on transgender issues and HIV in peer review journals. She uses her voice as a researcher to conduct advocacy and influence policies with local and international stakeholders. She holds a postgraduate diploma in public health from the University of Western Cape and masters in public health from the University of South Africa.

Publications

Collecting Data for Equity and Justice: Approaches and Methods for Collecting Sex and Gender Data
Collecting Data for Equity and Justice: Approaches and Methods for Collecting Sex and Gender Data
Aparna Arora, Brindaalakshmi K., Bren Miaira Kutch, Erika Rydergaard, Leigh Ann van der Merwe, Agli Zavros-Orr. © 2023. 28 pages.
This chapter seeks to address the challenge of collecting data about individual and interpersonal experiences of sex and gender to advance justice and equity in a context where...