LB Klein’s goal is to make sure individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ not only survive but thrive at universities.
As an assistant professor in the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work, Klein primarily focuses on gender-based and sexual violence, particularly in queer communities on college campuses.
Rates of sexual and relationship violence for bisexual cisgender women is approximately two in five while rates for gender minority people are one in two. On college campuses, prevention and advocacy programs still do not meet the needs of the LGBTQ+ community.
“We know LGBTQ+ students are feeling left out in programming,” Klein says. “We know they have higher rates of violence. We know they don’t feel a sense of belonging on campus.”
Most programs have been developed with a focus on cisgender, heterosexual and traditionally aged college students, according to Klein. They want to change that.
“These programs need to be informed by the perspectives of LGBTQ+ people,” Klein says. “We need more inclusive programming for everyone about violence. But we also need programs that are for and by LGBTQ+ people.”
That’s where Klein’s research comes in. Their focus is on gender-based, prevention, survivor advocacy and LGBTQ+ health. But putting findings like Klein's into practice takes a long time. In fact, a recent study by the American Medical Association found it takes an average of 17 years for evidence to change practice. Klein has been working to speed up this process by boosting access to research-informed prevention programming for LGBTQ+ individuals on college campuses.
“I create tools that help build the capacity of advocates doing the work right now,” Klein says. “We really value taking what we do and making it more digestible.”
But this is no easy feat. In Klein’s case, it requires summarizing complex, nuanced findings about a lack of guidance on how to adequately address alcohol’s role in sexual violence on college campuses into toolkits with frequently asked questions, data, infographics and other easily accessible materials for prevention advocates to share with their campus communities.
Thankfully, Klein is up for the challenge.
“All of the work we do is community engaged and focused," Klein says. “We want to ensure the work we’re doing is translated directly into the communities we are working with.”
Klein’s work, as a researcher, is informed by time spent as a survivor advocate.
“We talk a lot about micro and macro social workers,” Klein says. “Micro folks are people who work one on one, and macro people do big-picture policy stuff. I bridge that gap.”
During Klein’s undergraduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis, they coordinated a domestic violence court program. Later, at Emory University, Klein directed the institution’s sexual assault prevention and advocacy program. However, as a survivor advocate, Klein found they wanted to learn more. Research studies were complex, often not synthesized in a digestible manner to execute in practice.
“We need research that is accessible and usable by the people who need it most,” Klein says.
Klein’s LGBTQ+ identity is also integral to this work.
“The research questions I ask come from being an LGBTQ+ identifying person working in LGBTQ+ communities on anti-violence efforts over the past 20 years,” says Klein. “My questions are often informed by the gaps that exist.”
For Klein, the personal is also professional.
“Knowledge is socially situated,” Klein says. “There are strengths to being embedded in spaces and having lived in experience.”
Klein was hired by UW–Madison in 2021 as a member of a research cohort focused on sexual violence. They were an Anna Julia Cooper fellow for the 2021–22 academic year.
In September 2020, the Sexual Violence Research Initiative launched in collaboration with the College of Letters & Science Departments of Gender & Women’s Studies, Psychology and Sociology, the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work and the La Follette School of Public Affairs. The group takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of sexual violence.
“The community is very valuable,” Klein says.
Klein’s placement on a college campus is particularly important in streamlining the research to practice process.
“As a translational researcher embedded in a campus community and working as faculty, there is a lot of power and opportunity to translate the work that I do to not only impact the campus that I work for, but campuses broadly,” Klein says.
Klein’s research is increasingly interested in systems-level thinking. Their study regarding the effectiveness of campus interpersonal violence survivor advocacy programs explores how identity affirming spaces can help boost inclusion but underscores the importance of widespread community and societal change, for example.
“What fuels the work is systems change," Klein says. “There’s no planet where the policies and systems that folks are living under do not impact the day-to-day experiences of individual people.”
Leaning on collaborations with active practitioners is critical. The Campus Advocacy and Prevention Professional Association (CAPPA), which Klein co-founded in 2015, is just one example of this symbiotic relationship.
“I’ve developed that partnership over eight years,” Klein says. “A lot of my research is driven by questions from those over 1,000 practitioners who do work on or closely with campuses.”
Research questions exploring the role of alcohol in campus sexual assaults and how to create affirming care for LGBTQ+ people, for example, have been informed by Klein’s collaboration with the organization. This guidance not only shapes Klein’s research but informs best practices.
“The work of LGBTQ+ folks is far ahead of research related to LGBTQ+ people,” Klein says. “What we’ve found through our conversations with people are really tangible, but nuanced ways to engage with people in ways that make sense to them.”
Klein’s goal is to ensure that LGBTQ+ people feel safe and included in sexual violence prevention programming.
“My goal is to marry both worlds, the best available research and the wisdom of the folks who are doing the work, to make sure we have programming that does not leave LGBTQ+ students out,” Klein says.